Recently, I got my hands on Knockout City, a newly announced EA title developed by Velan Studios. It’s a cartoon-like, yet competitive multiplayer game for deadballs – like expanding Fortnite’s Tilted Towers into a bustling metropolis and its legions of teenage flossers on the streets that night to be a little naughty before dinner.
It’s pretty easy to understand, because it’s a big game of saturated dodgeball – but with a few twists. And just as I enjoyed catching and catching balls, there was one aspect of Knockout City that I was attracted to more than any other: becoming the ball.
There seems to be nothing better to do, youngsters wander in Knockout City in deadball gangs of three or four and throw balls at each other. It’s quite reminiscent of Rocket Arena, another EA-based shooter game, but it swaps rockets with rubber balls. And that’s really all you need to know. However, there is no list of unique heroes with compelling backstories; it is merely a bright and colorful arena to throw down.
I asked Karthik Bala, founder and CEO of Valen Studios, why they prefer dodgeball in the first place. “Everyone knows dodgeball, and it’s just something that’s intuitive, that you understand only in terms of picking up a ball, and throwing and catching,” he said. “And it was like, can we do something about it?”
I would say they did it. In many ways, Knockout City does not need a storyline in the background, as it is the biggest concern whether it can deliver a good time. I think it does.
“Velan did a bit of magic here by translating the simple act of throwing and catching into a game and giving it weight and weight.”
Over a handful of industrial maps, you and your teammates run into the enemy hoping to mark them and earn points for your team. There are an expected variety of ways: classic team death match, one where you collect diamonds after elimination of net, and another where you can use your teammates net as a ball (my clear favorite). Just like the movie Dodgeball, and the actual game of dodgeball (which clearly inspired the movie), dodge, dive, dive, dive and dodge your way to victory.
I discovered that one of the most satisfying moves does not start with a D, but with a C, because you can catch balls that are thrown at you. In real life, an opponent is eliminated and one of you is brought back, but it’s well suited for a video game. With the right timing, you can throw a trapped ball at your enemy with greater force. It’s less the feeling of transgression of my opponent that makes me cheer up, and more the feeling of muffling someone else’s ball. Velan did a bit of magic here by translating the simple translation of throwing and catching into a video game and giving it a real sense of charge and weight.
I also have to shout out the fake throw. It’s another super simple act, but I got flashy angry when I threw a shot and watched my opponent instinctively slap the air in panic and try to catch a ball that did not come. There are other tricks as well, such as the ability to bend balls like haymakers, or do an up-and-over lobe to bypass obstacles.
Knockout City is apart of competitive shooters, where you show crosshairs and click people dead. Accuracy and reliance on blazing fast reaction speeds can deter people from these games, but the focus here is not on precision at all.
You automatically close opponents when you prepare yourself at once, and I like that matches are not determined by which players can click faster than everyone else. I needed to think more about where I was, where my teammates were and how On top of that, I’m going to laugh at the ball.
The type of ball I picked up also mattered. One was a ticking time bomb that added an element of hot potato to matches. You would see people throwing it back and forth in a desperate attempt not to be roasted. I really loved the Moon Ball, which pierced me with a zero-gravity effect when I jumped in the air. It floats above my enemies and issues juicy targets to my team.
But really, my favorite type of ball … was me. In Knockout City, you can curl yourself into a sphere and become a hand-driven meatball. Hold down Alt, then scroll around the map like a droideka hunting for Obi-Wan, or a Maltese escaping from his pack. A teammate can then pick you up and throw you at unsuspecting enemies.
The real fun lies in your teammates’ ability to turn you from a ball into the dodgeball equivalent of a mortar strike. They can pick you up until you glow, and then throw them into the air – at that point, the controls are transferred to you, while your explosive self leads you to some arrogant unsuspecting bastards from below.
I think I found it so enjoyable because it felt misleading every time, like I scanned the fine print of dodgeball’s rulebook before a gold medal match and changed a gap in the game. ‘Oh, but here’s nothing that says I can not score a point by turning myself in a ball is there? “, I said to the ref, and jumped into the arms of my closest ally during the tiebreaker:” Chuck me, Danny. DO IT! “
There is also the detail that, if teammates pass you between each other, you will reach this bomb condition even faster. I asked Bala if anything surprised him during the development, and he quoted this strategy as something no one in the team would see coming, even though they put it in the system.
“There was this moment in development where we had three players in a team. Player one rolled into the arms of player two, and player two transferred that teammate to the third player. And they were already in the final bomb state, immediately“he said.” And we were like, what the hell just happened, is that a mistake ?! And actually, it was not a bug at all … we did not program it explicitly, it just happened because that is what it should do as a system. ‘
Knockout City also surprised me because I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Conceptually, it sounds simple. But I think the fun I had in a way mimics the dodgeball in real life. I can see how I enjoy it in short bursts, you know? The weird session here and there to turn down in the evening. Maybe as a short, cartoonish breather of my one true love, Call Of Duty: Warzone. That could ultimately be the problem: the thing that makes Knockout City different is what can prevent it from finding an audience in a market with mostly shooter games. Only time will tell whether the war boys who have been armed are ready to embrace balls.