Fall Guys

If your idea of battle royale is focused on shrinking circles and assault rifles, perhaps adjust your thinking. Ive just spent the morning playing Fall Guys, and . But make no mistake: this game might represent the most important evolution of battle royale since Fortnite added building into the mix.

Heres the setup: youre a weird rubbery pill thing, and youre on a game show that looks more than a little like Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. You start out running down an obstacle course with 59 other weird rubbery pill things, and by the end of it only 45 of you will advance to the next round. The next round will be something else: maybe some other weird obstacle course, maybe a team game where you have to steal tails off each others butts, maybe something I havent seen yet, but more players will be eliminated. Fewer and fewer, until only 1 remains.

Its battle royale, right?

Whats most interesting to me is that Fall Guys actually sacrifices very little of what defines battle royale, despite the wacky, nonviolent setup. Its all here: the insane, moshpit of an early phase, the escalating tension, the thrill of watching yourself stand tall as others fall, what I only assume is the elation of final victory.

What this game might do better, though, is the key element of any battle royale. A battle royale has to be fun to lose, because thats what 59 out of 60 competitors are going to be doing every round. And damn, if this isnt fun to lose: its insane, bouncy weirdness, top and and down, and it doesnt really matter if youre come out on top so long as you get to go again.

Weve seen a lot of games try to mimic the essential structure of Player Unknowns Battlegrounds with wildly varying degrees of success. What Fall Guys does is different. It doesn't just add new abilities and items into the basic kill everyone until you or your team are the only ones left standing formula. By conceptualizing a battle royale without that basic verb kill, it turns it into something totally different that still keeps the essential building blocks of what made PUBG so successful.

See the article here:

Fall Guys Is The Evolution Battle Royale Has Been Waiting For - Forbes