Crowz (PC) Review

 

Crowz was a Shooter Game, that could best be described as a mix of Battlefield and PUBG. The game could be played in third and first person mode (similar to PUBG, Ring of Elysium, Super People) and featured a Conquest mode, in which players had to capture and hold points (similar to Battlefield or World War 3), and a Battle Royale inspired Extraction mode. The game modes were probably more similar to Battlefield and the gameplay more similar to PUBG.

Crowz had two big flaws. For one, it lacked a clear identity of its own. There wasn't a single unique or truly characteristic element in the game, which you could point out. I don't think every game needs to be entirely unique or bring something new to the genre, but Crowz had a hard time convincing players to prefer it over the competition. If you wanted to play a really good Conquest game, than you could play Battlefield or World War 3. If you wanted to play Battle Royale with gameplay similar to Crowz, you could go for PUBG, H1Z1 or Elysium instead. Crowz also suffered from a lack of content. There were simply less maps and modes in the game than the competition had to offer. This is probably also why Crowz struggled with player numbers. In 2023 I could only find matches on the weekend and only in the 'Blood Zone' mode (the Conquest inspired mode). The shutdown of the game on the 29th of August 2023 therefore seemed nearly inevitable.

The other big flaw of Crowz was probably the Optimization and perhaps the launch state of the game. The game didn't run particularly well for me, even in the lowest settings (especially towards the start of matches), which might also be based on my PC hardware, but I have also heard of many other players, with much stronger PCs complaining about the lack of optimization and performances varying so much between different matches. Crowz didn't help itself by launching in a pretty buggy state. Some users even compared the launch version to the problems Battlefield 2042 had. I do think it launched in a bit better state, but Battlefield offers much more content and has significantly improved over the last 2 years. Crowz in my opinion just couldn't keep up and therefore lost the majority of its playerbase.

 

Result:

Crowz was not a bad game, but it didn't do anything excellent either. I can't point out too many major flaws with the game, but I struggle to identify any real strengths, which could have motivated players to pick this game up. The gameplay in Crowz was fun for a few matches, but after that players were likely to either move on to a completely new game or return to the classics.

 

6.5/10

Texas Hold'em Poker - Pokerist (PS4) Review

 

Texas Hold'em Poker - Pokerist is a free to play Poker game on the Playstation Store. It is one of the most basic Poker games I have ever seen. With 'Prominence Poker' and the Poker part of 'Four Kings Casino and Slots' there are two free Poker Games on the Playstation Store, which have a much better presentation than Pokerist. Both games released years before Pokerist and if we include all the free Poker Games on PC, including some of the better Browser Games, than there are at least dozens of Poker games more worthy of Playing.

Putting the game of Poker itself into a videogame is not very complicated. There aren't many things you could do wrong with such a simple programming task. Therefore the visual presentation and immersion take a key role in every good Poker Videogame. Pokerist is a massive letdown in this aspect.

Pokerist uses an ugly 2D image of a female Poker Dealer and the profile pictures of the participating players. That's it! There is nothing in this game apart from these static 2D images of a Poker game, there isn't even any background music. Why did they release such a simple game in late 2019? Pokerist would have been acceptable as a Browser game in 1999, but even in 2009 it would have been a massive letdown (The mobile version apparently already released in 2010, but the point still stands and why on earth did they port it to the PS4 in 2019???).

The promotional images of the game are trying to trick you into thinking that this would be a three dimensional game, like the much superior Prominence Poker or 'Poker Night at the Inventory'. I wouldn't call this a scam, but it is certainly a bit of shady marketing.

The Poker itself is fine, so there is some fun to be had here, but that is really not an accomplishment. Using a random deck of cards in real-life would give you the same experience, probably a much better one. A game can hardly be broken, if there is barely anything in it.

The one strength of this game is probably its speed. Pokerist is a much faster game than the competition. So if you enjoy Speed Poker, than you may find some enjoyment here. I however would always take a strong presentation over pure game speed at the cost of everything else.

 

Result:

Pokerist can be played without having an abysmal time, but there is no reason to do so, unless you are a Speed Poker Fan. There are much better Poker alternatives available on pretty much every electronic device imaginable.

 

3/10

Final Pilot (PC) Review

 

Final Pilot is the modernized Battle Royale version of the Atari 2600 classic 'Asteroids'. I feel like this is the best way to describe the game.

It uses the same control scheme like the original game, the bigger map and more versatile enemies in a Battle Royale version however made the controls more demanding, but also clunkier and more annoying than in Asteroids. The Gameplay itself is somewhat okay, but I am not sure if it really fits a Battle Royale approach. I am big BR fan, but I just don't see a niche of people, who like to play Asteroids and Battle Royale matches. The only somewhat similar game is Stars Survivor, which failed even more. I say failed, because Final Pilot has an alltime peak of 9 Players and has shut its servers down on the 5th of June 2023. Since there never was a playerbase to begin with, the majority of opponents in the game are Bots. The Bots however are less constrained by the control scheme and made me enjoy the game probably even less, than I would have with 60 human players. Nonetheless, this was probably better than not being able to play at all.

The Visuals didn't do the game any favours either and probably prevented a lot of people from checking it out. The game at least has multiple background layers and a couple of different planets in the background area, but that's it with the positives. Final Pilot is a 2D game with cheap mobile visuals. Asteroids may be a lot older, but it still has an iconic style, that isn't impacted by its simplicity. Final Pilot's visuals on the other hand actively discouraged people from giving it a try.

 

Result:

Final Pilot had an honorable intent in the vision of modernizing a classic (Asteroids). It unfortunately failed in execution. If you like the idea of a clunky 2D Space Ship Battle Royale game, than Final Pilot may have something to offer. I personally however enjoyed it much less than I had hoped. Nonetheless, I appreciate the fact that they tried and it at least had no technical issues (which is quite rare nowadays).

 

3.5/10

Knockout City - KO Royale (PS4/PS5/PC) Review

 

KO Royale was the Battle Royale LTM in the dodgeball game 'Knockout City'. It was first introduced in the Royal Rumble LTM during Season 3 and featured a Solo mode with up to 8 participants. In Season 5 the mode returned with some different variants, which switched up the Ball selection during the matches. Season 6 on the other hand mixed things up by offering a Duo mode for 4 Teams, named Team Royale.

You may ask yourself why we are even talking about this gamemode. The most simple answer is, because I am a Battle Royale fan and like to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly.

KO Royale's greatest strength was the fantastic Knockout City gameplay. Knockout City is a Dodgeball Shooter, in which you pick up balls from the ground and use them as weapons. The 'catch' is, that you can also snatch these balls and throw them back at your opponents with a variety of techniques.

KO Royale took the classic Knockout City maps, but gave them a shrinking zone around them (the true BR style) and removed the respawn ability from the contestants. Players got points for Knockouts and Survival, but the all determining aspects were the crowns. The last man standing in every round got a crown and the player, who first received a second crown would ultimately win the Battle Royale match.

The shrinking zone, the lack of respawns, the limited amount of Balls available and the prospect of the crown, turned this gamemode into a 'hunt or be hunted' situation. Being too offensive could lead to an early exit and multiple dodgeballs in the back. The Zone damage in KO Royale didn't immediately kill players, but instead took partial health points of them (which was unique to this gamemode). Elbow attacks therefore became an effective way off eliminating other players by knocking them out of the zone.

I really appreciated this twist on the classic KO City gameplay and in my opinion it proved that you don't always need a fully fledged standalone game to get a compelling Battle Royale experience.

The only downside was the 8 Player limitation. I would have loved to see how KO Royale would have played out with 16 players and perhaps slightly enhanced maps. But I guess that would have been a bit too much to ask from a LTM event.

The official Knockout City servers shutdown on the 6th of June 2023, but Knockout City and KO Royale can still be played with the private servers, which got set up by the developers. (https://www.knockoutcity.com/updates/knockout-city-private-hosted-server-edition). There is also an unofficial community launcher, which makes it easier to play and setup servers. (https://kocity.xyz). Unfortunately the private servers are only accesible on PC and not on Console.

 

7/10