Free to Fall as a Bean Guy
Fall Guys Review (2022)
Fall Guys Review (2022)
This article was originally written at the launch of the Switch version of Fall Guys. It has been slightly modified since it was originally published, and is a part of my migration to Medium project. The views expressed may represent a game that has changed in its live service history.
I’ve been keeping tabs on Fall Guys ever since I was a beta tester for the game. I got my fill by playing a significant amount of it during that window, and didn’t necessarily have anyone to play with when it officially launched, so I haven’t felt comfortable picking it up for its price tag ever since. So you can imagine my delight when its developer, Mediatonic, decided to make the game free to play some years back. Better yet, they launched a Switch version that I could play right on my couch.
It’s a fun game to get into, and all the levels and scenarios I played were well done, and I felt that I always knew when losing was my fault. While playing, I felt like the skill gap between me and the other players was something I could overcome with some luck and a little practice. I thought that was remarkable, because I was playing on the Switch version, a much graphically less intensive version of the game, that doesn’t have the smoothest looking online multiplayer.
The various game modes are well-thought-out, and courses you have to play are, indeed, quite fun and test your limits as a ‘bean creature’, in a very Japanese game show kind of way. In my first few play sessions, I was addicted to playing because I wanted to see all the different iterations of all the courses like it was some kind of Mario Party game. Fast-forward about a week after daily 30 to 45-minute play sessions and I felt like I had seen them all, which I’ll admit, was disappointing. I wasn’t putting in a lot of time, so when I started seeing the same levels over and over again, it became discouraging to come back to play, already knowing the pool of games I would probably be playing. That’s not to say these levels aren’t fun, but I do wish there was even more variation to keep the gameplay interesting and unpredictable. Perhaps that will come with the live service model; only time can tell.
The reward system has changed a lot since beta, and I can’t say that I like it! Taking a page from daddy Fortnite, they have a shop with items that rotate daily. The currency you need to spend on items in the shop is relatively difficult to obtain for what I’d consider to be meager offerings. I wouldn’t even say that what’s on sale for normal $USD currency was that good, either, unless you decide to chain yourself down to the Fall Guys’ battle pass. Crowns and crown shards that you earn from winning a round or completing missions, take you through a “free” battle pass.
As an aside: I don’t enjoy how many live service games are out there vying for my attention, because truthfully, I don’t have enough free time to commit to all of them in order to maximize my rewards. I can maybe fully commit to one, two if they’re all I play. But when there aren’t any good rewards for me to unlock, like here at the time of writing in Fall Guys, I’m not inclined to make that a temporary obsession. Perhaps you’ll feel differently depending on the season or offerings.
Overall, Fall Guys is a fun little package that’s definitely fun to play with some friends, especially now that it’s free. But, if you don’t have buddies to play with, you might see yourself getting bored after a few weeks, unless you force yourself to play to complete the battle pass. It’s free, so I recommend you to download it and see for yourself. But as far as I’ve played it, I don’t think it’ll be something I consistently come back to play as a solo player without good reason.
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.