The creators of Mario Kart Home: Live Circuit create a title understandable to anyone, with a good learning curve and perfect for quick games.
It depends on where you criaras, you know like dodgeball , the killing, the cemetery … It has many names, but certainly in the courtyard of the school or physical education has played this game, with its variables, has a denominator common: throw the ball to hit the opponent. Knockout City , Valan Studios’ second game after Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit , preserves the grace of this sporting activity: being easily understandable, provoking very tense moments and having a certain comic violence that makes it very attractive (it will always be more funny the ball in the face than the heels on the shin).
We are facing a multiplayer game where companionship is essential and communication (through chat or with simple Apex Legends commands ) is very useful. The objective, although slightly variable in one way or another, is always the same: to score more points than the opposing team, something we achieve by killing the rivals, who have two lives and who reappear in just five seconds . There is no need to worry about precision, since there is automatic aiming , or classes or characters, since all avatars play the same; it is about placement and movement . In a way, reminiscent of Splatoon on how he misrepresents the shooting game genre.
Expressiveness in movement
Even though the aiming is automatic, there is a learning curve to master the different movements and throws . Yes, it is easy to take the controller, move around the stage, jump and throw the ball. But once you play three or four games, you’re not going to get anywhere with that alone. The fundamental thing in the first place is to learn the timing (generous, yes) to catch the opponent’s balls , which allows to return them with more power. And also to load the ball to launch it harder and when it should be done. To that , more layers are added, such as ball or curved shots when shooting using one jump or another and the importance of passing the ball to teammates.
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In just a couple of hours you feel comfortable with the game. Game after game we internalize something else: to falsify the throw so that the opponent makes the animation of catching the ball, being almost defenseless; improve reflexes to catch the fastest balls; to use the dodge and take into account the timing necessary to be able to use it to clear the ball with a header; to learn the areas of the maps where the balls come out ; to take advantage of the unique interactive elements of each setting; to use with head the special balls (some very funny, like a bomb that works like a hot potato, and other very frustrating, like the one that locks up the person who hits a ball for a few seconds) …
When you enter the game, a menu does not appear, but rather the Antro, a space where you can practice with your friends while the matchmaking is running in the background.
They are hilarious mechanics, which give a lot of room for maneuver in how each player behaves and moves , but whose accessibility has as a counterpoint that the room for improvement as individuals is not too extensive : in a handful of hours it is already mastered. That depth rests on collaboration with colleagues . Expected things, such as coordinating to throw the balls and to flank the opponents, but also effective and very funny ideas: when balls are missing, we can transform ourselves into afor the companions to use us as a ball; And there’s a hard-hitting charged shot when throwing at a friend that, while it seems too powerful in the early games, is easy to dodge later. Therefore, although the learning ceiling is low as an individual, it is much higher when playing as a team.
In fact, it is something that the game promotes with one of its mechanics: when passing the ball to a teammate (again, no aim is needed), it charges to throw it harder. This is just one of the many good ideas at the design level that has been taken from Velan Studios’ sleeve: we also think that the same dodge button can also be used to clear a ball if you have coordination, or that the seemingly more boring 1v1 mode is a genius to adopt a battle royale mechanic ; the same maps are used in the 3v3 modes, but if the players are slow to meet each other, the scenario closes.
Modes, Maps and Balls: New Free Content Every Season
Speaking of modes, at the time of writing there are three more. The standard is team KO : 3v3 with 10 best-of-three eliminations. The craziest without a doubt is the carom team KO mode : there are no standard balls, only special balls, and sometimes all of them at the same time; depending on the combination it can be frustrating, but usually it has given us more laughs than tantrums . Diamond Catcher is the one we liked the least playing solo: basically it’s a confirmed Call of Duty Kill, but here collecting those diamonds after eliminating an opponent forces us, simply, to put ourselves in the open so as not to lose points; As a team and with voice chat, it does have its crumb.
They are not too many, but they will expand over time as they rotate . In fact, this same May 25, together with the premiere of Season 1, they launch the Bug Fight mode, where two teams of four players face each other on maps where there are no balls, so you have to throw your teammates. The seasons will last nine weeks and in addition to adding new playlists they will introduce maps (there are not too many, but each one has a unique mechanic, such as air currents to glide in the glider or teleportation tubes, which differentiates them) , half events Seasonal and Gang Contracts (Clans up to 32 players) and Single Player.
Crews
Squads are clans of up to 32 players. You can customize the logo of the clan and the vehicle with which its members appear on the battlefield. In each season there will be challenges to get the currency with which to buy cosmetics that can only be completed in gangs.
An aesthetic that lacks personality
Precisely, these contracts, and the progression system of the game in general, is something that has almost overwhelmed us. Following the trend of Fortnite , here are dozens of cosmetic objects to unlock the currency you get playing and also you can buy: colorful costumes for avatars, gestures, effects when a teammate throws us … It ‘s a game payment It constantly reminds us that we can spend more money , something already common in the industry, but no less pernicious for that. But worse than that is seeing all those bars going up for a good handful of seconds after each game.to indicate how long we need to fulfill contracts and get money. We feel like we are in front of a slot machine.
Beyond that seemingly inclusive aesthetic (yes, we can put a fantastic dress on our character with a masculine body, but the two physical complexions are very normative, although we understand the complications with hitboxes in this sense), the world of Knockout City lacks personality and is a bit over the top . As a sample: the characters that the players control are called “rascals” and there is a commentator (perfectly dubbed into Spanish ) at the beginning of each game that becomes heavy very soon. Of course, everything is designed, both in image and sound, so that it is very legible, highlighting the thick customizable frame that appears when an opponent points a ball at us and the positional audio of the origin of the balls that are thrown at us.
Contracts are the main progression system in the game. They give us items to increase experience and allow us to advance through the battle pass (free).
Technically, it moves fantastically on PC (144 fps stable with an RTX 3070 / Ryzen 5600 X) and on all consoles: in the last generation, 60 fps at different resolutions depending on the device; on PS5 and Xbox Series X, at 60 fps and 4K (dedicated features will be introduced later); and even on Nintendo Switch there is a performance mode at 60 fps, although it reduces the effects and resolution on desktop (810p) and portable (540p), according to data provided by Velan Studios. By the way, on Switch it is not necessary to be subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online to play online. Plus, cross-play works great across all platforms, and there’s voice chat included (just plugging in compatible headsets with a microphone is enough in Swich).
Conclusion.
Knockout City is one of those perfect games to play a handful of games from time to time with friends . It’s accessible, so it doesn’t matter too much if one is very high and another is still starting dodgeball; and both the spirit of the game and its own mechanics are very different from any game on the market. It is, in short, fun and funny . However, it is true that the individual skill ceiling is reached very quickly because of the same accessibility, so there will be those who miss more depth, especially if you do not always play with colleagues, which does allow you to go deeper into strategies.
The aesthetics and general tone of the game seem somewhat forced to appeal to all audiences , overdoing it a bit, and the progression system through contracts is almost overwhelming (after each game it seems that we are looking at a slot machine). Even so, that is not what worries us, nor their content plan (since Valan they seem to have everything very well thought out, adding free maps, balls, modes, etc. throughout the seasons), but their lack of depth playing solo can lead to oblivion too soon . That’s why publisher EA Originals has learned from what happened with Rocket Arena (another good game) and this Knockout City It can be played totally free on all systems until May 29.
We have carried out this analysis on PC after attending a review event invited by Electronic Arts Spain. The computer used has an Nvidia RTX 3070 8 GB, an AMD Ryzen 5 5600 X and 32 GB of RAM
