Reviews

• realPhali

  Oct 7, 2021

  Unstable as all hell, but better than the options. I can only recommend this as a sort of "get-it-on-sale" kinda game, because it not even remotely worth the full asking price. The graphics are nice tho.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 1, 2014

  I'll be basing my experiences so far on 100 or so hours with Virtual Pool 4, & VooFoo's previous pool title, Hustle Kings. Keep in mind that some of my issues might have been addressed by the time you've read this review, but I'll try to keep it as current as possible. Positives: Very clean visually. Probably the best looking pool title on the market. Plenty of table customization. Logos/patterns are easily turned off, and there's several colours of cloth available. The cloth feels closer to the real thing than any other pool sim I've played. I can actually see/feel the backspin grip into it. Plenty of content to keep you going, especially at the price point. Fair £/€/$ conversion rate. Negatives: I feel the game lacks a bit of cue power. It would be nice to be able to really nail a ball. The AI can sometimes take too long with each shot, with a weird faux aiming "effect" that just eats up time. Inverted controls for adding English to the ball/moving the ball - Not a settings issue. Sometimes, the game just doesn't seem to want to accept inputs, especially when wanting to add English to the ball. Mouse & Keyboard controls are pretty poor. Minor graphical issues. 9 ball rules are incomplete (no push-out, 3 fouls, etc). Overall, I'd recommend it. It will be a very good game once the few little issues it has are ironed out, but right now, just treat it like an unpolished gem - The core is there, and it's very, very good.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 1, 2014

  Visuals - 10/10 Best looking table top game I have come across to date Physics - 10/10 More fine tuned and realistic compared to Pool Nation Audio - 10/10 Ive found out I like smooth jazz more than I ever imagined As its stands the game has a lot going for, but like most games these days it needs some work. Camera angles are funky at times, running in full screen on 1080p seems to crash the game (for me at least) I had to launch windowed at 720p then alt+enter to get into full screen. A lot of peole are having network issues, as am I. There is customization, as of now it doesnt seem as exstensive as Pool Nation but this game has a lot that game didnt. So I recomment the game to the fans of great pool games, just letting it be known at this time it has its issues... but so did Pool Nation on its release.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 1, 2014

  I've been an avid pool player in real life for over 20 years and after seeing the screen shots and trailer for Pure Pool I was really looking forward to it coming out. I was not disappointed. Pure Pool will no doubt draw many comparisons with the other pool game on Steam, Pool Nation. I've played a ton of Pool Nation and I think Pool Nation looked cool but was very arcade when you got right down to it. The crazy swerve shots and jumps you could do and were REQUIRED to do for certain challenges were fun but no where near realistic. Pure Pool is much more grounded in real life. Your view is locked to what you would see if you were aiming a shot on a real table, aside from the aiming lines of course. There is no overhead view or birds-eye view of the table. You can "Stand Up" from your aiming view and walk around the table and move the view about as high as I could go if I was on my tip-toes over the table but that's it. It feels very real and makes aiming a shot much more difficult. Long shots the length of the table take skill just like in real pool. From what I've played of Pure Pool and I'm loving it so far. My only criticism of the game is that it has clearly been designed with a controller in mind. I would highly recommend this game be played with a 360 pad as the keyboard controls are not awful but slightly sluggish when compared to the responsiveness you get with a pad. I like that the game has strived for realism though. The way you move around the table as you would in real life and your view being is limited, no overhead view, only being able go as high as you could on your tip-toes to survey the table. It really does feel like real pool. Like I said, I love it. I'd highly recommend this game. One of the best pool games I've played since the days of Virtual Pool 3. This game is as close to real life pool as I think you will get without buying your own table for the back room.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 1, 2014

  This is a really fun game that oozes quality in every aspect and imo the best pool game that is currently available on Steam. It also has a strong focus on online multiplayer and it's quick and easy to find a game against someone. [EDIT: Online is pretty dead at the moment, so beware of that before buying] It has FANTASTIC graphics, easily the best out of any pool game I've ever seen. The depth of field effect in particular is excellent and very visually pleasing. There's real time ball reflections and incredibly detailed textures so much so I swear you can almost feel and smell that fresh pool table cloth ahhhh. The sound is solid with a good meaty smack when the balls hit each other. There's quite a nice jazz soundtrack with a subtle but convincing crowd ambience and along with the great visuals and lack of UI creates a really engaging atmosphere. Physics seem good. The balls always behave as I would expect them too. They seem to have a solid realistic weight to them and I haven't noticed any weird quirks. I have on occasion made a ball bounce off the table from whacking it with full force which is to be expected and it is good to see it simulated, rather than having the balls arbitrarily stuck to the table. But don't get me wrong there's no weird floaty aracade physics. The controls may feel odd at first but with practice it feels intuitive. It supports both controller and mouse and keyboard, although many people have expressed that the mouse and keyboard controls are clunky and awkward to use. I personally use the controller in which you hold the right thumbstick down to distance your cue and slam it forward to hit the ball. It feels very satisfying once you nail it and I think this is about the closest a game has captured what it's really like to hold a cue and hit the ball; there's no arbitary power bar here. Be warned that there's no overheard view however, it's strictly first person view which I don't mind personally as it feels closer to playing real pool. Perhaps it's not as in-depth or as realistic as something like Virtual Pool 4, but it is very fun and my personal favourite pool game yet. It is hands down the most immersive pool game out there. My only real complaint is there's no Snooker, but hopefully that's coming in a future DLC.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 3, 2014

  Is this a game with the same physics as virtual pool 3d sadly no. The thing about the physics when you drop to the bottom of the ball to have back spin and do a power shot it should spin back hard but never does. It lacks many things that virtual pool 3d got right like the spin shots around opponents balls. Is it fun Yes! The game needs a patch badly the field of view is lacking a lot and thus far I haven't seen a table with the diamonds to help give reference to bank shots that would greatly improve the game. My biggest complaint is Mantis App Crashed. Please attach a debugger. and we're not given anything more than that to work on why this game crashes. And it crashes a lot, specially when you are about to win a match then black screen then crash report. So you lost all of your advancements. Lowering settings helps but doesn't fix. I have an Intel 960 with 24 gigs of ram and Nvidia 650 with 2gigs of ddr5 ram so I more than have a rig that can run this at max settings. Now the good points, It looks really nice all the table options and felts lets you take charge of how you want to view the game. The aim has a nice angle pointer to show you when you have your shot lined up. The music is nice and not distracting. The amount of swing you put into the cue is great. I do recommend the game cause even with its faults it's a pleasure to play.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 19, 2014

  While the game mechanics itself are good, there are way too many negative aspects to this game to actually recommend it. In other reviews you can read all about the great graphics, nice music, good physics. However, most reviewers fail to name the negatives, of which there are plenty. Let me name just a few points which will frustrate you every time you encounter them. -The menus are extremely wonky. It sometimes takes the game well over 5 seconds to do what you told it to do, which may be as simple as restarting a gamemode you just played. Sometimes the menus don't even work and you just keep pressing Enter without anything happening (this happens a lot when you attempt to enter a multiplayer game, the menu switches between "Quick Match" and the game mode selection screen). -There is no fullscreen. If you try to play full screen the game crashes on start up. Using Alt + Enter you can get to fullscreen, but only up to 1280x720. -You can't turn off the sound while ingame. You can turn down the sliders, but there will still be really soft sound in the background. To enable or disable sound you have to restart the game. This game feels (and probably is) a very, very poor console port. The gameplay is solid and you will probably enjoy it, but the menus and especially the lack of full-screen is extremely frustrating. How they thought this was an acceptable product for sale is beyond me, because there are lots of probably easy to fix issues.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 28, 2014

  I've played this quite a lot. It's a good pool game with problems. Mainly unreliable online play, frequent crashes (although not for everyone) and poor mouse controls. I recommend using a controller. I wrote this review in August. Since then, nothing has changed. It still has many annoying problems. The developers don't provide any info on when things will be fixed or even if they're making any progess. They didn't even seem aware of their own game's problems. Multiplayer: Finding a match is currently difficult. There isn't a lobby to speak of. Instead, you challenge another player and wait for them to accept or ignore. There's a Quick Match option but I've never found a game this way. If you get into a game, it might play fine. More likely, you'll experience one of the many possible bugs or server issues. You can't mute mics. There is no in-game chat. Presentation: The actual pool is very pretty. The best I've seen. The UI is not. It could be improved a lot. Audio: Personally, I don't like the music but some people really do. I turn it off. The pool sounds are fine. No complaints there. Gameplay: When it works, it plays great, for the most part. Sometimes you can't see a shot as well as you would like but it's mostly fine. There's a career mode which is just ok. It's just a bunch of different game types against various AI. The AI isn't great. It pretends to be human so it can be slow. It also can't do bank shots, doubles or plants. It can get out of almost any snooker and doesn't play tactically at all. It just makes amazing pots but it's very beatable most of the time. You can play US 8-ball, 9-ball, UK 8-ball and a few others like killer and various potting/speed challenges. So, it needs work. If it was an early access game, I'd say it's a great alpha, a decent beta. Released too early. The devs don't say a lot so I'm just hoping they'll get this game up to a decent standard.
• britishsas22

  Jul 16, 2022

  I like the graphics and the game play however, I'm fuming at this game. How can you release a product when the controls only work when they feel like? I go to adjust the spin/fine tune and it hardly works. What the hell? For this you're having the lowest rating. Robbery.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 3, 2022

  shit server