What We Learned from the Fall Guys Ultimate Knockout Beta

It’s quite surprising for a Battle Royale game to get so much hype at a point where a large number of people are complaining about how oversaturated the genre is. Yet, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout has quickly become one of the most talked about games in the weeks before its release, consistently getting over 100,000 viewers on Twitch this week.

The game is a unique Battle Royale that is set to release this week, and the developers have given out Beta keys for players to try the game out. I was lucky enough to get one of the keys and have put in a few hours into the game already, and I must say – it is so much fun!

In this article I’ll take you through everything you need to know about Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout – right from the gameplay and what sets it apart to what to expect when purchasing it.

What makes Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout’s gameplay so unique?

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is an upcoming massively multiplayer game with some of the most unique gameplay in the Battle Royale genre. This is a Battle Royale game where you don’t kill other players.

Instead, you participate in an obstacle course race with 59 other players at the same time. The first 45 that complete it move to the next round, while the others get eliminated. This goes on round after round as promoted players now face new levels with their own unique challenges, until one victor remains.

This is completely different from the big Battle Royale names such as Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, PUBG, and Apex Legends, where you would be eliminating players by killing them in-game. In Fall Guys, eliminations happen because of the environment rather than other players eliminating each other.

While I will admit that there were several times where I tried to squeeze through a narrow opening with ten other players and got pushed off and into the abyss, that is not the objective of the game. The goal is to make it through a series of challenges and puzzles to be the last one standing.

What kind of challenges do you face in Fall Guys?

On top of Fall Guys’ cartoonish and fun art style, its wacky challenges are what makes it so fun. I encountered a bunch of unique challenges in my games, the most memorable of which were:

• Climbing up a slippery slope while dodging giant balls
• Tagging people
• Running on tiles that collapse after you’ve stepped on them and clearing vertical levels of more such tiles
• Running on a giant roller and trying not to fall
• Running into six targets on the wall, only two of which actually take you to the next area

This style of gameplay is heavily reminiscent of TV shows Takeshi’s Castle and Wipeout. The makers have also mentioned being inspired by these shows, and it is quite apparent from some of the challenges that took me back to the good old Takeshi’s Castle days.

There are also levels where you can interact with players to sabotage their objectives, such as a level where players are separated into three teams that have to pick up eggs from a pile and carry them to their team goals.

What is long term progression like, and are there microtransactions in Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout?

Fall Guys has a Battle Pass styled progression, with levels granting emotes, cosmetics, and in-game currency. The game has two currencies, “Kudos” and “Crowns”, and neither were purchasable during the Beta version. Kudos can be purchased as well as earned, while Crowns can only be earned according to the Beta.

You have your own player level that progresses the more you play and the higher you rank. This could make way for an interesting seasonal pass. The Beta version didn’t reveal much about this aspect, and there could be a proper 100-level Battle Pass like in Fortnite. We do know that the Battle Pass itself will be free, and only the game itself will have the base entry fee.

In the long term, new levels and challenges will very likely be added. We could also see a daily challenge format that could help you progress through your Battle Pass.

What are cosmetics like in Fall Guys?

Fall Guys has several levels of customization for your character, right from patterns on its body to custom outfits. These upgrades can be earned via the Battle Pass, and I suppose they will be purchasable in a separate in-game store as well. Cosmetics will likely have no competitive advantage and it does not look like the game is going to be pay-to-win at all, as that would drive quite a large part of the playerbase away.

This is a game where cosmetics might not be the best bet for publishers. The gameplay is fast, and you are so focused on your own character and surviving the challenges in the game that you barely have any time to admire any flashy cosmetics anyone else has. I can’t recall any cosmetics other than the ones I wore, and I’ve started forgetting those too.

Endnote

Fall Guys Ultimate Knockout is a refreshing addition to its genre, and the style of gameplay completely eliminates what turns a lot of people away from traditional Battle Royale games – the stress. The game is hilarious, fun, and makes you smile. The art style is cartoonish, the music is lively, the characters make silly noises, and it’s supposed to be just that – fun, where you try hard but it never feels like the try-hard-ing you do in shooters. Fall Guys is available for pre-purchase on Steam, with a Collector’s Edition offering extra cosmetics. I’ve already pre-ordered my Steam key right after I tried out the Beta version, and cannot wait for a full release.

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is being published by Devolver Digital and developed by Mediatonic. First announced at E3 (June 2019), it is set to release on August 4, 2020, on PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows. See you at the finish line!