Released in June 2016 I want to review the game right now, one year after its release.
It was buggy and incomplete in June/July 2016 but I could feel the potential.
As a former Kick Off 2 tournament player (until 2014) I was curious about how KOR will develop.
Well, from August 2016 on, patches made the game more an more playable and now, in June 2017 it became a real good game!
You will need weeks of training to get the controls under control and you will need months of training to have full control of your play.
But then it is very satisfying. The game does not deliver much content regarding leagues, tournaments, etc but I don't really miss it!
Multiplayer online shooters never get a bad review due to a tiny one player part, right?
KOR means to train vs CPU and play online or on your couch vs other human players.
You don't have players on the field with different stats, skills, tricks and scripted animations.
It is all about your own personal skill perfectly made for e sports competition :)
The ball bounces from your feet and can only be controlled when it touches your feet.
If you never played KO2, don't give up the first week or even first hour. It takes time to learn it.
If you did play KO2, remember how your play did look like the first day and then one year later.
If you still play KO2, compare your play from 1990 and today.
Isn't there a huge difference in your play?
Yes, and KOR needs the same time to learn. Younger players finding the souls series too tough should not try KOR ;)
I mentioned KO2, well KOR plays a bit different. You still need only one button to stop, pass an shoot.
You can add aftertouch AND you control your movement with an ANALOGUE stick.
Most players always push the stick full way and never get the full potential of the game.
Once you learned how far to push the stick in which situation, you will see that the game gives you much more possibilities than you thought.
I guess most of the former KO2 players who wrote a bad review never got even close to this point.
If you push the stick only half way thru, the player will run at half speed or pass with half power or shoot with half power.
If you keep the stick pushed after the ball gets kicked, it will roll low.
If you release the stick after the ball got kicked, the ball will go up in the air. As faster you release the stick, as higher it will go.
Together with the traditional aftertouch you can send the ball at any height to any distance with any swerve you like... pure physics. Well, at least if you did train every day for a half years time ;)
This is for retro and hard core gamers. Either you like it or you hate it but it is an excellent game!
The Vita version is quite similar and very playable, both version are cross buy.
This is my most played game on PS4 for the last 12 months and my most played game ever on this console.
"There are plenty of games out there that do not rely so much on skill building. Just as with KO2, KOR is about your own personal journey as you develop your skills. That is the whole point of the game." #AntiFOOTIX
Dino Dini's Kick Off Revival's merit is in putting the original Kick Off series under the spotlight again. Use an emulator and go for the real thing: a game like Goal! is far better than this poor and lazy new version.
Don't play this game unless you are willing to make an effort to learn its nuances.
As with the original series you need to learn how to play. It doesnt come with stabilizers like your first bike (or FIFA/PES)
Many reviews here are unfair as the users probably havent invested enough time to learn the controls or havent understood that the game is receiving regular updates and Dino Dini is streaming its development on Twitch just about every day/night. Many negative points raised here have already been addressed.
There is a growing community of players "kormunity" willing to help new players get to grip with the game.
It is not a Kick Off 2 remake and its rather pointless venting about that. It is a new game by a great game designer that is improving with every update.
My advice is to stick with it if you have it. Get the updates. Learn how to play.
Don't be put off by the reviews. It is a difficult but thoroughly rewarding game which is quite rare these days
It's a bit bare bones, and the graphics and sound are way too basic. I would recommend the developer works with a good designer to improve the visuals in particular. The stadium and crowd graphics are cringeworthy! It's more than a bit of a stretch to claim that this is all part of the 'retro revival' theme in this game.
Overall though it's a very solid game at its core and is very rewarding after you put the effort in to get over the steep learning curve, and I'm looking forward to playing this again and again as the playability is so high. But please, make it look better. Gameplay isn't *literally* everything.
First let me say im an old school gamer and kick off 1&2 are amongst my favourite games of all time. I was always dubious about this before release as i know remakes can be terrible at times.
New comers to the game will more than likely hate it. Its nothing like fifa and pes. Its old school, one button does all. Its fast and frenetic and no room for error. Think of it like the dark souls of football games. You need to sink plenty of time in to get some competent skills.
Ok now the bad. Dino himself said it was rushed out so at the moment game modes are restricted to practice, single player, euro cup and 1vs1 online.
The core gameplay itself needs some tweaks. The ai can be questionable at times and the game is also card free so some games can descend into foul fests with no repercussions. Corners and freekicks can be hard to do right as well and goalkeepers could be a touch better.
The game will have ongoing patches so expect improvements. It is barebones at the moment and the gameplay needs some refinement but im enjoying it as the netplay connection is solid and its fun to play.
Those on the fence id advise you wait for patches. Those like me who want to relive it now warts n all dive in!
Let me try to bring some balance to this. This game is not a '0' and it is not '10'. It does, however, veer closer towards 'bad game' than it does 'good game.'
I have been playing soccer games for 30 years. Goal! made by Dino Dini, was one of my favourites. The graphics were basic, the content was sparse enough, but the gameplay was fantastic. A one button game that felt very natural. Very close to the real thing. I was really looking forward to this game, bought it on the day of release and would have preordered it had the option been available.
When you ignore all the valid complaints people have about Kick Off Revival, with regard to content, options, presentation etc., and look at the core of the game, the gameplay, you are left with something I can only describe as inherently broken and disappointing.
Let's look at an essential element of any football game. The ball. The physics of the ball, how it moves, and how characters interact with the ball are just plain wrong. The ball behaves more like a cross between a ping pong ball and a tennis ball than a football. When kicking the ball, I have seen, on occasion, the ball bounce up higher than when it was struck, like you would see a tennis ball behave when struck with top spin.
When you slide tackle you slide 15 yards, the strafe mechanism is awkward and I have also managed to score a header from 40-50 yards, close to the halfway line.
These things shouldn't happen in a football game.
I never had these problems with Goal! It wasn't a perfect sim, but it was more natural, more intuitive. That game was made over 20 years ago. It shouldn't be too hard to achieve these basics now.
This game is nowhere near finished. Most importantly, the gameplay is broken and full of glitches. But also, the lack of content, options and customization is quite shocking. It feels like a student's project.
This is a PS4 game. One of the factors that make games so good these days is the amount of polish and detail that goes into them. This is not a AAA game, but you just can't release a PS4 game in this state and expect it to be acceptable. Maybe Dino Dini needed more people around him to help him with this.
The saddest thing about the this games is that it feels like a cynical attempt to cash in on a brand name. Indie and Retro games are hot at the moment. They're trendy. Combine this with the brand name and Euro 16 and you've the perfect opportunity to cash in.
Dino Dini's handling of criticism and the game's reception is also regrettable. Criticism is squashed. All praise is celebrated. It makes me think the game will never come close to its potential.
Those who say it's a '0' are angry. Those who say it's a '10' are nostalgic, unrealistic and are comforting themselves, in my opinion.
It's a shame they didn't just wait until it was finished and focus on making a game that would stand the test of time and become a cult classic again. In it's current state it won't.
It's a '3' or '4' for me now. Hopefully they can get it up to a '6'. I would take gameplay improvements over content.
A broken, abandoned, buggy mess.
Hey Dini, next time you launch a video game "revival", procure to finish it, instead of discussing other studio's ethics on your idiotic streams.
And by the way, the so required controller, most of the times isn't even recognized by the game. So yeah... do not buy it, unless you're into these kinds of massive failures.
SummaryThree game modes: Practice, Single Game, European Cup; Online gaming: 1 vs 1 with random matchmaking, invites and leaderboards; Offline multiplayer: 1 vs 1; 24 European teams; Radar for full view of the pitch; Tactics (4-4-2, 4-2-4, 5-3-2, etc)