Punch Club

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 165 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 89 out of 165
  2. Mixed: 51 out of 165
  3. Negative: 25 out of 165

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  1. arnolddanko
    Jan 13, 2016
    4
    Interesting gameplay and design, cozy 80's atmosphere make this game fun at first. The problem is it get way too repetitive (annoyingly repetitive and boring) pretty soon making you do the same actions over and over again. At the end it feels like one of those cheap browser games, what a letdown.
  2. blade01
    Jan 23, 2016
    3
    This game starts so promising with many hints to 80+90s culture.Why is this game falling flat to its face?Lets see:

    Sound:I really like the sound of the game.The theme in the backround suits the retrotheme very well.No voiceover. Visuals:The game looks for it trys to achieve pretty good.The pixel-artstyle looks great and reminds me of a great time when i played games as a chil.The    This game starts so promising with many hints to 80+90s culture.Why is this game falling flat to its face?Lets see:

    Sound:I really like the sound of the game.The theme in the backround suits the retrotheme very well.No voiceover.

    Visuals:The game looks for it trys to achieve pretty good.The pixel-artstyle looks great and reminds me of a great time when i played games as a chil.The characters are memorable, the enviroment too.No assets have been used twice which is a good thing in the modern game-world.In the fights i think they could have done much better.Sometimes punches or kicks wont connect that well.Looks stupid.Might be a bug, i dont know.

    Gamrplay:Up to this point the game was an easy 7 or 8.With the gameplay everything is falling apart.The first 1-2 hours are great.You have enough progression an story to keep you interested.After that bad design kills every will to play more, at least for me because the game gets repetetive as hell pretty quickly.The core-problem is that you lose stats on a daily basis and the loss is very big.So after some hours youre just klicking your way through the game between work, gym and fighting.If you do the other possible activitys you punish yourself too much because you lose stats and because of that you will lose fight and so on.

    Conclusion:In the end the mechanics of the game are so flawed that they overshadow everything great in the game.The great visuals go into the garbage can, the nice sound too.What remains is a repeteive clickfest and time-waster.So much potential.The story for example is pretty interesting, funny and sometimes branching i think.With the flawed mechanics i was so bored i stoped playing and this is always not a good sign.For me the game is below average.Maybe they fix the stats decrease!That would help the game a lot and with that fix Punch Club would be a "must buy" for retrofans and fans of the genre.    … Expand
  3. Crackfarmer
    Jan 16, 2016
    4
    Terrible engine, one bug can mess up your whole savegame. For an non-alpha/beta release this Game is really bugged and crappy built. Engine protects against cheats/hacks but messes up the whole Game. The dev's prioritized in some wrong aspects.
  4. Laer
    Mar 14, 2017
    3
    Cuando se anunció este juego sabía que si o si, de una manera u otra, terminaría jugándolo, ya que me atraía un montón el concepto, y he de decir que me ha defraudado como se ha llevado a cabo.

    Seré rápido y conciso. Puntos negativos: Jugabilidad: Comes, duermes, entrenas y "luchas", y vuelta a empezar, repetitivo hasta la saciedad. Todo sin manejar realmente al personaje, solo    Cuando se anunció este juego sabía que si o si, de una manera u otra, terminaría jugándolo, ya que me atraía un montón el concepto, y he de decir que me ha defraudado como se ha llevado a cabo.

    Seré rápido y conciso.

    Puntos negativos:
    Jugabilidad: Comes, duermes, entrenas y "luchas", y vuelta a empezar, repetitivo hasta la saciedad. Todo sin manejar realmente al personaje, solo pulsas donde quieres que vaya y él lo hace.
    Peleas: Solo eliges las habilidades que quieres que utilice en el combate, y miras, sin más. Añadir que depende un montón de la suerte, ya que en ocasiones he salido sin un rasguño, y otras, medio muerto peleando contra el mismo en las mismas condiciones.
    Entrenamiento: Cada vez que pasa un día pierdes puntos de aquello que hayas estado entrenando, ya sea agilidad, fuerza o resistencia. Es muy molesto, y esto hace que todo sea aún más monótono.
    Historia: A pesar de que me gusta la cantidad de guiños insana que han incluido, todo gira alrededor de estos, y por ello deja de importar realmente y pasa a ser una mera parodia.
    Música: No está mal, pero después de 1 hora escuchando la misma canción (parece que no hay más en todo el juego) cansa, y mucho, hasta el punto de silenciarla.

    Puntos positivos:
    Guiños: Están muy bien, incluso llegas a reírte con alguno de ellos.
    Estética: Este apartado es el mejor del juego, y más si añadimos la opción pixel del menú.

    En definitiva, no recomiendo este juego para nada, se me ha hecho cansino y repetitivo, hasta el punto de que en el tramo final había pensado en dejarlo aparcado, ya que los últimos enemigos exigen más nivel de la cuenta, y tienes que pasar muchísimo tiempo entrenado.    … Expand
  5. marillasky
    Jan 10, 2018
    2
    The game is rigged so you always have to grind. All of your stats decrease every day if you don't train. It gets so dumb that at the end of the game you loose 20% of a level per day and you can possibly get about 20%-25, so you can only raise your stat by about 1-5%

    Also the ending fight glitched out. I just got the credits screen and it kicked me back to the main menu, if I try to go    The game is rigged so you always have to grind. All of your stats decrease every day if you don't train. It gets so dumb that at the end of the game you loose 20% of a level per day and you can possibly get about 20%-25, so you can only raise your stat by about 1-5%

    Also the ending fight glitched out.
    I just got the credits screen and it kicked me back to the main menu, if I try to go back and redo it just freezes on the fight scene.

    On top of that the dev refuses to fix the GOG version. Apparently it's because of the pirate copies originating from the GOG version of the game.    … Expand
  6. ireviewbadgames
    Aug 15, 2018
    4
    This game started off well-enough, with a decent story that wasn't too heavy. However, the main issue emerges when you play the game- because your attributes drain when you don't train them, Punch Club becomes a staggering monument to idle games where you mindlessly click buttons to watch numbers go up and down. By the end, it feels much like punching in numbers into a calculator ratherThis game started off well-enough, with a decent story that wasn't too heavy. However, the main issue emerges when you play the game- because your attributes drain when you don't train them, Punch Club becomes a staggering monument to idle games where you mindlessly click buttons to watch numbers go up and down. By the end, it feels much like punching in numbers into a calculator rather than watching your protagonist train for a big fight. I couldn't even bear to finish the game after I realized what I was doing- just running the same repetitive tasks over and over, sometimes in different settings, but otherwise always doing the same.

    I do not recommend the game and I warn those that try it on Steam- you may not realize that the game is shallow and repetitive until after the two hour refund mark. However, when on sale for under $5.00, then maybe it's worth it.    … Expand
  7. c64gamer
    May 3, 2020
    0
    After first positive impression you realise that this game is clearly made for mobile devices and casual players.
    Gameplay looks like this. You make decisions just by pressing apropriate buttons. By buttons I mean graphical representation but in reality you could realise such game as buttons and progress bars.
    Most time spend in game is only by watching main character working out and    After first positive impression you realise that this game is clearly made for mobile devices and casual players.
    Gameplay looks like this. You make decisions just by pressing apropriate buttons. By buttons I mean graphical representation but in reality you could realise such game as buttons and progress bars.
    Most time spend in game is only by watching main character working out and fighting and this is like 10 hours of watching progress bars. I guess developers could just instantly present results of fights and workouts but story is so shallow that you could end up the game in 1 hour. Game is broken by design, management of money, your stats, possible paths of skills, everything is not consistent because you have to always invest into agility. Skills are gimmick in this game. All in this game is designed to make your progression slower the higher you get. Grind intensifies later and after all of that ending is just disapointing and stiupid. Yes I finished and cant recommend. Purchased for $2.49. Do not overpay for this mobile game.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

79
#79 Most Discussed PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 30 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 30
  3. Negative: 1 out of 30
  1. High-Def Digest
    Apr 10, 2016
    60
    While it makes a few missteps in some critical areas, for fans of life sims or boxing movies, this is definitely worth checking out.
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  2. Eurogamer Italy
    Apr 6, 2016
    80
    Punch Club is not a game for everyone. Fans of the genre will love it, but a certain repetitiveness makes it not recommended to those looking for adrenaline and action in a videogame.
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  3. IGN Denmark
    Apr 6, 2016
    70
    25% point-and-click and 75% sports manager that starts out light-footed and turns into a heavy slugger towards the end.
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