Beat Down

Time to open the gates of hell!

Beatdown: Fists of Vengeance is a Beat'Em Up by Capcom. It hit the Xbox and the PlayStation 2 in the 2005, and had a very interesting premise. The game is a Wide Open Sandbox, a Fighting Game, and a Beat 'Em Up that relies heavily on RPG Elements. The player is able to do some Level Grinding with his chosen character, highly customize him/her by changing everything about him with cosmetic surgeries, buying tattoos, changing his/her hair, his/her clothes and even adding/removing features like facial and body hair (making him/her a real Virtual Paper Doll). There's also loads of side quests and over 30 recruitable characters that can help you around by filling your party and being sidekicks just for the sake of it. These allies also gain levels, and some have specializations and different (but limited) fighting styles. For example, Martial Artists can teach you moves for some cash, Pickpockets can steal, and car thieves can hijack cars parked on the streets to give you a quick trip. You can also interrogate, rob, and even brutalize the characters in the game to a pulp using the option "Beatdown" for no other reason than really being faithful to the game title.

The plot is about five mob soldiers from a Wretched Hive called Las Sombras who got set up by their own organization. In the ensuing chaos, they get split up and try to build up a network of informants and underlings to get revenge.

The Five Player Characters are:

• "Raven", an Irish Brutish Thug who plays the Blood Knight and Jerkass tropes Up to Eleven. He has an Irish accent and fights in a funny stance that prioritizes punches. He is the "Standard" choice.
• "Aaron", a Eurasian with a penchant for gothic fashion, tattoos and emo hair (that thankfully you can change..) He is the bastard son of the Big Bad Zanetti and likes to spend his cutscenes playing with the "Well Done, Son" Guy trope. He is the most "smart" of the three guys and fights using fancy kung-fu moves that are snake-based. He also likes knives, and comes equipped with one. He is the "Tech" choice.
• "Jason G", the resident Scary Black Man doubling as a Big Guy for the game. He is very fond of orphans, since he is one too, and is the most kind-hearted character of the entire game. He fights using sheer raw power and is slow as a slug but can endure more punishment. He is the "Power" choice.
• "Gina", a blond Action Girl/Chick whose beautiful looks can be tarnished by the Gorn features of the game. She has a Dark and Troubled Past that the game will never tell you about and unfinished business with Zanetti's right-hand man, Eugene. She fights using fast blows and is a Fragile Speedster. The "Speed" choice for players. (If you customize her with the right parts, she can end looking like The Bride from Kill Bill.)
• "Lola", the Dance Battler Latina who appears to be from the South America. Like the majority of Hispanic characters, she drops Gratuitous Spanish one-liners here and there. She is very mysterious, cunning, smart, and she has lots of shady dealings with some characters in the game. Fights using capoeira moves. She is the "Exotic" choice.

Tropes used in Beat Down include:

• Action Girl: Pretty much every woman in this game can be one. Even female pedestrians, since they can defend themselves if you try to hurt them.
• Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: It's more like "Adam Smith Hates Mobsters"; if you try to buy anything while wearing the mafia outfit, stores won't sell to you.
• Affably Evil: Quincy. If you meet him earlier in the game, when he's acting like a normal doctor worried about your health, you will be surprised about having to fight with him later.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: What you receive for interrogating the right characters in the game.
• Anticlimax Boss: It's more like an Anti Climax Level. When you learn that Zanetti is in a luxury hotel, you expect this to be THE level of the game and that you're going to storm the place while murdering everyone in the way. Turns out that the place has little security and that you don't need too much effort to get into Zanetti's room.
  • Also every boss of the game is one, because the game is so easy.
• Awesome but Impractical: The option of loading all of your recruited characters in the versus mode is ruined because of the game's constant loading and scrappy fighting physics.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: Chester pulls one.
• Bald of Evil: Quincy
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted; you can really screw up your character's looks fighting all time and getting hit. You will end up bloody and with loads of bruises, but if you take medicine, you will recover along with your good looks.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Jason G
• Cardboard Prison: Got arrested? No problem! You can break out of jail! Or just pay up...
• The Cartel: Controlled by the Fatima Saints, they get wiped out in the intro sequence.
• Cat Fight: Averted; no gender difference is going to protect your female character (or the others) from ending up with bruises for taking and receiving loads of punishment.
• The Chessmaster: Chester
• Cluster F-Bomb
• Complete Monster: Lots of characters, including Zanetti, Ignacy and even you if you choose to slaughter everyone you meet instead of recruit them.
• Cool Old Guy: Melvin
• Cowboy Cop: Chester uses Police Brutality and questionable methods to deal with criminals, including you.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Not satisfied about beating the crap out of a random elite henchman? You can steal from him after it, or just kill him in brutal fashion.
• Damsel in Distress: Gina and Lola are both locked up in desolated places and left for dead. It is up to you to find them.
• Deadly Doctor: Quincy
• Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Averted real hard; if you die. it's over.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: You got to beat nearly everyone in a fight including three of your former partners so they can join you.
• Disc One Final Boss: A irritating example. Since the game has a Guide Dang It nature, if you don't know what you're doing, you will run into them and get another ending. And there's no way to know you did it wrong until you see a guide.
• The Dragon: Eugene is this to Zanetti. You may think your player character was this, but he/she was more a member of a Quirky Miniboss Squad.
• Escort Mission: A very common type of sidequest.
• Executive Suite Fight: Subverted. The fight against Zanetti takes place in his luxury hotel room...but he is not the final boss.
• False-Flag Operation: One mission requires you to dress in a specific gang's colors to mix with them, cause a riot, and run away when the cops arrive so they can be arrested.
• Final Boss: Chester again in the best ending where your character decides that he won't be dealing with him anymore and decides to kill him.
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero: Raven. He appears on the game's cover, wears red, and his plot has everything to do with the "revenge" theme of the game. He also appears to lead the team in the opening sequence.
  • The Lancer: Aaron. He's always arguing with Raven to the point that they barely get into a fistfight. He's also very competent in what he does and is always the second choice for players. He also wears green.
  • The Big Guy: Jason G
  • The Smart Guy: Lola
  • The Chick: Gina, so much that her storyline is focused more in her affair with Eugene than anything else.
• Gamebreaker: Subverted. The ATM scheme could easily make you rich, but since the game loads for everything, you will barely use it.
• Gotta Catch Them All: If you wish to achieve 100% Completion, you need to unlock everyone in the blacklist. This requires several playtroughs, because taking different choices nets you different characters, and some will only join you if you're a specific gender.
• Guide Dang It: Without a guide, you're pretty much screwed. See Lost Forever.
• Heel Face Turn: It's another point of the game. You will notice that everyone who is in the blacklist can join you. If you play with the right cards, you will reach the end of the game and see that every soldier from Zanetti mob has joined your cause.
• If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten: Zanetti challenges his bastard son Aaron to kill his other friends.
• Its Short So Its Sucks: Well, the game is low rated, but not because of that.
• James Bondage: Subverted with Aaron, who gets kidnapped by the mob and trapped in a hotel, but is found alive, well and unharmed.
• Karma Meter: Another big "feature" of the game. You have two karma meters; one deals with the cops, and the other is about the mobsters. Do enough sh*t near either group and they will start to recognize you. If the meters hit 100%, they will start random encounters with you, sending cars to kill/arrest you. The only way to avoid this is to change your looks often, but you could just ignore this and kick the crap out of them while enjoying the loots that they drop.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Fatima and Norma.
• Kick the Dog: Noted by the fact that you can do that in the game too.
• Knife Nut: Aaron starts the game with a knife. Eugene uses a hunting knife as his Weapon of Choice and looks pretty cool while doing so.
• Lost Forever: One of the game's main faults. Everything is divided by chapters, including characters. Unless you have a guide, some of them can be lost forever. You can also lose potentially good recruitments by killing your would-be friends using the beatdown option. You also need to be patient to interrogate every character you find, since doing so nets upgrades in stores. If you miss one, you have to wait until the next playtrough and try again.
• The Man Behind the Man: Eugene is behind Zanetti's schemes and allows him to rule the city.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: Played straight for customization and gameplay purposes.
• Meaningful Name: Las Sombras. It is always night there, and an NPC even complains about it.
• The Mole: Tracy of all people.
• Nightmare Fuel: Las Sombras is a very unsettling town. Also, there's the violent fights and the beatdown option.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: You can do that if you wish to.
• Professional Killer: Ignacy
• Rated "M" for Money: The only thing that the game lacks is the explicit use of drugs and sex.
• Reality Ensues: See the Bruises? It can happen with pretty much everyone who gets in a fight in Real Life.
• Scary Black Man: Jason G, Quincy, and Gregorio. You can also recruit some into your team.
• Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes: Types III, IV and V.
• Tattoed Crook: Aaron. There's also some recruitable characters, and your player character if you wish to put some on him/her.
• Timed Mission: Chapter Three is an entire Timed Chapter if you follow the main mission, since Ignacy is playing a game with you and your friends in the blacklist, targeting them. You must reach their asses before Ignacy does; by the contrary, he will kill your boys.
  • Also the Gregorio Factory Mission that doubles as That One Level. If you don't know where to go after you plant the bomb, you blow up along with the factory and get a game over.
• Title Drop: The "Beatdown" option that is displayed as a Gory Discretion Shot.
• Vice City: Again, Las Sombras.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: There's a few examples, but the "Beatdown" option seems like the best starting point.
• Virtual Paper Doll: You can customize pretty much everything about your character, from tattoos to hair.
• Wretched Hive: Las Sombras is so vile that it's nearly impossible to meet someone that's not a criminal.
• Xanatos Gambit: Chester! He orchestrates all the mafia/cartel drug robbery predicting the outcome.
• X Meets Y: Final Fight Street Wise meets River City Ransom, which meets Tekken and Virtua Fighter, and et cetera...
• You Killed My Father: In this case, it's "You killed my sister." Norma invokes this while trying to avenge her sister, Fatima. If you take some paths in the game, Norma will chase you around to try again until she gives up and joins you.