Knockout City is one of the best team-based PvP games to come out in years. It's a fresh take on the American schoolyard staple that proves that lowering the mechanical bar for entry doesn’t have to come at the cost of deep tactical gameplay. Every match has the potential to be a dynamic “combat” experience that even the most hard-boiled shooter fan can appreciate, all thanks to the clever balance between throws and catches, exciting special balls, and well-designed maps to brawl through.

Clever and unique dodgeball battles make this an easy pick, especially during the free trial.

With air-dashes, balletic pirouettes and the ability to curl yourself into a ball for a teammate to hurl, this is a long throw from the official sport that hopes, one day, to enter the Olympics. Games are just as taut and competitive, however, with lots of scope for showboating. No competitive online game in 2021 can be merely a competitive online game, however, and, like Fortnite et al, Knockout City has an entire superstructure of unlockable items and progress meters, with an eye to turning the game into an enduring entertainment platform. Whether or not it hits that elusive target, beneath the capitalist carapace this is wonderful game-making.

Knockout City, as it stands today, is a very entertaining online multiplayer game, easy to learn but not without its own complexities. Future growth is always fickle and hard to predict when it comes to online games, but Knockout City might be able to carve out its own niche.

While we may regret the screaming artistic direction and the game modes that lack craziness, we cannot deny that the core gameplay of Knockout City is really fun and well thought out. By putting aim aside in favor of feints and co-op, the title from Velan Games offers an exhilarating experience with real personality. Everything loses in clarity once in close combat, of course, but does not spoil the experience for all that. Knockout City is a highly recommendable experience.

Knockout City is the fun version of a dodgeball game that you can only play online. Despite the easy-to-learn gameplay, beginners may quickly lose interest thanks to difficult balancing.

On the right map with the right team, you’ll encounter some fantastic PVP moments. Though tonally it’s more miss than hit, Knockout City is at least worth trying out; but without much variety of content as of review, I'd wait until the game reaches its potential.