Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. Review - A solid update to a classic fighting game

As a long-time fighting game fan, I was excited to see Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. get released finally. However, my review is just a little bit late, because I feel it’s important to know how matches online are going to feel. After all, this iteration of VF5 was released with rollback netcode — whereas the 2021 PlayStation version did not — and will not be receiving, as far as I’m aware.

While I’m a relative casual when it comes to VF5, I was still curious to see how Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. would perform. While I have played every release of the game, the majority of the time I’m playing Virtua Fighter, it’s within the confines of a Like a Dragon/Judgment game. But how does this latest release feel? Let’s dive into that.

What does Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. bring to the classic fighting game?

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. has a few noteworthy additions to the game that I certainly feel positive about. The 4K visuals look sharp, and it easily clears 60 FPS on my PC. So the look and feel is definitely there. New moves and combos are also added to the game for pretty much everyone, so there are some new, challenging ways to play.

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The gameplay certainly feels just as sharp as I remember it being (Image via SEGA)

However, the biggest change, other than rollback netcode, for my money, is the balance patch. It’s the first balance patch this game has received in 13 years, so that’s noteworthy. The game feels incredible, especially offline.

It also comes with a surprising number of ways to adjust the costumes. There’s a pretty significant pile of different outfits for each character. They aren’t major changes, like you’d see in say, Tekken 7 or 8, but I do like that it’s available.

One other complaint is that despite there being a relatively recent VF5 release, there’s no crossplay between the PS4 and PC versions of the game. That might or might not be a deal-breaker for you, but it’s worth highlighting.

How is Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. actual gameplay?

The offline gameplay was always sharp, and the online, for the most part was (Image via SEGA)

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. is a three-button game, which could throw off newcomers — you have Punch, Kick, and Guard. That’s it, make it work! It’s a simple system, but it works. Don’t think that just because it only has three buttons that there’s no difficulty in this game. There’s some truly intense execution you have to hit for certain character’s moves.

That doesn’t bother me one bit, though. I like that it takes effort and practice to get good — there are easier characters to play in Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O., too. But man, is this a challenging game. I will say that the offline gameplay is smooth as butter — it’s so good. You can also see matches constantly being played on the home screen as well, which servers two purposes. You can see how other characters play; it also keeps the hype and action on the game itself.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. has a decent tutorial as well, and a practice area to get familiar with the 19 characters available to play in the game. But what about online gameplay?

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O.’s rollback netcode is somewhat of a mixed bag

Occasionally, the rollback would feel kind of laggy, but it didn't happen in every match (Image via SEGA)

I’m glad you can adjust your rollback netcode frames in the settings, but this is a beta feature please note. For the most part, my online matches were fine, even if I was being absolutely destroyed. In the vast majority of those matches, I didn’t lose to what felt like laggy, slowed-down gameplay.

There were a few matches that felt like I was playing underwater, though. This led me to believe that the rollback wasn’t quite as sharp as it could be right now. I imagine this is something that could be tinkered with and improved in future updates. While it wasn’t always bad, it wasn’t always great either.

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. is a beautiful, but dated game

Even when getting battered, I found myself impressed by how good this classic fighting game looked (Image via SEGA)

I definitely think the development team did a fantastic job of presenting Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. on the PC release. I haven’t seen any weird graphical glitches or bugs, and it plays, and looks, smooth as could be. The voice cast is solid and the BGM is enjoyable to listen to. The cosmetic options in the customization screen also look good when you start cycling through them.

We do know a Virtua Fighter 6 is on the way, and so with that, I hope that the next game builds and goes beyond these graphics. These are fine, but it’s hard to ignore that this is still a very old fighting game at its core, when looking at the character designs. It’s still a visually appealing game to go with its intense gameplay.

Final thoughts

I'm certainly a big fan of always seeing matches playing in the main menu (Image via SEGA)

Although Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. has an incredibly high skill ceiling, its still a fun game for any level of experience in the Fighting Game Community. Even if this is your first VF game, you could still have a blast learning the game. There are frustrating, complicated things about the game, but that could be said of virtually any fighting game.

I also feel like for the price point of $19.99 USD, I think you get a pretty good amount of bang for your buck. There’s also the 30th Anniversary Edition for $35.99 USD, which comes with all the fancy DLC, including the Yakuza Series Collaboration Pack.

I’m certainly a casual player in the world of Virtua Fighter, but I feel like it’s a pretty solid offering for PC players. The major downside for the game is that unless you’re buying it to go online and challenge yourself, there’s not a lot of content.

This game was originally designed for arcades, so there aren’t really much in the way of modes. Arcade Mode is fun once or twice, but it’s short, and relatively easy. If you’re just looking to go online and get matches in, 20 bucks is certainly worth it.