My god, BALL x PIT is addictive. From the moment I booted it up and completed my first run, I’ve had trouble wanting to do anything else. Eat? Sleep? Spend time with my family? Shower? Be a productive member of society in any way, shape or form? Nah, I’ve just wanted to play. Such is the addictive power of BALL x PIT.
Essentially a combination of Breakout, Vampire Surivors and Loop Hero, BALL x PIT is fiendishly designed for “just one more run” with a gameplay and feedback loop that sinks its fangs into the pleasure centre of your brain and refuses to let go.
Should you be able to claw yourself away from its neon grasp, you’ll soon find an itch at the base of your neck, urging you back for more.
BALL x PIT Review
BALL x PIT‘s gameplay loop is split into two halves. The first is the Breakout/Vampire Survivors portion, in which you funnel various heroes down a long corridor, shooting balls at waves of enemies and attempting to pass the DPS checks to get to the boss. During these runs, you collect experience Gems, which level your character up (for that run) and grant you unique balls, upgrades and passives. Each hero starts with one unique ball — Fire, Bleed, Iron etc — and as you progress can accrue up to four unique balls in total.
But that’s not all. Many of the balls have synergies with one another, and combining them grants you even better and crazier balls. For example, if you combine the Horizontal Laser with Ice, you get an Ice Beam that not only hits every enemy in a line, but it also has a chance to freeze them. Combine the Vampire ball (which has a chance to heal you) with Bleed, and you get the Vampire Lord, who deals damage and has an even better chance to heal you.
Many of these upgraded balls can also be combined for additional upgrades, and hunting down every combo becomes a game in and of itself. When you stumble upon the nuke, trust me when I say you will be feverishly pursuing that one in every subsequent run.
If you make it through a run, you’ll be confronted with a boss. These bosses always have unique attacks and deal a ton of damage, so besting them requires both the DPS and your ability to stay alive. I have lost count of the number of times I got to the boss and fluffed it because I was too invested in dealing damage and not doing enough to avoid damage. It’s a lesson I eventually learned, although, after a while, the upgrades and increases in your power grow so much that a boss that once caused you grief can be finished in less than a few seconds.
Runs in BALL x PIT take place across several levels: Snow, Desert, Jungle…Hell? Each has a distinct look and feel and comes with its own enemy types, hazards and special mechanics. In the ice level, you’ll need to avoid cracks that make you slip and slide. In the desert, it’s quicksand that slows you down, and in the jungle, you’ll need to watch out for these annoying spider bitch enemies that speed up every enemy around them. God, I hate those guys.
Each level includes two sub-bosses at equal intervals, which act as a DPS check. While you’re dealing with the sub-boss, waves of enemies keep spawning and move every close to the bottom of the screen. Should you be unable to both kill the boss and thin out the herd, you’ll soon find yourself swarmed with baddies who start to bombard you with damage as the reach you. Death is a constant threat in BALL x PIT, but thankfully, even if you die, you earn gold, experience and blueprints to help you on your next run.
In addition to unique balls, each character has its own unique passive ability. These include a faster rate of fire, balls that travel through enemies, balls that immediately return when they reach the back wall, a massive shield that bounces balls back and increases their damage and many more. Not all powers are created equal, and there are a lot I prefer and some I avoid altogether but there’s something for every play style and unlocking new characters is a big part of what keeps you coming back for more.
The second part of BALL x PIT is the settlement builder. After each run, you’ll return to your settlement where you’ll be able to build (using the acquired blueprints) to unlock new features and characters. Some buildings will provide permanent stat increases to your characters, while others will provide passive bonuses, and others still augment how you tackle each run. There are some truly game-changing mechanics to be unlocked, but to reveal them would be to spoil the surprise. Rest assured, though, once you start unlocking the things I’m (not) talking about, you’ll wonder how you ever did without them.
To actually build up your settlement, you’ll need to put your buildings in place and then launch your heroes at them to complete construction. Your characters will bounce around your settlement, bumping into buildings and collecting resources as a timer counts down. Once a building has been bumped enough times, it’s complete, and you can reap its benefits…but then it can be upgraded. And since, in the beginning, you can only complete one “harvest” per run, you’re constantly going back to tackle a level, then build/level up your settlement, then back to a level to test out your new gear and so on.
It’s difficult to accurately explain just how moreish BALL x PIT truly is. If you’re the kind of person who gets sucked deep into a hole with games like BALATRO, Vampire Heroes and even Hades, then BALL x PIT will really grab hold of your attention. The roguelite/like elements create a satisfying feedback loop that’s genuinely difficult to pull yourself away from, and once you start to unlock the full potential of the game, it becomes even harder.
I played on PC but can already imagine how perfect BALL x PIT would be on Switch and/or the ROG Ally X. Lying in bed while murdering enemies with bouncing balls is the dream.
BALL x PIT is wildly entertaining and features a gameplay loop that’s both incredibly addictive and satisfying. The more you play, the more you want to play, and the more you unlock, the more you can’t help but go for just one more.
BALL x PIT. Not even once.
BALL x PIT was reviewed on PC using digital code provided by Devolver Digital.
