Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Pure Pool is a sports game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. It is most likely for gamers to have heard of Pure Pool’s developer and publisher as they are a perfect match with VooFoo Studios and Ripstone having previously worked together on Big Sky Infinity and Pure Chess, while VooFoo Studios have also developed Backgammon Blitz and had a previous foray into the world of pool with Hustle Kings.
Upon starting the game for the first time; the player is immediately taken to a tutorial to learn all of the basics of pool, which effectively plays out as a practice match against yourself and is therefore a positive design choice as you are able to have the most table time possible to practice all of the basics, such as following some tutorial instructions regarding how to aim and apply spin to the cue ball. When you return to the game after having completed the initial tutorial; you will also have the opportunity to continue to practice, which is another positive design choice as it allows you to become comfortable with everything in general before entering a competitive match, therefore providing a much more relaxed environment.
The My Games feature encompasses the Quick Game, My League, Free Play and Practice Offline game modes. The Quick Game mode allows you to play a frame of US 8-Ball, 9-Ball, Killer or Accumulator with the option of offering the same opponent another frame for you to claw your way back into the match after losing the first frame or to allow the A.I. opponent to step up their game after you have beaten them in the first frame, which is a positive design choice as it allows the match to run for as long as you wish to keep playing against the same opponent. The US 8-Ball and 9-Ball games are standard pool rules, while Killer puts pressure on you to pot as prolifically as possible as you will have a counter that decreases with each miss or foul as the player whose counter reaches zero first loses the game.
The Accumulator game takes an entirely different direction to the other types of games on offer as Accumulator sees the number representing each potted ball being added to your score, although you must pot the balls in order or you will commit a foul and hand possession back to your A.I. opponent with the player having collected the most points at the end of the game being the winner, although this does not necessarily mean you have to pot the majority of the balls on the table as just potting the balls that are higher valued in the amount of points they offer should be enough to come back from a losing position as is also the case if you or your opponent was to pot the incorrect ball as that would result in a large amount of points being awarded to the opposition. Meanwhile, My League is an online league; Free Play is much like the tutorial as it allows you to play against yourself to practice potting, positioning and techniques, but without as many instructions to guide you along the way; and Practice Offline allows you to play against an A.I. opponent of a random level of experience.
The Career game mode comprises of six categories including: Amateur US 8-Ball; Pro US 8-Ball; Master US 8-Ball; Amateur 9-Ball; Pro 9-Ball; and Master 9-Ball with each category containing five tournament schedules as even each tournament schedule involves multiple events usually consisting of at least six events per tournament schedule, which provides exceptional depth to the career element. Initially, the US 8-Ball and US 9-Ball events are the only two available events in the career game mode as you have to win the event and earning one star in the process to unlock the next event, however you also have to earn a maximum of three stars from achieving such accolades as winning the game, winning the game with no fouls, potting a ball from the break off shot, potting five balls in the corner pockets consecutively and potting a ball from a certain distance between the cue ball and object ball before you have an opportunity to earn the required amount of stars to unlock the next event within that particular tournament schedule with 12 stars required to unlock the second tournament schedule, 30 stars required to unlock the third tournament schedule, 51 stars required to unlock the next tournament schedule and 74 stars required to unlock the fifth tournament schedule, while unlocking the next category is achieved by winning all of the events from all of the tournament schedules.
The Career mode includes a variety of game types, such as US 8-Ball or 9-Ball, but then you also have different games, such as perfect potter, checkpoint, killer, speed pot and more besides, which is a positive design choice as it allows you to gain stars to unlock more events from a range of game types, rather than just playing against opponents; resulting in you playing against the clock or particular targets to succeed upon by consecutively potting a certain amount of balls to earn between one and three of the stars.
The challenges game mode comprises of four separate challenges including: speed pot, checkpoint, perfect potter and royal rumble. The speed pot challenge tasks you to pot the set amount of balls in the fastest possible time, while the checkpoint challenge sees you potting as many balls as possible before the timer expires, alongside the perfect potter challenge tasks you with potting as many balls consecutively as possible and the royal rumble challenge sees you attempting to clear the table as quickly as possible with the added twist of a new ball being periodically added to the table to increase the amount of balls to pot if you have not successfully cleared the table fast enough. The four challenges having their own individual twists, therefore the positive design choices provide a great deal of variation amongst the challenges, which pretty much separates them into their own game modes.
There are a total of 89 accolades that reward you with a badge upon completing the objective required to earn the accolade. Accolades widely range in their objectives with everything from an attacking style, such as potting 3, 5, 7 and 15 object balls in a row; winning a game using a bank shot; and potting 1, 2 and 3 balls from the break off shot to safety play, such as snookering your opponent; snookering an opponent 20, 50 and 100 times; successfully escaping a snooker; and successfully escaping 20, 50 and 100 snookers, amongst many more besides for both attacking and safety play. The accolades are an excellent design choice as they provide yet another layer to the game as you are rewarded with a badge for achieving the appropriate objectives and in doing so; the attainment of the standard for the particular objective is made to feel rather special for each and every accolade.
The DNA Profile feature is a standout and unique feature that genuinely differentiates Pure Pool from every other pool, snooker or billiards game available on any platform! The unique quality of the DNA Profile feature is that it allows you to download the DNA Profile of anyone who has played the game from the entire world to compete with as your single player opponent. The really clever part is that the DNA Profile contains the behaviour of each particular player, so if the player is ultimately aggressive with an attacking style that will see the player attempt to pot from anywhere on the table or an ultra defensive style to set snookers for the ball that you are required to pot and the actual likelihood of the attacking pot or defensive safety shot being successful, then that is precisely the type of opponent you will be encountering during the use of the DNA Profile feature, which effectively results in you having access to a seemingly endless supply of varying opponents, regardless of if you know anyone who owns the game or not.
The ball physics are realistic and behave as you would expect them to on a real pool table with multiple balls being lined up accurately via the appropriate angles and pace for plants, flicking off one ball onto another and all of the physics that you would expect to see from a real life game of pool.
XP and levelling up is an important part of the game as it unlocks content when you have attained enough XP to reach the appropriate level in order to unlock cues. You earn more XP for winning in comparison to when you lose a frame in any given game type or game mode, while you will also earn more XP for achieving accolades, such as potting multiple object balls consecutively, which is a great design choice as you feel genuinely rewarded on a game by game basis when you perform better than a quality you previously believed you did not possess to attain a greater standard.
There are two camera angles, which is from around halfway towards the front of the cue, while the other camera angle allows you to stand up away from the shot and swing the camera around the pool table to view your potential shot selections, which certainly makes for a more immersive experience. However, the lack of an aerial view to allow you to check out the angles of your shot is quite surprising as is the lack of replays, despite being two strong features in Pure Chess.
There is a great level of customisation including nine baize colours including: blue, red, slate, pink, green, orange, charcoal, aqua and yellow; while there are eight table skins ranging from Ripstone published and VooFoo Studios developed games, such as Big Sky Infinity, Pure Chess and Pure Pool, while Ripstone and VooFoo Studios each have their own table, alongside the choices of a plain table, a rainbow and a starscape table. There are a total of fourteen cues, although you start off with only the standard cue with the other thirteen cues available to unlock by progressively increasing your XP to attain new levels, such as reaching level 5 will unlock the novice cue and level 11 will unlock the apprentice cue, while you will have to battle hard to reach level 143 to unlock the pure cue with the cues providing an increased degree of balance and power which continues to increase with every new cue you unlock. However, the level of customisation falls in one area as there is only one pool hall and while the feeling of a thriving pool hall is exceptionally re-created; it is quite surprising to not have more pool halls that you progress onto until you have reached professional arenas with larger audiences there to witness your technical ability on a pool table as you would believe that to be the case within the lifetime of a pool player’s career as he or she ascends the world pool rankings and gains a legion of supporters.
There is downloadable content available for Pure Pool in the form of a free to download DNA Profile pack of the development team from VooFoo Studios, which allows you to challenge the personality of anyone you want to from the development team, therefore increasing your amount of single player opponents. In the future, it would be great to see snooker and billiards added to the game via downloadable content as VooFoo Studios previously added to Hustle Kings on PS3 and PlayStation Vita, while more DNA Profile packs from famous players from the world of pool, snooker and billiards to further increase the amount of single player opponents, alongside new table skins and cues to add an even greater depth to the already exceptional customisation.
Pure Pool supports the share feature that allows you to upload a video clip to Facebook or Twitter; upload a screen shot to Facebook or Twitter; and broadcast live gameplay footage via Twitch or Ustream as you are experiencing the game with a simple tap of the share button and selecting the option of your choice. The PS4’s hard-drive continuously stores your most recent fifteen minutes of gameplay footage, so you still have the chance to decide if you would like to share something amazing a few minutes after it has taken place. The share feature is a next-gen revolution that has only improved with the further customisation provided by the Share Factory app that allows commentary, music, themes, stickers, effects, text, picture-in-picture video between your game footage and your reaction from the PlayStation Camera and much more besides, which will only continue to prosper and flourish as it matures with additional features and further experimentation in the future.
Pure Pool supports the remote play feature that allows you to play almost any PS4 game on your PlayStation Vita via a Wi-Fi internet connection by pairing up the PS4 and Vita via configuring the settings on your PS4 to enable the Vita to connect to it, then entering the code provided from the settings menu on the Vita’s PS4 Link application with the initial setup taking around only two minutes. Pure Pool’s performance during remote play is amazing, particularly in regards to the graphics and audio as it performs exactly as you would expect the PS4 version to do so, while the remote play controls mirror the exact DualShock 4 control scheme to provide a natural feel for anyone who has already started playing the PS4 version via the DualShock 4 controller to allow you to continue potting pool balls as well as you have already become accustomed to doing so. There are certain intricate details that have been implemented to the remote play control scheme even to the point of the touch pad swiping of the DualShock 4 controller having been perfectly mapped to the touch screen of the Vita, so you can still look around for the purposes of alternative shot selections and observing your positioning for break building.
The control scheme is easy to master and well mapped to the DualShock 4, despite a number of gameplay mechanics for how you interact with the cue ball and object ball. The control scheme consists of holding X while changing the direction of the left analogue stick to finely adjust your aim for the object ball and how far high or low you are striking the cue ball; pressing triangle to pick up the cue ball, moving it via changing the direction of the left analogue stick and pressing triangle to place the cue ball anywhere else on the table following an opponent’s foul; holding O and changing the direction of the left analogue stick to apply spin to take the ball in your choice of direction top spin, back spin or adjusting the path of the ball to the left or right after making contact with any of the object balls or cushions; holding square to withdraw your cue from the table to stand up away from the shot and panning the camera angle around the table with the left analogue stick to get a higher view of the table or a view that is on level with the cue ball and object balls, so you can really get a sense of the appropriate shot selection and the required angle for your next shot; holding R1 during career mode to view the listing of accolades; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to re-adjust the angle for your next shot; drawing the right analogue stick back as gently or as quickly as the amount of power that you want to unleash in your next shot; pressing the share button takes you to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu.
The touch pad implementation allows you to pan your view from side to side and top to bottom to get right behind the shot or to have a quick glance around for an alternative shot selection or to perhaps even look towards the surrounding environment of the place you are playing pool in. The light bar implementation is synchronised to the baize colour you select from the customisation options available from the profile menu with the light bar colour immediately adjusting as soon as you have selected a new baize colour, which covers a great variety including: blue, red, slate, pink, green, orange, charcoal, aqua and yellow. Unfortunately, there is no vibration implementation on the DualShock 4 controller during any game mode, despite the potential for it vibrating immediately following a pot or most importantly of all; vibration being used sparingly to add yet another layer of tension to when you are attempting to pot the winning ball of a frame of pool to further accent the atmosphere of tournament match play.
VooFoo Studios are no stranger to developing graphically impressive games having also developed Hustle Kings, Backgammon Blitz and Pure Chess, while Pure Pool is certainly no exception to their rule of stunning life-like graphics. The surface of the pool table that the game is taking place on, the pool balls and even the surrounding environment around the pool table are all stunning to look at and have had a lot of attention to detail implemented, which have produced real elements of graphical flare unseen in any pool game before. The graphical detail ranges from the lights purposefully dimming in the pool hall upon the moment you have the opportunity to line up your potentially frame winning shot to entering a dramatic slow motion effect when the final ball of a frame is about to be potted, such as the black ball or in some cases even committing a foul by potting the incorrect ball with a splash of chalk flowing from the tip of the cue as the tip of the cue strikes the cue ball, while lighting and shadows reflects from each individual ball and the stitching on the surface of the pool tables is quite simply phenomenal!
The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main menu, my games menu, players menu, career menu, rankings menu, my profile menu, challenges menu, extras menu, help menu and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick and touch pad. The background of the main menu revolves around the pool hall you are playing in with your previously selected baize colour and table skin providing an opportunity for a practice match.
The audio consists of sound effects and music with the sound effects including background chatter from the spectators providing a warm ambience, while on table you will hear the cue ball making contact with the object ball and the object balls making contact with each other, balls bouncing off the cushions and balls being potted into the pockets of the pool table with a heart beat sound effect adding a layer of atmosphere to the scenario when you are attempting to pot the black ball. The music is predominantly jazz and essentially adds to the ambience as there will be applause when a song has finished as though it was actually being performed live within the pool hall, which is certainly a clever idea with the music playing regardless of whether you are practising or playing in a tournament.
However, the only negative in regards to the music is that Backgammon Blitz offered a selection of genres from classical, jazz, smooth and upbeat music as did Pure Chess with a range of classical, jazz, chill and nature music, while Pure Pool lacks a selection of musical genres, although the jazz music is rather appropriate for the surroundings and does make for easy listening that is in keeping for the pool hall vibe. There is no DualShock 4 speaker implementation, which is surprising as it could have produced the ambience, sound effects or jazz music.
The trophy list includes forty-five trophies with twenty-six bronze trophies, sixteen silver trophies, two gold trophies and one platinum trophy. The majority of the trophies you will earn naturally as you continue on playing and progressing through the various game modes with the easiest trophies including the Cue’d Up bronze trophy for completing the tutorial, the DNA Sample bronze trophy for downloading a players’ DNA Profile and the Challenge Accepted bronze trophy for playing all four different types of challenges.
The harder trophies includes winning each of the tournaments as they require skill to beat some of the opponents particularly during the 8-Ball and 9-Ball pro and master tournaments, while the Stars in Your Eyes silver trophy for earning 100 stars in career mode will also require skill to perform to the appropriate standards to earn them; the Accolade Century silver trophy for gaining 100 accolades of the same type; and The Ultimate Accolade gold trophy will both require plenty of skill through a certain level of consistency in your performance as will the 8-Ball Century and 9-Ball Century silver trophies as you will need to win 100 games of each. The hardest trophy will undoubtedly be the Pure Pool Grand Master gold trophy for levelling up your XP until you have reached level 126. There are technically seven online trophies as one of the many accolades requires you to win 100 online games, while there are three bronze trophies for completing a three, six and nine game winning streak, which can be boosted rather easily by playing 8-Ball pool were the opponent can just pot the black ball to immediately hand you the game, if you know someone in your friends list that has the game and another trophy that can be easily boosted is the In Different League bronze trophy for winning a league, although it can be a single game using the same method as the three winning streak bronze trophies. There are a couple of very easy online trophies, such as the Putting it Out There bronze trophy for issuing a challenge to a player’s profile without even having to play a frame and the League of Your Own bronze trophy for creating a pool league from the My Games menu, although you do not have to play the game as you will earn the bronze trophy immediately. It should be estimated depending upon skill, a boosting partner to help you out with some of the online trophies and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take around one hundred hours to platinum the trophy list.
There are three difficulty levels including: amateur, pro and master with the major difference between the amateur and master difficulty levels being the removal of the guidelines for the cue ball and object ball, alongside the removal of the guideline showing the direction of the cue ball in regards to were it is heading after it has struck the object ball; as they are all provided in the amateur difficulty, but only the reticule showing exactly were the cue ball will make contact with the object ball is presented as any form of aim assist in the master difficulty.
The local multiplayer allows the player to challenge a friend to a game of the competitive one-on-one game types including: US 8-Ball, 9-Ball, Killer or Accumulator. The local multiplayer performs exactly as the single player does and even allows you to pass the DualShock 4 controller in the scenario that you only have a single controller, although the second player is allowed to use their own controller if they have one or alternatively both players can use the remote play functionality, so there is certainly a great air of convenience provided by the local multiplayer, regardless of whether you have one DualShock 4, two of them or even no DualShock 4 controllers at all.
The online multiplayer is effectively the same as the local multiplayer, albeit on a much broader scale as it allows you to directly challenge any player who is online at that given moment to a game of US 8-Ball, 9-Ball, Killer or Accumulator or alternatively you can create a league and invite anyone into it, while other players can also invite you into their own league too. There is an element of convenience provided by a link to anyone who you have challenged, anyone who has challenged you and any leagues are added to the games list, so you can leave the challenge screen or invite screen of a player you have communicated with as you are awaiting their response to participate in any other area of the game.
The online leaderboards focuses on global rankings with the leaderboard containing each player’s nationality; name (PSN ID); rank; skill rating; alongside the overall amount of online games played, won and lost. The positioning of each player is based upon the skill rating score, which is a very clever way of deciding the positioning of players on the online leaderboards as it genuinely makes you want to improve your performance to be able to climb the leaderboards and there is no way of doing so without really being on top of your game. However, it would have added another layer of depth to the online leaderboards to actually have various filtering options to allow the player to display the positioning by the amount of online games played, won or lost for the world rankings. Meanwhile, there are also online leaderboards for each of the four challenges, which includes speed pot, checkpoint, perfect potter and royal rumble with each leaderboard containing each player’s nationality; name (PSN ID); rank; and the total amount of games played, while the speed pot and royal rumble leaderboards both feature the best times, alongside the checkpoint and perfect potter leaderboards which both feature the amount of balls potted with the positioning of each leaderboard based upon the best times or the amount of balls potted respectively, although they have the added filter of the three difficulty levels, which certainly excels all of the challenges online leaderboards.
The replayability of Pure Pool stems from many areas, such as three difficulty levels possessing their own levels of challenge based upon the diminishing range of aim assists as you step up through each difficulty level; local multiplayer, online multiplayer and competitive online leaderboards; alongside a plethora of accolades and game modes, a variety of challenges, XP and levelling up and customisation, which collectively will bring you back to playing the game quite often. However, the DNA Profile feature provides an effectively endless supply of single player opponents and therefore an infinite amount of replay value.
Overall, Pure Pool must be commended for its originality in the form of the DNA Profile feature as it is unquestionably the real star of the show as it is a truly unique feature that legitimately sets the game apart from anything else ever seen before in the pool, snooker or billiards genre; therefore if you are a fan of pool, then you absolutely must experience it, especially for the exceptional value of only £7.99!
Jason Bonnar
Analysis
- Title: Pure Pool
- Developer: VooFoo Studios
- Publisher: Ripstone
- System: PS4
- Format: PSN Download
- Cross-Buy: No
- Cross-Play: No
- Multiplayer: Yes (2 Players Local Multiplayer/2 Players Online Multiplayer/Online Leaderboards)
- Hard Drive Space Required: 610MB