Pool

Genre: Sports (Pool)

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Alternating)

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: Sabec

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Review:

Pool, as the name implies, is a straightforward, no-frills Pool game. Surprising, I know.

Graphically, this game looks… okay. The textures for the table are fine, and the room surrounding it is unimpressive and low-poly but not terrible, but there is absolutely nothing here to impress anyone. At the very least the game’s sounds are decent and the jazzy music that plays in the background is all right.

The gameplay itself is also okay, if a bit overly-simple – aim by moving the control stick left or right, pull pack by pressing down on the stick (longer for more strength), and release to hit the ball. Unfortunately, there’s no way to aim at a specific spot on the cue ball to put spin on it or any sort of nuance like that, no ability to move the camera independent of the position of the cue ball, and you can’t even place the cue ball after it’s sunk. In other words, this version of pool wipes away pretty much all nuance from the game.

This is paired with an AI player that’s absolutely hopeless, missing even the cleanest shots – the game’s AI sunk more of my balls than its own. I would have increased the difficulty of the AI except… I can’t. There’s no options to do so. Or options of any kind, really. No way to change the game rules, to change the appearance of the board or the venue, nothing. All you can choose is whether you’re playing with one player or two, that’s it.

At the very least, Pool manages to capture the absolute basics of the sport, but completely fails to do anything more than that. It might make for a decent distraction if it wasn’t absurdly overpriced at $10, but anyone looking for anything more than the skeleton of a game of pool should look elsewhere.

tl;dr – Pool is the most bare-bones a representation of the sport possible. It controls fine, but lacks any sort of nuance, and there are zero options here. It might be a decent distraction, but not at the absurd price of $10 it’s being sold for.

Grade: D

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