Game:

Pure Pool (2014)

Category:

Review

Duration: 4:03

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Pure Pool is an attempt by VooFoo Studios to create a realistic and authentic video game version of Pool. So if you don't like hanging around dens of sin, also called bars, you can experience the fine game of pool right in your own home for cheap and without taking up an entire rooms worth of space.
The gameplay is exactly what you might expect. You line up shots with yellow and white line assistance estimating the movement of the balls. Once you've sufficiently aimed, you pull back on the analogue sticks, and then push forward to simulate hitting a ball with a cue. The amount of power you put into shots correlates to the speed in which you pull and push on the sticks. For more advanced aiming, you can apply spin. If you've playe dany pool minigame in anyother video game, you've seen this before. It has one major flaw though. The aim lines fade after a small distance and become inaccurate when hitting balls in certain ways. You also cant get a wider look at the table without losing your aim. These are likely attempts at realism, but its more annoying than anything. It would have been nice to have some Forza Motersport level of options to fine tune how realistic you want your Pure Pool experience to be. Unfortunantly, it is not so.
So, what does Pure Pool offer that throw-away side content in a Grand Theft Auto game cant? Well, for starters, the game offers a few alternative game types if regular ol' 8-Ball isn't doing it for ya. You can enjoy 9-Ball, Killer, Blackball, and accumulator as well as a list of interesting challanges. If you dont know what those are, there is a help tab which explains the rules as well as provides a small glossary of Pool terms for those who never had the privilege of learning the game.
You can play these variants, and regular pool, online with friends, hypothetically. If not, there is matchmaking where you can play with random outstanding citizens from across the world! Online functions fairly well, Ive encountered very few occurances of lag, if any at all. Pool being an asynchronous game, I imagine it would be hard to tell even if it were happening.
With the games asynchronous nature in mind, you might have expected local multiplayer. This makes it very disappointing that there is none to speak of. None that Andars infinite sight can see.
But maybe you hate humans? I know I do. For us superior beings, you can play through a career mode against very competent A.I. opponents on the easy difficulty, and devious mastermind spawns of Lucifer on the hard difficulty. There are US 8-Ball and 9-Ball championships, with the variant modes acting almost like side quests. To progress through the various tournaments, you must perform well and a earn a certain amount of stars. Basically, its Super Mario 64 ... but with Pool.
Throughout all of this gameplay, you'll get to look at some very nice photo-realistic graphics. Its truly amazing until you remember that the power of next gen systems is being used to render a table and some spheres. The soundtrack is calming and smooth, which is exactly what I would think a Pool video game soundtrack would be.
Those words seem to apply to the entire game. Pure Pool is exactly what you would expect out of it. Its the game of pool, rendered beautifully, and with a few extras. The mentioned issues concerning aiming are problems, but aren't big enough to ruin the experience completely. The only major flaw it has is its lack of local multiplayer. If you don't mind that and are itching to play some virtual pool, Pure Pool is a pretty good choice.

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