While I appreciate the original work put into this BORpak., the difficulty of the enemies and the un-needed (no purpose?) finisher move hampers the smooth flow of combat.
The dodge mechanic is capped with a stamina meter to prevent you from dodging in / out endlessly to combo enemies to death. Not like this matters for some later enemies, who will simply kill your player in one hit (the Angel enemies, or the Silent Hill mannequin dolls). In fact, one of the biggest turn-offs for this game is not the edgy themes (child molestation, incest, etc.), but the dodgy enemy balancing and some UI faults (i.e., try locating a much needed weapon if you drop it in a sea of dead enemy bodies).
Enemies go from the ridiculously easy (you can combo them to death) vs. enemies that require constant spamming of your special moves or cheap attacks to stun-lock them so you can defeat them. One boss required using an environmental trap to defeat it, but here again, the unpolished movement mechanics meant that you took unnecessary damage from the floor trap in order to lure the boss to where it took damage.
Jumping is seldom used (maybe for attacking a few aerial enemies here and there). What you do need is to get your motions down for the special attacks, as some enemies (the Bebe enemy, notably) cannot be defeated without resorting to special moves.
As for the knife finisher, it would have been nice to incorporate it into the combo chain instead of tacking it on as a separate attack. Knife attacks also serve no in-game purpose, as enemies who die from it do not noticeably leave useful health drops or other items.
I would have liked to finish this game, but I can't, since the enemies are unbalanced, and the means to defeat them are limited. It's a shame, because I had more fun playing SOR Silent Hill (
https://www.chronocrash.com/forum/index.php?resources/streets-of-rage-silent-hill.74/) than this original work.
And try the dash move and you'll not be hurt by the spikes on the floor, just a tip!
Thanks for the review and keep playing what u like!
MD