What do you get when you combine the over-the-top personalities of Outlaw Golf with some scintillating 3D skin and hardcore volleyball action? You get Simon & Schuster Interactive's first foray into the world of extreme beach sports- Outlaw Volleyball for the Xbox. S&SI's latest game in the "Outlaw" range of extreme hardcore sports games puts players in control of a number of male and female characters with too much attitude and an ample amount of skin and skill on the volleyball court for an interesting and fun arcade style of gameplay that mirrors what the first game did for the game of golf. While the real hook for the game is the smart ass attitude of each character and the sex appeal of the female characters decked out in as little clothing as possible, the game does offer some real gameplay - once you get beyond the wise cracks and skin (which aren't neccarily bad things) you'll find that Outlaw Volleyball is a pretty solid arcade volleyball experience.
Outlaw Volleyball's key selling point is it's over-the-top comedy and characters. The Daily Show's Steve Carrel lends his unique comedic style to the game, and the characters are your stereotypical mix of white rappers, dumb blondes, hardcore bikers, Latin heartthrobs and a woman from Brooklyn that sounds a little too much like Fran Dresher. Thankfully all of the multimedia content - sound bytes, video clips, etc, can be turned off. It may or may not grate on your nerves after awhile. The same can be said of Steve Carrels comedic one-liner commentary during matches - while it's pretty amusing, the limited number of lines makes it's overall tolerability a short story. You can turn all of it off if you don't like it, so it's not a big deal. The humor in the game is sophomoric boys' locker room fare but that isn't necessarily a detractor.
Gameplay is pretty straightforward and players can conceivably just pick up the controller and play without learning the advanced stuff, but as you progress through the more difficult parts of the game you'll realize that you'll have to learn the more advanced mechanics to succeed through various game modes like Tour Mode and Drill.
The game revolves around an oscillating power meter that is used for serving and spiking. By timing button pushes just right and using an aiming target players can serve or spike the ball with pinpoint accuracy. The tricky part of the game is mastering it. Using the Turbo meter players can dish out some pretty powerful shots, but they'll have to build up momentum - momentum is a determining factor in how fast your turbo meter fills back up. Scoring points and fighting are the best ways to build momentum.
So what does the game offer for play options? The game offers exhibition mode, which allows up to four players to set up a match with a number of configurations including scoring, the amount of points you'll needed to win, and a number of other options like special game features that make the game more exciting like Hot potato & Casino. Players start out with a choice of four players to choose from which they can choose to improve via drills (various challenges that test skills in certain aspects of the game (serving, spiking, bumping, and blocking) or they can simply unlock more powerful players by plowing through the game's various tournaments (five of them across 10 courts). The drills are essentially mini-games that focus on a particular skills in a unique way (like targeting creepy spectators or hitting targets) and mastering them can prove to be challenging but rewarding if you can pull them off. As you progress through the game's tour mode you'll unlock more drills. The drills are important if you want to build up a character to his or her full potential - and doing so will make it easier to compete in the really difficult challenges.
The game also offers a tutorial that explains how to play using a number of the over-the-top characters in the game, though it isn't at all interactive. Obviously it would have been better if the tutorial let you experiment more with various aspects of gameplay before you actually got into a match, but at least it's slightly entertaining.
Obviously the game does focus quite a bit on the characters, their skimpy attire and the curvaceous cuties that most male players will find "entertaining". But beyond the skin is an interesting feature that lets players do super shots and beat the snot out of the other team using "momentum" As players score points and win match sets the momentum meter grows allowing players to perform super powerful moves. During the course of multiple matches players can also gain points that allow them to go toe-to-toe against a single member of the other team. A good way to change the momentum of the match is to attack the other team's best player and steal their fire with a good old fashioned beating.
The fighting part of the game is pretty basic but it's an interesting addition to the game that can prove to be just the right thing to break up the monotony. In the fight mode you can do a number of kicks, punches and special moves, while avoiding strikes from opponents by blocking. If you took the time to build your character up using the drills, then you're attributes will give you an added advantage over your opponent - players with beefed-up power doing more damage, speedier characters are obviously faster at kicking and punching, etc.
One of Outlaw Volleyball's claims to fame is that it is the first volleyball game to support online play. The online play allows players to challenge real people to a variety of match types (including the stuff you unlocked in the single player tour mode) and gives you access to downloadable content - when it becomes available. While Xbox Live support is pretty cool for those folks that have it, you don't necessarily need it to enjoy the game, so if you don't have it that shouldn't be a key detractor in buying Outlaw Volleyball. Obviously playing against other players can be a lot of fun, but it's no deal-breaker either.
Overall Outlaw Volleyball is a pretty solid arcade volleyball experience with a plethora of fun characters and humor geared towards the male adolescent in us all. But once the humor gets old, turning it all off reveals that underneath it all is a pretty solid gaming experience. If you like arcade-style volleyball games then you'll get your money's worth with Outlaw Volleyball Live support certainly doesn't hurt the game and the humor is fun for the first few hours of gameplay.
