2XKO Impressions — Friendly to casuals?

A fighting game that even I can play?

I’m very careful about my wording. That’s why I’m calling this an “Impressions” article. Not a proper review. Why? The biggest reason is that I’m not an expert with this game genre. I’ve only played Mortal Kombat 9 as a kid. And recently finished the story modes of Injustice: Gods Among Us and Injustice 2. Then proceeded to get my butt kicked in a few online matches. So… you see… I’m not good at fighting games haha. With that being said, I’m a curious fella. I jumped at the opportunity to try the Closed Beta for 2XKO when a buddy said they have a few invites. Now I’m here to tell you how I felt about it as someone who doesn’t dream about combos, throws, and cancels when they close their eyes.

I’ve played about 15 hours of the Closed Beta at the moment I’m writing this. And that happened across 3 days. You could say they got me more than intrigued. They got me hooked (in the liver). But I do expect that to change. I’ll tell you why a bit later.

The first thing that caught my attention was the simplicity of the control scheme. For reference, I’ve been using an Xbox controller. And it’s surprising how simple it is to execute combos. To transition into special attacks. To perform aerial combat and even block while airborne. It simply fulfilled my dream of being able to execute cool moves without needing the muscle memory of a trained fighting games pro. I’d say this is **Riot Games*’s strongest accomplishment with this title: managing to create an enjoyable experience for those who just want to have fun. 2XKO* relies on spectacle to draw people’s attention. The same spectacle keeps them hooked. It certainly worked for me.

Going back to the control scheme itself, you can perform sweet combos just by pressing the buttons for Light, Medium, or Heavy attacks in quick succession. You can even combine them in a way that’s easy to perform. For example, Ahri can execute a devastating combo by pressing Light-Light-Light-Heavy-Heavy-Heavy. But that’s not where things stop. 2XKO introduces something called “Pulse Combos”. Simply put, they allow you to transition from a combo to using one of your two Supers or Ultimate with ease. You’d normally have to press the trigger and attack button associated with them. Or the two triggers for the Ultimate. But if you simply press Medium at the end of a combo, the most suitable Super for the situation will be performed. Which might not mean a lot for those used to complicated combos. But for someone as inexperienced as me, it means the world not having to wrangle my fingers in an attempt to execute a flawless transition. For characters like Ahri, pressing Heavy at the end of one of her combos can also result in an Ultimate.

In addition to Dashes, which are usually performed with two forward or backwards inputs, you can also run. Just hold the last movement input after a dash, and you’ll be sprinting in the direction you want. I’m not sure how useful this is from a competitive point of view. But it certainly deals with one of my problems in fighting games: awkward stare-downs as both fighters try to approach each other. In truth, 2XKO features quite a few attacks meant to close the gap for both melee and ranged fighters. It just feels refreshing to be able to close distances smoothly.

The rest of the elements should be pretty standard. Ability Bars that fill and allow you to use your Supers. Blocking by holding down for attacks above the waist, and down-backwards for low attacks. Grabs/Throws that can be used for both consistent damage and repositioning. As well as the ability to tech these throws. To tech a grab in this type of game means to cancel your opponent’s attempt at using it. You do that by pressing the same button combination that would throw your opponent. In this case, it’s Medium-Heavy. You can also push back opponents who get too comfortable being in your face after a successful block. Or you can Break from your opponent’s combo by using your Break bar. This is different from your ability bar, and it takes a lot to recharge. Even if I’m not an expert, I’d say to pick your Breaks carefully.

But that’s just the traditional part of a fighting game. We’re dealing with a 2v2 team-based fighting game. This means you can bring a buddy along. Or you can control and switch between the two characters yourself. And no, that’s not the only unique aspect. You can choose from a set of Fuses that decide how the two characters can work together. So far, we have:

• Double Down — You can use the Super of the benched character after you’ve used the one of the active character.

• Freestyle — You can switch to the benched character and back to the active one in quick succession.

• Sidekick — The benched character can’t be KO’d or switched to. But it has a few unique ways to support the active one.

• Juggernaut — You can only play as one or the other character — you make this choice at the start of each round. The benched one can’t do anything at all. The active one has more HP, hits harder, has the Ability Bar capacity of both, and can force the enemy to tag their benched character.

• 2X Assist — You can use two Assist attacks from your partner in quick succession.

I mostly toyed with the Juggernaut, since it was the easiest to understand and use for someone inexperienced like me. You can equally beat or get beaten by the other Fuse types in matches. But I would say it feels like a bit of a downside to only have one Escape instead of two (one for each character). I will play with the others more next week, when I’ll join a couple of friends for a few matches. I also played mostly as Vi, since she’s my favorite character from the roster. I have a kickboxing and Muay Thai background, so the choice was obvious. There are currently 9 playable champions. Vi, Jinx, and Blitzcrank are locked at the beginning. You either need Champion Tokens or in-game currency to purchase them. You get one Champion Token at the beginning. And it seems like you can get more as rewards.

Each character has their own challenges to complete. The more you complete, the more champion-specific rewards you get. These include items for your player avatar, stickers, titles, taunts, and a Chroma after unlocking the final tier. As you can see, you can purchase them all with in-game currency. There seems to be another currency that you can’t currently buy. So let’s see if Riot will transition into a Battlepass system or individual purchases. One way or another, there will be ways to throw money into this game.

If you were to ask me about character balance, I’m not sure what I could tell you. Based on my games, it feels like a rock-paper-scissors situation. Nothing is too overpowered. If you don’t have success with a character, you can switch and have success with another. It’s controlled chaos.

With that being said, you will get your butt kicked by people who know their stuff. I mentioned that this game is easy to pick up for non-experienced people. So you can only imagine when someone invested in fighting games gets their hands on it. I didn’t have to imagine it. I experienced it live haha. But I couldn’t get too mad either. I’m not proficient at these games, yet I still had a lot of fun even when I was brutally schooled. The game is too much of a spectacle not to enjoy. At least for now.

The game modes are very limited for the moment. You can play Casual games by going into a digital lobby. You can play against bots. You can train against the AI. Or you can challenge people to some couch co-op games if you wish. I like what they did with the interactive waiting lobby. It’s simple and gets the job done. You can sit down and wait for opponents to come and challenge you. You can make yourself available by searching for a match. Or you can watch other folks go at it. If you get close enough to any monitor, you’ll be able to watch their games on a small screen. You can also choose to expand it if you want to have a better look at the fight. Last but not least, you can go and challenge players directly.

On the art side, I have absolutely no complaints. It feels like I’m playing a comic book version of Arcane. I’m in love with it. The keyword that comes to my mind is “IMPACT”. This game knows how to convey a sense of weight and power when throwing a punch, slashing, grabbing etc. And it’s not only visual. I’m also talking about the sound effects, the voice acting, and the stage music. Not to mention the main menu theme is an absolute banger. I sat there listening to it for far more time than I want to admit.

Final Thoughts

No matter what the future holds for 2XKO, the folks at Riot deserve my praise for at least one thing: proving that you can create an accessible fighting game that doesn’t require the most complex inputs to play and feel good. But again, we’re talking about Riot. They usually know how to make games that draw the attention of quite a few people.

Other than that, the game is absolutely impressive even for this filthy casual. There seems to be no technical problem, except for a few lag issues here and there. And a couple of intro cutscenes getting their audio cut. We’re talking about a polished product from my point of view. The only thing that is missing is more content, like champions and customizations. I’ll be very interested in the monetization aspect.

I also have my doubts that I’ll keep up with this game. Yes, I mentioned how easy it is to pick up and play for everyone. But can you imagine how much of a field day experienced players will have when a game like this makes their life easier? I expect the fighting games audience to stick around with it. And I’m curious if the casual audience, myself included, will still be around in the long run.

These are my thoughts on 2XKO as a person who had some serious fun with it. Let me know how you feel about the game if you got into the Closed Beta. Especially if you’re way more experienced with fighting games.

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