Spike Volleyball
Spike Volleyball Available Today For Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, Here's The Trailer
Bigben and Black Sheep Studio have announced the release of Spike Volleyball, the first indoor volleyball simulation available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. Check out the launch trailer below.
With the inclusion of the biggest countries and an innovative tactical gameplay, Spike Volleyball is the first simulation of one of the most widely-played sports in the world. Dynamic and demanding discipline, the game is faithful to every move, recreating a spectacular and sporty experience: spikes, blocks, floaters…
Learn the techniques, use cunning combinations to surprise your opponents and lead your team to victory through the different international tournaments. Tactics, reflexes and accuracy will take you to the top of the world championship podium!
Key features:
- 50 national teams, men’s and women’s.
- All the volleyball techniques are faithfully reproduced using Unreal Engine 4 and motion capture: spikes, bumps, blocks, floaters…
- Build and manage your own team in Career mode.
- Use tactics developed by professional coaches.
- Match up against other players in local and online multiplayer modes.
The game is ok, I am mildly enjoying it is the bottom line and there isn't anything else like it, so there's that.
The easiest way to sum it up is that it feels like a 2k game with both the good and bad.
Good - smooth animations, seems like 60fps even if it's not, controls make a certain amount of sense, big plays feel good. There is a sense of timing which is mostly what indoor volleyball is all about.
Bad - can get stuck or feel 'canned' animations, can be sluggish in animations and pace, could be more explosive. WAY too many serves touch the top of the net and go over for 'aces'. I wish this happened about 10% of it's current rate. Many times the animation/timing is off when paying out a spike. So for example, the arms swings during jump apex, but the ball has either not dropped enough or too far to sell a full power spike and should result in a 'flub' but doesn't. They could patch this as it seems fixable, - you don't press the button to hit the ball, you charge the hit, so the player would just have to jump and swing earlier or later to meet the ball where he/she should if that makes sense.
really bad - sometimes the ball will warp to a hitter or worse, a fantom player will 'hit' the ball when no player is near it. This stuff happens I'd say every 6-9 services so it's definitely a problem. Not a game-breaker because it doesn't seem to happen in key moments, but it's utterly stupid the game shipped this way.
misconceptions:
The comments about the graphics are false. To me they sort of fit in with other games I'm playing it's not 2k19 good, but it's not ps2. IMO they did a good job here especially for an indie studio, same comments for the animations and presentation (replay's etc).
Random thoughts:
there is no real commentary which I don't mind at all. simply "USA wins the set" etc. not PxP.
There are some limited play's, men and women and a boat load of nations to choose from. I've only done play now, but there is a whole career mode with player's contracts it seems like - I'd like to know how that works now - I didn't see a straight up create a player but will see if that's possible through drafting in my next session.
The game is decent with some potential, and I hope they developers recognize this and patch it to improve and fix the issues.
Anyone looking at this should realize it's less about 'controlling' players and more about anticipating and making decisions - you hit a button to bump, one of many to set to a certain spot and charge a hit up if you have enough time to get full power and aim where it will go with a cursor that goes on the court.
You don't move players very much at all, and you dont' control hits like you would in a game like baseball where you 'swing' - blocking is more like that and you move your front line with the triggers and X to jump - it's all very simple. As I said it's more about strategy and deliberate planning than stick skills.
I'm not sure how much legs this will have - and even the sport itself leads to repetition. But all I can say for now is that's it's enjoyable to a certain extent. I don't regret buying it (price is a probably $10 too much for what it is) but I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone else buy it, unless they are an indoor volleyball enthusiast because this is the first time since the genesis I can remember a game dedicated to the sport.
I'll see if I can create a video at some point, but I'll likely be too busy to do it, if there is a window though I'll do it and link it back in this thread.
Cheers - any q's I'll try to answer but it's a pretty straight forward experience.