"The gameplay may be a shining model for the rest of the genre, but how players can engage with it is less impressive.
Street Fighter V abandons the traditional arcade mode, a staple since the genre’s inception. Instead, players who want the single-player experience are relegated to story and survival modes. Story mode is the biggest disappointment, as each character’s story ends after only two to four fights (with forgettable illustrations and narration in between). With no way to change the difficulty away from its super-easy default, the mode is fleeting and inconsequential, particularly for characters like Chun-Li, who squares off against Vega for two of her three fights. A more traditional ladder experience is delivered through survival mode, but it feels soulless. Each difficulty lines up your opponents the same order every time; you fight through the same rotation of characters (multiple times on higher difficulties), ultimately capped off by a boss fight.
Training traditionally gives you the opportunity to familiarize yourself with your character of choice, but even this mode is missing a key feature.
Combo challenges, the best way to learn how to chain together moves, is completely absent. It’s a shame that this is missing, particularly since many characters control differently in this entry. However, the mode does add the awesome ability to program the A.I. dummy to perform series of actions – a feature that would play fit nicely into training mode if it actually taught you how to effectively use the characters.
Taking on a friend locally never gets old, but
the ability to fight a CPU-controlled character in versus has been removed, meaning you have no way to stage a match against a particular A.I. character outside of training. This severely limits solo players’ ability to play and learn the game, instead throwing them into the grinder of online competition if they desire any meaningful interactions. The mechanics feel aimed at welcoming newcomers, but pushing them toward playing the highly skilled players online is at odds with that notion. Street Fighter may be known for its online community, but players should be able to enter it on their own terms.
Hopping online also presents an unfortunate caveat:
Unless you enter a custom lobby in the battle lounge mode, you are unable to select your fighter prior to each match. Instead, you set your main in an external menu and automatically fight as that character, removing the classic process of two players choosing their characters and squaring off for most online modes.
Street Fighter V also lacks spectator mode, which is a big deal for those who like watching others compete online.
Though grueling, playing online is the most rewarding mode, as it allows you to truly put your skills to the test. I love the ranking system that allows you to build up to a new league and improve your global ranking, and the flexibility of the battle lounges is a big draw for players wanting to have a fun time with friends. Unfortunately, the servers have been unstable following launch. With such a neutered experience outside of the online component, any server downtime practically renders the game useless.
The gameplay of Street Fighter V is excellent, and no matter what mode you play, the superb mechanics follow. Unfortunately, the content isn’t substantial, and omits several standard offerings that we’ve come to expect from the genre. It’s a shame that the structure presents so many frustrations, because the gameplay itself is entertaining." Street Fighter V Review – Restraining Its True Power