The Epic Game Store had a characteristically generous giveaway period over the holidays and, wouldn't you know it, one of those games was a well-regarded explormer named F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch. I'm glad I skipped the resolutions this New Year's, because I'm very much a creature of habit. Speaking of creatures, I'm not sure where this trend started of putting cute animal anthro characters in the grimmest, most oppressive steampunk dystopias came from but Forged in Shadow Torch, much like Sine Mora and Fuga: Melodies of Steel before it, is steeped in heavy industrial atmosphere and an equally heavy narrative regarding the animal "furtizens" (I guess the original pun doesn't quite translate from Chinese) of Torch City which live under the yoke of the metallic and militaristic Iron Dogs faction. The Iron Dogs are rounding up anyone that might oppose them, including the bear best friend of war veteran (and rabbit) Rayton, forcing the latter to come out of retirement, don the huge arm that is the last remaining functional part of his old war mech, and take matters into his own enormous robotic hand. Both the game's size and its story are much more substantial than they first appear, eventually leading underground and outside of the titular Torch City as Rayton attempts to ascertain and foil the genocidal plans of the Iron Dogs at every turn.

F.I.S.T. is one of the few games I've seen since 2009's Shadow Complex to do right by the notion of a 2D platformer set in a living 3D world, as its polygonal environments are both impressively conveyed and full of small details. Sadly, it doesn't incorporate those backgrounds in the gameplay the way Shadow Complex did—pitting you in gunfights with shooters further away on the Z-axis—but it still looks every bit as striking especially while walking through the streets of Torch City. Gameplay-wise I might put F.I.S.T. closer to a Dust: An Elysian Tail: besides the whole lagomorph protagonist angle, both games have combo-intensive combat systems where your best bet is often to lock enemies into long chains that deny them the chance to strike back. Of course, larger enemies will eventually work their way out of getting stun-locked with counterattacks and so it behooves the player to watch for telltale visual cues that indicate when an enemy is about to strike. You initially have the one weapon, the aforementioned fist which can perform punching combos in addition to grabs and throws, but will soon acquire a drill that allows for more damaging combos with a little more necessary build-up. (I've yet to find the third weapon after getting some 40% of the way through the story but I surmise it has something to do with electricity, as I've encountered many energy barriers that require this weapon to disable.) In addition to basic combos the player can spend cash on acquiring new ones, including powerful attacks that use up part of a gauge that can be restored by performing more combos: the best strategy I've found when faced with large groups, which are always an issue because of how quickly a second enemy can interrupt your chain against their companion, is to burn off a few of these power moves to thin the herd a little and then build the power gauge back up by combo-ing the heck out of whomever is still alive.

Even if the combat has seen much of the developer's attention, the traversal mechanics and movement thankfully haven't taken a hit. You start with a dash and quickly pick up wall-jumps (the infinite kind) and double-jumps, allowing for a significant amount of freedom as you make your way around zones. The in-game map system is extremely forthcoming about hidden passages, barriers that are color-coded by the type of power-up you might need to surpass them, and unclaimed collectibles, making it easy to backtrack for items and areas you're presently unable to reach with the equipment and abilities you have at that moment. A fast travel system and a circuitous set of shortcuts does what it can to alleviate the amount of running around while backtracking but these areas are massive; as much a boon as they are a detriment if you're the completionist type. The game's found the right balance of difficulty so far as well: you have a set of gadgets that run off a third gauge (after your health and power, and all three can be upgraded) that can be restored by performing showy execution moves on sufficiently damaged enemies. The first of these gadgets is a healing item: if you're ever struggling, quaffing some carrot juice in the middle of a tough battle (provided you can carve out a calm moment to do so) can keep you in the fight a little while longer. I've died several times, but mostly only from carelessness; some of the boss fights and large group fights were certainly tough, but by shrewdly reading enemy cues and remembering to heal there haven't really been any cases where I've struggled to make progress.

The story is relatively deep and clearly quite involved given the length, though the localization and dialogue tend towards the dry and phlegmatic. Much of that is due to the bleak setting of course but even the moments of levity tend to land flat with how dispassionately characters speak. Oddly, while Rayton talks with a very bass-y Solid Snake deep voice in cutscenes, the sounds he makes while jumping around or getting hurt tend to be several octaves higher, suggesting the deep voice was perhaps something that was decided upon late in the recording process. The slightly stilted nature of the delivery and writing isn't really a big deal but it does rob the game of some of its personality; an aspect the visuals and music are able to pitch-hit for at least. I've also found the combat to be a little clunky and the hitboxes a tad stingy sometimes; it feels easier than it should be to get interrupted while performing combos and the flashy visuals of some of your moves—the drill in particular, which creates these large tornados—can obfuscate the action and cause you to miss important enemy cues that telegraph their stronger attacks. Despite giving you a whole set of moves to pull off, to then turn around and drop tougher enemies that can't be hit by them without interrupting you midway through is kinda frustrating. However, if it is frustrating, it's only because those same moves are tremendous fun to pull off against hapless small fry so this is less a knock on how the game feels to play but how some of its difficulty for tougher foes is determined.

I've been enjoying F.I.S.T. immensely between the not-inconsiderable degree of platforming, combat, and exploration but in how smooth and accessible all of them feel. There's no denying how incredible the game looks in certain areas and while it doesn't do a whole lot that we haven't seen before it at least treads those familiar waters with a level of confidence and competency that is rare even for an Indie sub-genre as busy as this one. I'm definitely going to stick with it for a while longer, if only to see what that third weapon is like, and keep on plumbing its depths until it finally runs out of content to show me. Since we're looking at a 20 hour playthrough according to HowLongToBeat I'm sure it'll keep me company for quite some time yet.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Playthrough Edit: Besides way too many underwater sections for my liking, F.I.S.T. remains strong right up until its end. The game world really is immense though the in-depth combat and dripfeed of new abilities and traversal skills saves it from becoming too repetitive. By the by, that third weapon was an electric whip and man does it kick some ass; very little knockback means stun-locking enemies is harder, but it hits so fast and so rapidly enemies die in seconds. Plus it's also the game's grapple hook, so what's not to like?