Knockout City Review

"KO"

Multiplayer

June 3, 2021 at 8:41pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a multiplayer only PVP game set around the concept of extreme dodgeball. It’s all about pulling off intense hits, eliminating your foes and work cooperatively as a team. With this being strictly online focused there are some private options, but the core matchmaking is where I imagine you’ll spend the majority of your time.

There are a few modes here, but I spent most of my time just in the primary 3v3 elimination. The other modes mix things up further with one where it’s straight up all power balls and another one that’s similar to Kill Confirmed from Call of Duty. That sounds intense, but it’s just collecting items. I would consider the game to certainly be something I’d consider appropriate for all types of audiences to play.

Anyways the core mode is set with rounds and you’ll need to knock out a set number of enemies to win each round. This can be achieved in any number of ways as you gather balls from the ground or even pick up your teammates to throw them as well which is hilarious for sure. There’s a lot of strategy at play here and the maps change up what you’re doing since each one offers something different in terms of movement and verticality.

It’s somewhat minimal when it comes to options for playing, but that keeps players focused and I’ve often felt smaller multiplayer only games over extend themselves. Having a smaller quantity of options is often best, keeps players learning the same ways to play and provides a large pool for matchmaking. That shouldn’t however be a problem since it has cross-play support between platforms.

Gameplay

I was very impressed with the visuals, it features a cartoon style aesthetic that looks great. On Xbox Series X it runs at a native 4k resolution with a perfectly fluid 60fps. The smooth frame rate makes it much easier to hit those moving foes. The environments are somewhat minimalistic, but have a nice charm to them.

The diner was my favorite map and the game really seemed to have a futuristic throwback direction being almost greaser inspired which was interesting. That’s reflected in the maps and the character designs. There are a ton of tweaking options for your character and it looks like various currency options microtransaction wise.

You do get to unlock some things while playing as well which is decent. Back to the maps, there’s a neat sense of verticality and level movement too when it comes to some structures. This also changes how you throw balls. The regular ones have a typical sort of throw that you’d expect but there’s a lot of skill involved with that.

Past that there’s a sniper type ball, another that cages those it comes in contact with. Just some examples, they can be quite whimsical with their character impacts or alterations. A good range here, and perhaps also room for further additions in the future after some updates.

The Conclusion

Knockout City is a blast, filled with some wild and wacky over the top dodgeball action. It focuses on some key game modes and does them well. There’s a good balance of ball options and ways to play when you go to compete.

This is backed with a decent offering of maps and what I’d say is a very in-depth level of essentially gender neutral customization options. I thought the combat was well set, and I had a lot of fun playing this. Matches are fast paced as well, so you get through them very quickly which is nice. Certainly an enjoyable time that’s great for solo or group action. Good luck, be sure to dip, dodge, duck and you so forth.

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Knockout City Review on Xbox Series X
Review Code Provided by 47

Rating Overall: 7.7