Developer: Sudden Event Studios
Publisher: Whitethorn Digital
Platform: Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tested on: Switch
Bombfest – Review
At the end of January 2019, the developers at Sudden Event Studios released a new local multiplayer party game called ‘Bombfest’. Now, you finally have the chance to throw bombs at your friends and literally make them get blown away from the platform in order to prove yourself to be the best bomber. With the idea of releasing a game that is only playable in local multiplayer and not online, the developers took a risk. If you are curious what else Bombfest has to offer and if it will blow your mind, start reading quickly.
Story
Bombfest isn’t your basic game with a nice story to play through or lovely gameplay. No, the game is about bombing; bombing your friends until they are gone. And let’s be honest, to do so, you don’t always need a good story, and so we can say that the developers made the right decision by leaving a story out of the game. If they had added one, it would probably have made everything much more difficult to follow, and it would take away the focus of the game away. But more about that later in this review.
Graphics
The game uses 3D-graphics but in a very simple and sketchy style. Everything you see in the game is really simply designed. For example, everything looks square or round and it almost provides the feeling that the game is made only out of standard figures.
They could have really improved this part about the game, especially for the price you have to pay for it. You will get the feeling that they had to make the game really fast and didn’t really take the time to design it properly. However, you can easily tell what is what in-game so here the developers managed to do something well graphically.
Sound
The music that you will hear while playing has a happy tone, and while at first it sounds lovely, after about ten minutes of constantly hearing the same rhythm over and over again, it can get really frustrating and you might want to turn the sound off.
Besides the music you hear while playing, there will also be the sound of exploding bombs. It’s a nice way to take the focus away from the background music but it doesn’t really help with it getting on your nerves. The sounds are always the same and constantly there. And just like with the graphics, the price you pay to play Bombfest isn’t worth it when you look at the sound aspect of the game.
Gameplay
Bombfest is a party game in which it’s you goal to take on your friends in local multiplayer. The core idea behind the game is that you play with three friends and you will have to throw bombs at each other to blow them off the map you are playing on. The last one standing gets a couple of points and after a certain amount of rounds (which you can decide yourself), the one who has gathered the most points wins the game.
So as mentioned before, you will have to play the game alone with AIs or in local multiplayer mode with friends. There isn’t an option to play online or a story, which means you’ll have to resort to playing locally. Once you start a game, you’ll first find yourself in a practice area where the controls are explained and you can warm up a bit. Once you are ready to go, you can move through a door and the actual game will start.
When the first round starts, you and your friends or AI opponents will find yourselves on a small platform with a certain theme.These themes vary from example to standing on top of a birthday cake to finding yourself in a kitchen sink. On this platform you will also find certain obstacles like four small sheds to hide behind. When objects get hit by a bomb, they fall apart. When the round starts, it is your goal to pick up a bomb, throw it at your friends and try to blow them off the platform. When the bombs are thrown, new bombs will spawn constantly so you can keep throwing them. First they are regular bombs that just explode but when you have played a few matches you will also unlock different kind of bombs such as sticky bombs. These will stick to another player.
After you or one of your friends gets blown off the platform, they will respawn as a bomb themselves and they can try to blow the remaining players off the platform by detonating themselves. When three players are off the platform, the round is over and you will move on to the second round where you will have to do the exact same thing. The time to finish one round is usually somewhere around 30 seconds, if not shorter.
So now you know what to do, let’s have a look at the platforms you play on. There are twelve different platforms, all with different themes and obstacles, such as a bedroom, garden, dining room or a study. The downside of the platforms is that they are designed really small, and there is a bigger chance that you will die by falling off the platform accidentally then that you get blown off one.
As for the rounds, you can customly set up how long you want a game to be. You can choose between one or ten rounds, and you can even select which maps you want to play during these rounds.
When you take a look at the whole gameplay, the idea behind the game is a fun one, but the fact that you pay a high price for a game that is only playable in local multiplayer and doesn’t feel finished, takes the joy away quickly.
Conclusion
Like mentioned before, the game feels far from finished in every aspect. You quickly get a feeling that they had to develop the game in a short amount of time. The fact that you can only play in local multiplayer doesn’t help either. After playing the game for a few rounds, it can get really repetitive or just plain boring. All in all, we can say the developers blew themselves up with this game.
Bombfest - Review,
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