![]() In-game currency is awarded pretty liberally (at least early on anyway), but, sure enough, extra bucks are available to buy for real-world money as well. While there’s no pay-to-win mechanics at the moment, it’s hard not to look at the in-game shop for player customisations as a cynical way to grab money from players. You’ll definitely find yourself saying “just one more go” a lot, although that’s partly down to the constant sugar rush of XP and daily challenges the game peppers you with. It’s well made, enjoyable to control and impressively well balanced for a game that relies on unspoken teamwork a lot of the time. Still, in the standard 3v3 lobbies, it’s a chaotic hoot, as the best laid plans frequently fall apart. Equally, I can’t see the 1v1 matches getting much long-term love at all: without the teamwork, it just feels like a souped-up version of rock, paper, scissors, as you try to figure out which attack your opponent will use next, and counter appropriately. It’s just not that satisfying, and while there’s the ability to have private lobbies with unbalanced teams of up to four per side, the maps feel too spacious for anything less than six players, making this option feel a bit poorly thought through. At the time of writing, there’s only one 4v4 game mode available, and it removes balls completely, forcing you to throw teammates instead. For something that initially seems so simple, the difference between taking on a good or a bad team is stark, and there’s a palpable sense of panic when you’re dealing with a tense game of catch with an opponent – especially if outnumbered, when your teammates inevitably leave you high and dry.įor that reason, it’s well worth teaming up with friends, rather than strangers – although the game’s insistence on a rotating limited-time set of game mode ‘playlists’ is downright infuriating. All of this locks in nicely with the small but varied set of maps, which each come with their own environmental hazards and quirks that keep things interesting.Īnd for someone that spent an inordinate amount of time in the dodgeball minigame in 2006’s Bully, it’s actually incredibly moreish. If the throw is charged enough, the ball/teammate hybrid becomes an explosive airstrike, locked on by the projectile player in mid-air.Īlongside weaponising your teammates, there are also a whole host of special balls dotted around: a rugby ball that can be used for deadly long-range throws, an explosive ball that’s pretty self-explanatory, and a cage ball that locks whoever it hits as a slow-moving ball, either to be thrown or attacked directly. This isn’t just a last resort to be deployed when you can’t see a dodgeball lying around, either. This is a future where stretches and yoga have clearly become mandatory and competitors can roll into balls, hedgehog style, ready to be hurled at unsuspecting opponents. ![]() But Knockout City does a good job of ensuring you can’t just replicate the experience in your local park with one significant party trick which is so odd, I wish I was a fly on the wall at the brainstorming session from which it escaped. You can also leave your opponent looking stupid by switching to a pass, and letting your teammate tonk them in their unguarded back. ![]() The trick is that anybody facing a ball can catch it if they time it just right, something which the thrower can avoid by charging their shots for longer, adding spin, lob or faking out with a last-second dummy. Aiming is automatic, and throws lock onto targets with the unnerving aim of an anti-aircraft missile. ![]() It’s all highly sanitised, no doubt born out by the same kind of groupthink that created Poochie in that episode of The Simpsons, and the character models all have that weird smug, dead-eyed Fortnite quality to them too, like Action Man went MIA en route to a Pixar audition.īut as generic as the setting and character design feel, the gameplay is tight, competitive and alarmingly addictive.Īt first, it feels as simplistic as you’d expect for a game based on the age-old pastime of smashing people in the face with a ball. K nockout City may feel like the kind of awful catchphrase a politician might utter in a tragic attempt to seem in touch with young people, but here it’s EA and indie designers Veland Studios pulling their own ‘How Do You Do Fellow Kids’ with a futuristic take on dodgeball.Ī futuristic take that’ll look immediately familiar to fans of Splatoon and Jet Set Radio, with a world packed full of inoffensive graffiti and forgettably generic hip-hop beats.
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