Since its publication in early August, Fall Guys : Ultimate Knockout has kind of become the darling of the month. More than 1.5 million players had played it within 24 hours of its release, and its popularity hasn’t seemed to fade since. Will he be able to stretch his success beyond the summer?
Developed by Mediatonic and published by Devolver Digital, Fall Guys is a ” battle royale »Like no other, offering a refreshing formula that contrasts with what we are used to seeing in competitive online games. Sixty players compete, not in a gradually shrinking arena, but in a series of simplistic events in which only a few participants will have qualified for the next challenge. It is not a question here of killing the other players, but of surviving until one is last standing, to be crowned the big winner.
Fall Guys is also distinguished by its “skill gap” (skill gap) very small. The difference between the best and the worst player in an event is more a matter of luck than talent. The controls are also easy for everyone. You only have three possible actions: jump, dive and grab.
It’s a double-edged sword since many events, especially races, boil down to chaos in which you have little or no control over your destiny. The players jump into the game, hoping to clear obstacles just fast enough to break away from the pack. And for the unlucky ones who will remain bogged down, the game is lost in advance.
With his deliberately awkward physique, helping chaos and confusion, Fall Guys above all a light and funny experience. Players capable of self-mockery will be better served than those with a competitive spirit.
This lightness is immediately visible in the aesthetics of the game. Your avatar is a kind of jellybean – or an Unnamed branded Minion if you prefer – which you can customize to your liking with equally wacky uniforms. The arenas look more like twisted inflatable games than serious events.
There is only one game mode, and the events are randomly chosen from four categories, including obstacle courses, puzzles and team games. The first season has 25 events, the majority of which consisted of races. These look a bit too similar, by the way. After a while, they become just a series of repetitive movements that you perform in the hope that the other players, the only really changing variable, will make mistakes. The strategic possibilities are therefore slim.
There is also no mechanism to discourage sabotage, by scoring for one’s own purpose in a team event, for example, or to simply spoil the fun of others by turning away from the goal.
Of course, more challenges will be added in the coming seasons, and while we found the experience to be fun for a while, it’s hard to see how Fall Guys will be able to maintain the enthusiasm of the players in the long term.
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