The down and out fighter returns to his home city, only to find that things have changed a lot. Explore the city and talk to old tournament opponents and friends, or just beat them up because you are angry. Find out what is happening in any way you see fit.

Release Date

April 2012.

Pros

It is a small game and is very quick to load.

The game is very simple to play. With the help screens that explains the interface and the signs in game that tell you how to play, you should be on your way very quickly. Also you can talk to one of the guys at the beginning who gives a sort of tutorial.

Will Fight for Food has some interesting humour. It is not Monkey Island, but I still found it quite funny.

Talk about freedom and flexibility, you can play the game through with minimum fighting or beat up almost everyone in the game. It reminded me of Fallout, although Will Fight for Food makes it very easy to go both ways.

If you care to explore the different ways of playing, there is actually a pretty deep story. So far, from multiple play throughs, I have found three different significant endings and this is not including the different outcomes of each character in the game.

Cons

The music is annoying. Some might say it is because it is old PC MIDI/Adlib sounding, but I have heard good sounding MIDI music before. Will Fight for Food’s music just sounds bad.

Moving around can be annoying. You get stuck quite often and it is difficult to tell where you can move off screen to another screen.

There is a bug where the talk indicator appears, but you cannot talk to that person.

The game length is extremely short. There is only a handful of locations to visit and people to talk to. I did not time myself, but I estimate the longest it took me go from start to finish was around two hours. The shortest time was around 30 minutes. Being such a short game I do not think their asking price of $5 is justified. $1 to $2 feels more appropriate. Lucky for me I got Will Fight for Food as part of a bundle.

Other Points

As you can see from the screen shots, the graphics are very simple, but does get the job done.

The game developer describes the game as “Will Fight for Food is a Role Playing Brawler where you control Jared, a wrestler whose career took a nosedive after losing the biggest match of his life.“. Firstly, do not expect Final Fight or Double Dragon. It is more like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Except Fate of Atlantis looks better. Secondly, after playing the game for a while, the game felt more like an adventure game with the option to beat up anyone. Thirdly, when they said “Role Playing” I hope they are not trying to pass the game off as an RPG. Sure you can collect a handful of items that can modify your fighting stats, but it is no more an RPG than Fate of Atlantis is an RPG.

Despite all the cons, I did actually enjoy the game. The story was interesting enough to make me want to explore the different endings and the whole concept of how the game plays made me wish there was more. I wish they had a longer overall story or just many different short stories.

Biases

Reviewed GamersGate version of the game.

I enjoy brawler games like Double Dragon and Final Fight. Unfortunately I have not played any brawler games on the PC.

On the adventure side, I really liked Beneath a Steel Sky, Dragonsphere, Blade Runner, The Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, Borrowed Time and Under A Killing Moon.

I also liked Martian Memorandum, Curse of Monkey Island, Escape From Monkey Island, Indiana Jones And the Fate Of Atlantis and Simon The Sorcerer.

I have completed the game several times, experimenting with different paths as I played.

DRM

Will Fight for Food used to be DRM free on GamersGate. Now it requires Steam.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GamersGate)

1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
1 GB RAM
150 MB Hard drive space

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4Gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1Gb RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.