Tekken 8 Looks Amazing, But the Heat Needs Turning Down Before Launch - Preview

Tekken 8 looks spectacular, especially for a game that is, at time of writing, still without a release date. Currently undergoing a Closed Network Test, Bandai Namco's first Tekken outing since 2017 is bearing up rather well, its fighting mechanics (and its fighters’ musculature) beefed up, injected with explosive impact, and cinematic camera angles. However, in its current state, Tekken 8 does seem to lack a little refinement. Granted, this is to be expected from a game potentially so far out from release, but this is perhaps the biggest departure for the series to date.

Playing online, it's immediately apparent Tekken 8 is something that favours ruthless, all-out aggression. You won't get too far if you take a breath to weigh up your strategy – your opponent will be all over you with Heat actions and a series of rapid rush combos before you can even blink. Heat actions are Tekken 8's new trick – a tide-turning ability determined by a small blue gauge beneath your health meter, activated with a single push of a button, or a character's specialist combo. Heat actions are easy to activate but tough to defend against – another offensive weapon in your arsenal.

Oftentimes, it can feel like a Tekken 8 bout is a race to see who can find an opening to perform their character's Heat combos first, and, whosoever does, will usually see their rival’s health devoured until it's almost in the red. What recourse is there for such a thing? Enter the Rage Arts: an equally easy-to-perform finishing manoeuvre, activated with the pull of a trigger. Even with a cinematic build-up, a Rage Art can be tricky to deflect, and, like Heat moves, they can consume vast chunks of your health. It's understandable that players reach for Heat and Rage Arts almost immediately, given their devastating power – the downside is that standard moves mostly end up being thrown out of the window.

The result is a very different ebb and flow to the Tekken games of yore, as careful tactics give way to jabbing a single special 'win move' button to rinse your opponent, then maybe finishing the fight with a few punches and perhaps a solitary kick or two. Again, it's eye-popping, incredible-looking stuff – a veritable fireworks display, as you go head-to-head, smashing up bits of the environment as the fight unfolds, and, in some arenas, even busting through the boundaries for dramatic stage transitions.

Built using Unreal Engine 5, Tekken 8 is perhaps one of the most visually striking fighting games we've ever played, its larger-than-life characters and busy backdrops sucking you right into the action. There's no escaping the game's technical prowess, then, and its core mechanics are as robust as ever. But thanks to the ease with which a Heat or Rage Art move can be popped off at any given moment, it fundamentally alters how fights play out, with a reduced reliance on unleashing combos, and more of an onus on simply finding a window to shred through your opponent's health.

Scaling back the damage inflicted by these get-out-of-jail-free manoeuvres would go a long way towards making Tekken 8 a more palatable affair, especially when playing against online opponents, because, in its current state, even if the connection is largely lag free (understandably, not always the case, given the game's Closed Beta status), the overall experience can sometimes feel devoid of skill or fighting prowess – somewhat ironic, given that victories increase your online 'Tekken Prowess' score.

Tekken 8 is an interesting proposition. The fighting game you've known and loved since 1994 is set to undergo perhaps the most seismic shift in the series' history to date, and it could potentially strip away what makes Tekken so unique in the first place. While it's great to get to grips with Kazuya, Jin, Nina, Leroy, Jack-8, Paul, Law, Jun, Xiaoyu, King, Asuka, Lili, Bryan, Hwoarang, Lars, and Claudio for the first time in years, it's with no dearth of trepidation that we look forward to seeing what the full version of Tekken 8 has to offer.

On the basis of this early Closed Beta look, Tekken 8 is an exciting prospect, but clearly those tide-turning special moves could do with some serious tuning before release. And despite assurances from Tekken series maestro Katsuhiro Harada that the Heat system won't be overpowered, we reckon the Heat needs to be turned down a bit.