Finally!
I’ve been pretty hard on TOTF2 in the past, so I think it’s only fair that I come back and give the developers some credit when they get something this right. I loved the first game and played it a huge amount, and I was increasingly frustrated by how long the sequel took to arrive. Then when TOTF2 launched around multiplayer, I really didn’t enjoy it. I ended up deleting it and going back to the first game.
I’ve just tried the new single player AI in the PTC build and, bloody hell, this feels almost like a different game.
I played the original enough to know its AI extremely well, although I haven’t boxed in VR for a while. I just did three rounds against the new AI on normal difficulty and it was genuinely tough. I won, but I had to work for it. More importantly, I felt like I actually had to box. I was thinking about distance, guard, timing, choosing shots, reacting to what was coming back and not just working out an AI pattern.
For me, this is where TOTF2 becomes really exciting.
I understand the appeal of multiplayer, and I don’t think all of its problems are the developers’ fault. Real time VR boxing is an incredibly difficult thing to make work competitively. Even relatively small amounts of latency can matter enormously when you’re trying to slip, counter or judge whether a punch landed.
Then there’s the other problem, which no developer can completely solve: not everybody in multiplayer is trying to have a boxing match. Some people are simply trying to find the most effective way of winning within whatever the game currently allows. An exploit gets discovered, people use it, the developers quite reasonably try to counter it, and those changes can then affect people who were trying to use conventional boxing technique. Close one loophole and eventually somebody finds another one.
That isn’t really a criticism of the developers. I think it may simply be an unavoidable limitation of competitive VR boxing at the moment.
Single player doesn’t have that problem. The developers can concentrate on one thing: does fighting this opponent actually feel like boxing?
And this new PTC AI, for me at least, is getting remarkably close.
I went into it expecting to have a quick look and came out of three rounds thinking, oh my God, THIS is the sequel I wanted.
So yes, I’ve given the developers plenty of criticism in the past. This time they absolutely deserve the credit. Please keep developing the single player side of this game. It’s fantastic.