Who has never dreamed of participating in Wipeout? If only we could play it without needing to get in shape and lose face watching TV! The dream has finally come true with Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, a frankly funny battle royale style game.
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The concept is simple: 60 players compete against each other in a series of events until only one remains. The events often consist of a Wipeout-style obstacle course (the TV show, not the racing game), made up of unstable platforms, sliding doors, spinning discs, in short, everything to make you fall into nothingness infinity that awaits you below. Once the predetermined number of players cross the finish line, the rest are eliminated!
There is also a variety of team challenges, which require you to bring back the eggs or giant balloons in the section of your color, jump through rings to score points, push a ball through a maze, etc. Finally, there are also some unique levels of memorization, survival on disappearing platforms, a tag game, and a few other surprises.
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Fall Guys contains a respectable number of 25 separate events. The developers promise us that they will add more for free on a regular basis, so as to keep the experience fresh, months after release.
So there is no shortage of content, but I would admit that it is rather difficult to play it for hours without feeling a repetition. I put the fault on the main menu, where you can only select one option: play. Perhaps an additional mode with special events could have broken the eternal cycle of “die, start over, die, start over”, which sometimes makes us want to take a break.
But I don’t hold that against him, quite the contrary. In fact, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout fulfills its initial proposition wonderfully. It’s easy to learn and fun for everyone.
A royal battle for everyone, really
There is a part of me that fears that this pleasure will only be temporary… I’m afraid that in a few months, an ultra-competitive community will storm Fall Guys and try to eliminate the accessible and fun aspect by it. transforming into a hermetic eSport, exploiting the slightest bug.
That’s why I’m 100% backing its somewhat lame control: it’s done so that everyone is on an equal footing. No professional player who always comes first because he is an expert in platforming or has learned the levels by heart, since everything is so random and unstable. After all, it would be ridiculous to complain that your character falls too often in a game that is literally called “Fall Guys”.
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Online multiplayer without hate, is it possible?
Let’s face it: online multiplayer is often toxic. We meet elitist opponents, bad winner or immature, who often turn pleasure into frustration.
Fortunately, Fall Guys eliminates this problem with no audio chat. What would it be for, anyway? So we find ourselves in the center of a crowd of cute and awkward characters, in a colorful and jovial setting: impossible to feel the slightest rage, even when you lose the game for a matter of seconds.
The reward system also helps to overcome our defeats, since we receive experience points and change even if we are eliminated. For each level of experience reached, we unlock a costume, a dance, or even more money that we can spend in the cosmetic items store.
It is also possible to invite friends and do the tests with them. We are told that the game is made to try to keep you together for team games. At the moment, there is no local multiplayer. On the Steam community hub, the developer specified that they tested it, but the split screen was greatly hampering the performance of the game, which is why this mode was not included.
Speaking of performance, the experience is much smoother on PC. On PS4, screen-tearing is often present due to the lack of V-Sync, but it’s still quite playable.
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A rather difficult launch
Good news: Fall Guys is already a success! With his appearance on PlayStation Plus from day one, he stood out and attracted a large crowd of gamers.
Bad news: It was a lot more players than the developers initially expected. Like the majority of online game launches, day one was pretty dismal. Disconnection, long waiting time, loss of earned rewards… At one point, the servers were completely closed for 2 hours, just to adjust to this surprisingly large crowd. Do not be put off by this: everything can only happen if it gets better. 2 days after the launch, it’s already much better.
A unique bet, but successful
As battle royale fatigue began to kick in, Fall Guy: Ultimate Knockdown managed to use the concept in a unique, fun, and accessible way. Those with a PlayStation Plus subscription should try it. For others, it’s a $ 20 well invested, if the basic concept appeals to you, of course.
Verdict
Most
- Short games, ideal for a small dose of exciting gaming
- Fun at will, frustration is kept to a minimum
- Accessible: everyone has the chance to arrive first
- Various events. The selection will grow with free updates
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The lessers
- Completionists will be tearing their hair out!
- Server issues at launch now fixed
- Repetitive music (but it doesn’t really matter)
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Final note
9 / 10
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