Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Beta Impressions
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is a new take on the battle royale genre out of developers Mediatonic and publishers Devolver Digital. Unlike traditional BR titles Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout pits 60 players across various ‘game show’ rounds that focus on platforming rather than shooting each other in the face. Each round of a show is a mini-game that knocks out a select number of players resulting in a last fall guy standing winner at the shows end.
Ahead of the game’s August 4th launch on PC and PS4 Mediatonic held a beta for the Fall Guys that I was lucky enough to be invited to. Over the course of my time with the game I decided to jot down a few thoughts on the state of the game and the gameplay in general.
Customization and Currencies
When you first open Fall Guys you are greeted by a lobby screen that shows off your Fall Guy. This customisable character is your digital avatar while playing in the game show. Like other games in the BR world there area a number of ways to customize your character with things like hats, gloves, shoes, and colors.
Fall Guys in-game customizations can be unlocked a couple ways. The first way is by advancing the game’s season pass which rewards you with customization unlocks at each new level you unlock as you earn Fame (XP) by competing in the game show. The second way of getting customizations is by purchasing them from the in-game store through currencies called Kudos and Crowns. Both of these currencies are earned by competing in the game show with Kudos being a more general currency and Crowns being the reward for placing first in the game show. The in-game store is currently unavailable so I can’t comment on the pricing of cosmetic items or the selection available.
A Mini-games Battle Royale
Customization aside your main focus in Fall Guys is competing in the game’s various mini-game rounds. Currently there are a total of 11 mini-games you can play. Each round of the game show pulls from the pool of mini-games based on group size (see all available rounds here). These mini-games come in a few varieties: races, survival, team, and final.
In the race mini-games you make a mad dash alongside your fellow competitors across MXC style courses that aim to knock you off platforms and make your life generally miserable. Survival rounds are different as you will remain in largely stationary arenas where you will be tasked with dodging objects that again want to knock you off the platforms you are on. Team rounds involve competing against other teams where you battle it out over collectibles. The last round is the final round which is a mix of races and survival.
Initial Fall Guy Thoughts
Overall I enjoyed my time with the beta of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. There is a lot of potential in the silly free-for all fun each mini-game round presents. The art is nice and the music fun and chipper. I found controlling my fall guy to be simple and easy to pick up and put down. The mini-games are for the most part frenetic, fun, and unique but the games available may be a touch small.
In my two hours of playing there were a number of repeated rounds that made the experience feel slightly repetitive. Alongside this complaint I also found there is a level of RNG to a lot of the mini-games that can make it feel a unfair at times. If you fall or are knocked over early it can be hard to recover from that mistake making it easier to just give up. I will say you do get rewarded for your time though through the in-game currency which is a nice motivator to keep playing. Once the store comes online there will be much more of an incentive to try to earn currency for new cosmetic items.
If you get a chance you should check out the beta for yourself. The ideas present in this take on the battle royale formula are a refreshing change from the barrage of shooters that are currently on the market. As we get closer to release we will hopefully have a more in-depth review available.
At first glance it looks more like something that Nintendo would produce which is why I’m surprised that it’s only for PS and PC. It has great potential for cross platform play so I’m hoping that they open it up for other in the future.
Game is poo poo