Time Played: 22 Hours, 9 Minutes
I first felt the desire to play Fall Guys in mid 2022, while watching a YouTube video featuring Disguised Toast. He was playing in a tournament organized by fellow YouTuber, Ludwig. Fall Guys looked colorful, it looked quick, it looked captivating. By the end of the year I tried it out.
Fall Guys is a free battle royale game. Instead of a fight to the death, like in Apex Legends or PUBG, defeat in Fall Guys comes from falling. More specifically, players compete in a series of games. The players rarely interact with each other. Instead they must survive environmental hazards in each game. This design makes Fall Guys more reminiscent of Squid Games than The Hunger Games. They aren't killing each other, so much as trying to avoid death by failing to reach the end of an obstacle course.
The player controls their bean shaped character (equipped with arms and legs) through different challenges. They are limited to moving, jumping, diving, grabbing (ledges or other players), and (rarely) picking up and throwing specific objects.
The player chooses from different game modes. Fall Guys always offers Solo Show, Duos, or Team (4 player teams). Every week, one or two additional game modes rotate into the lineup.
The Solo Show, my preferred choice,
pits 60 beans in a series of challenges. These are broken down into
two categories; Race or Survival. The final level is always called a
Finale, but it is normally a Survival map (and on rare occasions a
Race).
The other challenge type is Survival. In short, don't get knocked off. During Races the player is replaced if they fall off the track. In Survival, falling off is elimination. Survival matches end when one third of the players have fallen off. Survival games offer more diversity in their mechanics. Sometimes it's as simple as repeatedly timing a jump over a spinning beam. Or running on a platform as the pieces disappear. Or dodging charging rhinoceros, looking at patterns to decide the safe platforms, drawing pictures on the ground by running, or playing tag.
Some challenges combine both elements. There is one type of Race/Survival that starts the players on a moving board. Obstacles try to push them off. If the player falls off they are out (like in Survival), but there is a finish line they must cross to win (like a Race).
Some challenges don't have a limit on
the number of people to eliminate. This is only true of some
Survival Games. For example, there might be forty people, which
normally means that after thirteen are knocked off the match ends and
the players move onto the next game. But in some Survival Games the
game doesn't keep track. It's possible to start with forty players
and have all of them survive. Or it is possible to win the game
because no one else survived.
Finally, the finale. In the finale only one player can win – the first to make it to the end of a Race, or the last person standing in a Survival. Many Survival matches use hexagons, spaces for players to stand on, that disappear after the player steps on them. There is always a trick with hexes. Sometimes they change color each time they are stepped on, eventually disappearing. Or they disappear, but come back, or there are multiple layers of hexagons under each other, like a series of fragile nets.
To win, most games require a combination of skilled platforming, jumping, diving, and grabbing. A dash of puzzle solving, quick thinking, and pattern recognition keeps the game fresh. Despite its simplicity, the levels feel unique, even if the player sees them repeatedly.
Fall Guys also offers a variety of other modes. There are too many to name them all, but I'll drop a few. In one, sixty players play three rounds of beach ball soccer. Each round the losing team is eliminated and the winning team is split in half to face each other. Or players stand on a platform and throw exploding balls at each other to knock each other off. There are X-treme races, where falling off is a loss. Or the player can play only final matches. In addition to weekly game modes, Fall Guys uses a Season system like other free online games. Each Season has its own variety of regular challenges.
Each season includes a season pass.
This includes various costumes and in-game apparel to be won.
Playing unlocks more costumes quicker. I've never paid, but have a
sizable collection of costumes.
When I first started playing, I played Solo Shows. At least half of the players wore no costumes. They performed atrociously. I assume new players are placed with bots to fill games and let them learn without pressure. In the first six matches I made it to the finals (top 10) five times. Then the difficulty increased. Presumably Fall Guys evaluates players and places them with players of equal skill. In my next ten games I only made it to the finals once. By then I was about to stop, not because I wasn't doing well, but because I found Fall Guys tiresome. I didn't stop, because my children wanted to watch me play. Then my wife tried playing a few matches with me.
We played a half dozen Solo Show games together. We were in the same match, but not on a team. In seven games, I made it to the finals every time, earning three 3rd places. four 2nd places, and a first place. Playing with my wife, who was lower ranked, placed me in easier games where I could make it into the top 3 every time. She stopped playing (she didn't enjoy it), but I kept on, only because my children liked watching. I think their interest is waning. I haven't played Fall Guys for myself since those initial sixteen games.
A few follow up notes. Four months later I am preparing to publish this article. Different seasons offer new maps from time to time. Fall Guys recently introduced the mechanic for players to develop their own levels. There are some interesting ideas in the queue. My children have not lost their interest. I still play a few times a week, but only for them.
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