Dodgeball? More like Dodgebrawl and I love it!
The Knockout City beta’s first day has concluded, and I wanted to get my impressions regarding my time with the beta down while they’re still fresh in my mind. Knockout City is a combination of the age-old classic of dodgeball with a spin for those who aren’t in the know. Before we get into the gameplay, let’s examine the character customization and the progression system. Knockout City provides three character slots, allowing to customize three different characters. When it comes to character customization, you’re able to change body type, face, skin tone, hairstyles, voice, and accessories such as glasses and gloves. It’s simplistic and you aren’t able to change the colors of the outfits, but you can unlock subsets that do feature different colors.
Other items can be customized as well; gliders, emotes, and poses. As you progress through the game, you’ll be awarded various items and gain points that can be used to accessorize the characters further. You’ll earn XP by completing matches and objectives to level up your characters while also unlocking items on a battle-like system. Adding to that, all of the systems aren’t in place, so while there might be microtransactions that will be available in the game, it’s too early to tell.
How does Knockout City play?
While the game is labeled as a dodgeball game, it’s so much more. As soon as a match starts, you and two others are placed on one side of three stages and make a mad dash toward several balls placed on the stage. Your opponent will also be doing the same. From there, you can toss these balls at the enemy and attempt to smack them over the head. Every place has a two-heart life system, with depleting those hearts knocks a player out and scores a point for your team. Sounds simple. Except it’s anything but. Sure, tossing a ball seems easy enough, but just because you tossed it doesn’t mean you’ll hit the opponent. Just like the game of dodgeball that you may have played as a child, the other team can catch the ball you tossed, and here’s where things get interesting.
They can elect to toss the ball back at you or attempt to feint or fake you out, hoping that you’ll also try to catch the ball. The downside is that the catch animation only lasts for a moment and then leaves you open to an attack before you can perform it again. If you fall for their trick, they’ll score an easy hit. Or if you’re smart, you’ll either bait them out and wait for them to toss the call and catch it, or you can dodge away from the encounter by rapidly moving in a different direction. That also seems easy; however, that 1 vs. 1 moment could turn into a 1 vs. 2 or, you may even have the entire team breathing down your next. That changes up things quite a bit, and before you know it, you’re surrounded with no means of escape.
While we’re touching on teams, it’s important to note that there are no heroes while this is a team-based game. Every character has the same moveset, meaning there’s no advantage to be found outside of your own skill or how well your team works together. And I think that was the right choice to make, as there are plenty of hero team-based games, and they do tend to have balancing issues. Keeping it simply makes the most sense.
Every character has access to a dodge move. This move not only serves to avoid incoming balls but is quite the offensive move as well. Using the dodge move, you can charge into enemies, knocking them out of position, smack a ball out of their hands, or even ram them off a stage. And if you time it right, you can deflect a ball that’s being thrown your way. However, the dodge move can also stun you if you slam into something other than a player, leaving you open for an attack.
What would a game be without some special moves? I don’t know, but there’s plenty in Knockout City. In addition to the standard balls that spawn on the stages, before every match, a random ball will be selected that will also spawn. In the beta, there are three; a moon ball that, when picked up, allows the player to jump higher, and a cage ball that, if it connects, will place the opponent in a cage for 10 seconds. This can then be used to secure a knockout if tossed into an opponent, or you can take it and toss it off the stage for an easy score. I will say this was abused quite a bit during my sessions. And a bomb ball that will time down as soon as it is picked up. I found this handy for waiting until the last second before throwing it. That way, even if it is caught, it will still explode. Or you can stick it to a wall and lure out an unsuspecting opponent that happens to follow you.
Knockout City feels like it can give Splatoon a run for its money
Lastly, your teammates can turn themselves into a ball that you can toss at opponents. Tossing a teammate who successfully connects with an opponent is an instant knockout. Or you can charge up the team ball, turning it into an ultimate weapon of death and tossing it into the sky. From there, whoever is the ball can control how they fall and if they land on an opponent or two, it’s an instant kill. I’ve managed to wipe out entire teams this way. It’s very satisfying. At the same time, I did feel like this move should have a cooldown of sorts.
To complicate things, each stage has a gimmick that can hinder or help you, depending on the situation. In the beta, there’s one stage on the ground with numerous vehicles traveling about it. Getting hit by these vehicles will send you flying and leaving you open to attack, but they can also provide cover if the enemy is about to lock on to you. The other two stages take place in the sky, one with a single path connecting two areas and making it convenient to knock off players. While the other features an elevator that raises and lowers, that can trap you if you don’t pay attention and a massive wrecking ball that can send you flying. Each of these stages’ distractions can make or break a match. They’re important to take advantage of whenever you get the chance.
My time with the beta was with the PC version and such, I had access to several PC-centric options, and I’m happy to say that there’s a lot of options to play with. I won’t go into detail, but if you’re someone who likes to squeeze every bit of performance from your PC, there’s plenty here to work with. The beta also supports ultrawide screens, for the most part. Black bars are present for most of the game, except when you’re on the playing stages. While that may sound disappointing, this is pretty much par for the course for most games that support the ultrawide format. Performance-wise, the game ran exceptionally well, but I noticed that the game would pause briefly from time to time. I experienced this on two different machines.
The controls for the game can be customized, and you’re able to use both the keyboard and mouse or a controller. However, I will admit I was disappointed when I learned that the controller is merely controlling the cursor and isn’t as precise. You cannot remap the controller’s buttons, and I noticed several of the assigned buttons do not work in-game. I wanted to use the Xbox Series controller while playing the beta, but due to this, I switched to the keyboard and mouse, which worked out better than expected. It felt like I was playing a 3rd person shooter, and I quickly got accustomed to the controls.
Thoughts on the beta
I’ve played the Knockout City beta for a little of six hours and came away impressed with what I played. I didn’t expect to enjoy the beta this much, but once I got into the game and got used to playing it, I couldn’t stop. The 3 vs. 3 format works, the maps are just the right size, and enough is going on to ensure the matches aren’t boring. I do feel that the mechanics could be tweaked, as some are too easy to abuse. The amount of time it takes to break out of a cage ball needs to be lowered, as the time it takes now is too long, and being caught usually results in being tossed off the map. When a match ends, players should be able to skip the XP bonus screen, and the match stats should be shown right after a match and not being required to go to a different screen.
Despite those concerns, I feel that Knockout City is a unique spin on the team game format. I love that the requires more than just tossing a ball to win matches. It requires strategy, similar to that of a fighting game to win, which kept me coming back repeatedly. The game has all the makings to be the next popular team-based game. I’m looking forward to seeing the game evolve ahead of its release, but as it stands now, I like it.
