Punch Club

There's more to life than just the ring for an aspiring fighter, and the Punch Club shows it from the inside. As a child, the hero lost his father and promised to become strong, and now he trains, works, eats and sleeps, trying to find time for everything at once. The game looks like a pixel arcade game from the nineties, but mechanically it is a manager with a constant shortage of resources: food, mood, fatigue and health are spent faster than they are restored. Every evening you need to decide where to invest your time. Training in the gym will increase your strength, but will not bring you money; a shift at work will replenish your wallet, but will leave the coach without your visit. Poor nutrition and lack of sleep nullify progress, so pumping up your body is inseparable from everyday life, and endless battles in the basement will not save you from hunger. Fights follow a scheme of three stats: strength, agility and endurance, and victory depends on the style of preparation and techniques learned on time. The plot generously scatters references to action films of the eighties and nineties, and side missions lead to criminal showdowns, where it is decided who the hero will become in the finale. The development of a fighter follows several branches: strength, agility and endurance can be developed in different ways, and the selected skills determine the style in the ring. The available techniques depend on training, so everyone has their own path to the title. The humor is especially pleasing: the tasks are full of references to action films, and side stories about crime, love and fame make the game world more alive than you would expect from a pixel arcade. Punch Club is a game about the impossibility of doing everything and the price you pay for a dream. It leaves multiple endings and a pleasant feeling that even in a modest life there is time for training, friends and a couple of good jokes.