Description Outlaw Volleyball combines the fun gameplay of Virtua Tennis 2K2 with the outrageous humor of Outlaw Golf and South Park. The game is sand volleyball in 16 different environments featuring 16 characters, each of whom are available as teammates or opponents. Feel the action as you Spike or Die with fabulous babes and guys with attitude. Up to four people can compete as they dive, spike, jump and lob the ball for total victory. Play well and your team will gain momentum, play badly and so will your team. It's Hot Babes! Hot Spikes! Hot Sand! on your Xbox!
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Rating Reviewed by: Howser(Unregistered User)
Review Date September 4, 2003
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Visitors rate this review 5.00 of 5,
1 votes
Review NaN of 9
Price Paid:
$40.00
Summary: I was hesitant when it came to buying this game initially. The other volleyball games really weren't all they were cracked up to be. I was told that this was a pretty decent game and saw some reviews that said it was fun also so i decided to give it a shot. I was sure glad I decided to buy this game because it is a lot of fun. Sure there are all the things that the other volleyball games have, like lots of half naked girls with many different swimsuits available and many sexual references, etc. Don't get me wrong they are very good things to have in a game, but take all that away and you still have a really good and fun game to play.
Summary: Three previous attempts at volleyball on the current batch of consoles have all left a sour taste in terms of gameplay. Sure some of the pixilated babes looked great but that can only hold up for so long when simply batting a ball back and forth and back and forth over a net. Hypnotix and Simon and Shuster Interactive have teamed up to offer the fourth entry, an Xbox exclusive, as the second release of the pleasantly surprising ‘Outlaw’ series. Toss together 16 characters, SSX-style unlocking system, Live play, taunting/fighting, and a slightly better than average game engine and this bad boy leaves those other three buried in the sand.
Live To date, Live games supporting 1 Xbox allowing 2 players to play simultaneously have been far outnumbered by one player experiences. MechAssault was the only solid example until now. Because beach volleyball is a 2 on 2 game, this lends itself perfectly to a match between a pair of friends in two rooms clear across the country from one another.
The frame rate holds up steady on Live and honestly feels no different than playing against the CPU. The fighting, taunting and other crazy nuances are perfect when combined with the headset. The only knock against Live harkens back to the gameplay. Because of the limited physics, points can drag on for an eternity making short games unheard of unless one of the players truly stinks. I guess if the person on the other end is a good conversationalist that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Modes are as expected with the ability to craft and host a game or jump into a public game. A leader-board is available and downloadable content should arrive sometime in the near future.
Suggestions Let’s improve those physics. I want to see balls flying out of bounds and 10 minutes volleys a thing of the past. The fighting could be a little more complex and the tokens feel like they need more use, just like in Outlaw Golf. Finally throw in more detail in the sand and the courts and I’ll be a happy camper.
Conclusion It may not be perfect but Outlaw Volleyball raises the bar above all previous volleyball games in terms of gameplay and replay value. With the Live component thrown in, it outperforms Outlaw Golf and sets the standard for both Outlaw and volleyball games going forward. I recommend Live players and SSX fans add this one to their collection but don’t expect Summer’s top to come flying off during a brawl.
Summary: The best Volleyball action since NES Kings of the Beach. I play many many games and this one is one of few that has hooked me in the year 2003.
Summary: I'm going to make this short and sweet: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME FOR THE SINGLE PLAYER. If you intend to use it on LIVE or for a lot of multiplayer action at home, then it can be a very fun game. However, the single player experience is truly dreadful, which is a darn shame, really. The single player experience in OVB lives up to the tradition of sports games: it's the weakest part of it by far. I expected arcadey-style volleyball action, especially given the Outlaw style, but it's too much so. Way too much. The rallies last FOREVER. Even the so-called super spikes get returned with ease (do they even do anything except look different? Not that I can tell) and I've had rallies back and forth last several MINUTES, which is beyond lame. The sheer number of times where I've spiked into the rear corner only to see the CPU player dive, pop it up, then the other CPU player run the length of the court to pop it up again, and then the original player get up and smack it PERFECTLY into the far corner of my court staggers me. It shouldn't happen more than once every ten games. Instead, it happens ten times every game, sometimes several times on the same rally. The charm of Outlaw Golf was that despite its "extreme" trappings, it was a good golf sim. Outlaw Volleyball cannot make this claim; this is solely arcade action and there is zero strategy involved. Being in the right position and hitting hard to the corners rarely pays off as the computer will know where the ball is going before it's hit and make "miraculous" dig after miraculous dig. Yawn. Would it have killed them to put a *little* realism into this game? Apparently so. To me, this is a shame. This game is only worth having if you intend to play a lot of multiplayer or have no idea or care about what volleyball should be like. The controls are generally nice and intuitive, but the ridiculous extremes they went to to ensure that rallies last forever is just stupid. Maybe OVB 2 won't be as weak in the game design. Basically, you NEED to play in multiplayer, as humans will actually make mistakes and not get to every spike. [Note: I'm speaking only of Tour mode. On pick up and play games, the AI is so incompetent, they rarely manage to get the ball over the net consistently, so that's worthless to play as well]
Summary: Overall, an enjoyable (fun) volleyball game. I know some people will say that they enjoyed DOAXV, but this is a better title when it comes down to actually playing volleyball. The characters are crazy, off-the-wall and even funny. Three different play modes and additional training drills similar to Virtua Tennis.
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