YMMV / Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance

aka: Beatdown

• Anti-Climax Boss: It's more like an Anti Climax Level. When you learn that Zanetti is in a luxury hotel, you expect this to be THE level of the game and that you're going to storm the place while murdering everyone in the way. Turns out that the place has little security and that you don't need too much effort to get into Zanetti's room.
  • Also every boss of the game is one, because the game is so easy.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Not satisfied about beating a random elite henchman? You can steal from him after it, or just kill him in brutal fashion.
• Event-Obscuring Camera: There is a "snap back" option to instantly put the camera back behind you, but it doesn't always work reliably, and the camera loves to circle around to your front in free battles and keep you from seeing who's about to whip your ass.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: It takes around 4 hours tops to play through the game if the player isn't going for 100% Completion. If the player is trying to get everything done i.e. recruit every character and complete every side mission, a playthrough will be a few hours longer.
• Nightmare Fuel: Las Sombras is a very unsettling town. Also, there's the violent fights and the beatdown option.
• Rated M for Money: The only thing that the game lacks is the explicit use of drugs and sex.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Most of the people that the player encounter have a "Pride" gauge. The player have to deplete this gauge, then perform a special grab to recruit, rob, interrogate, or beat them down. Some of the people are not easy to wear down in this fashion, so odds are some of these encounters may end with one party or the other badly beaten. If that's not bad enough, the player has to fight these people and deplete their Pride gauges every time you want to perform one of the above activities even on the same people.
  • The bosses of the game (along with other characters) can be recruited if you complete the game with one or more of the meters under Criminal Level maxed out or at certain ranks. One set is unlocked with a full teamwork bar, another is unlocked with a full cash flow bar, another is unlocked with a full charisma bar, and the last is unlocked with all bars full. So, surely completing the game with all bars full will unlock all sets, right? Wrong. Each must be unlocked individually. In other words, in order to unlock everything from one category, the other two categories can't be maxed out because while getting the Godfather rank does get you the final three bosses, it won't unlock any of the other bosses.
  • While it's certainly a clever mechanic, the karma meter can be very annoying because merely having the cops or mobsters notice you while the character is wearing any clothes or haircuts will increase the rank until it reaches 100% and they attack the player on sight. The only way to avoid this is by frequently buying new clothes gears and surgeries and such so that they won't recognize you, but it still won't stop the rank from increasing.
• Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer: The missions that Melvin and Joker offer the player in each chapter aren't required to beat the game, but clearing missions is a good way to make a lot of money for clothes and such. Clearing enough missions will also unlock more missions the player can take on after their first playthrough.
• That One Boss: While not a boss in the traditional sense, defeating The Duke, found in chapter 4, can be rather tedious, mostly due to the fact that he's on a bridge over the street and that with the right opportunity, will grab the player and toss them onto the street, resulting in an instant death. He's also very bulky, with more hit points compared to most other recruitable people. If the player is able to get him off of the bridge, he won't be able to use his instant kill technique, but the player has to fight him at least twice to get the info from him and to also recuit him if the player chooses to do so.
• The Woobie: Tracy. Even though she was feeding you information about Zanetti at the behest of the true Big Bad, she really was your friend and she only did it because they threatened to kill her and Melvin both if she didn't. Then they do it anyway. Notably, she tries to warn you to leave town for your own protection just before the bad guys come for her.