Road to Ballhalla Review
I played Road to Ballhalla and I like it a lot. Road to Ballhalla is an action game where you roll around as a ball and collect… dots or something, and try to ascend to Ballhalla because that’s pretty cool I guess. This has all the basic workings of a platformer like Mario except you don’t jump… MOST OF THE TIME. The controls are simple. You move with WASD or your controller stick and you can boost. That’s it. Ballhalla is a game that’s simple to understand from a control perspective so you can unpack more complex levels and mechanics more easily. Like the fact that taking damage while boosting instantly kills you. Being fast is obviously fun and more exciting but comes with a substantial risk.
Each level rates your success based on what percentage of the dots you’ve collected as well as the number of times you died. Doing both gets more and more complicated as you progress in the game as they add different mechanics for each set of levels starting with floor panels that burn you, key dots that unlock doors of sorts, lasers, and more. For the most part, Road to Ballhalla is pretty short but despite that, the levels continue to feel new for the duration because just when you start to feel comfortable, they find ways to flip things on you. If all you do is “main story” you can “complete” the game in just a few hours but if you’re feel like there wasn’t enough challenge, there are other goals to shoot for like perfecting each level or a speed running style mode where instead of focusing on finding everything, you just need to go as fast as possible. I really like how these are two separate modes which allow them to take out all the dots so you can focus entirely on getting through the level as fast as possible. Playing the game pre-release has a pretty limited leaderboard to compete with but in full release, the game could be a pretty competitive experience if that’s your thing.
The only other thing to really talk about in the game is the presentation which is spectacular. You do just play a ball collecting dots in rooms composed of boxes but the the vibrant visual elements really pop along with the subtle camera work to give certain moments more of an impact. The soundtrack does a great job of keeping the energy up especially in the later levels as things started to get harder and levels took longer to complete. It would be wrong to say that Ballhalla is a rhythm game but the levels are synced to the music so floor panels light up and laser fire on beat. Many of the mechanics can just be identified visually but you will definitely feel like you’re moving with a certain flow if you groove to the music in some way. And finally, I loved the text-based narrator that paints words onto the level to sometimes help you and sometimes be a dick. I personally found it fun and funny but I’m also the same person that would “help” my friend in this game, direct them to down a dead end path, and then laugh at them.
There’s not much to not like about Road to Ballhalla, honestly. It looks great, it sounds great, and I think it’s a lot of fun. Even if you only play the main game and don’t delve into the hidden parts of the game or try speed running levels, it feels very satisfying by the end of the game. I do with that the speed running mode could restart runs faster because if you’re going for a top 10 leader board time, a small mistake at any point in the run could mean a restart but there isn’t just a button to press to start over. Regardless, I very much enjoyed Road to Ballhalla and highly recommend it.
Road to Ballhalla was reviewed on PC with a code provided by the developer
