Pure Pool Review

Time to polish your balls and start knocking them together. Pure pool is a fantastic photorealistic brand new pool game. It is developed by a small independent games studio called VooFoo studios based in Birmingham, UK. This is not the first time they have attempted a pool game. Way back in December 2009 they released Hustle Kings. This was a great game that I reviewed a while ago for the PlayStation Vita. We are not here to talk about their old game though; we are here to talk about their newest release Pure Pool on the Xbox One. Its look shiny and gorgeous, so let’s see how it plays.

Pure pool promises to be one of the best pool simulation games around. I was very excited when I heard about this game. Especially after playing Hustle Kings on my VITA. The screen shots looked great, so I was eager to snap it up and knock my balls around. Pure pool features four game modes including the classic American 8 Ball pool and Killer. You will notice there are no trick shots of snooker modes to be found.

This game is purely pool and although at first I thought I would have like a trick shot mode. I soon realized there is a reason, VooFoo studios have spent all their time and effort creating what I think is the best pool game I have ever played. The whole look of the game is amazing. The balls are nice and shiny and the sound effects as they knock around the table are really good. The whole mechanics to the game do a really good job at imitating its real life counterpart. It feels really realistic and if it went for the fact I was sitting staring at my TV, I would have thought I was in a pool hall. I can’t describe the look and feel of this game well enough you really need to try it for yourself to get what I am trying to explain. There are some great effects as well’ for example when you get to attempting to pot the black, you get a cool slow motion animation of potting the ball when you make a successful pot. It’s a small feature, but I love it. It’s very satisfying especially after a hard match.

As far as the actual single player goes you have the usual feature, where you have to beat some CPU players. This gets harder and harder as you progress through the tournament. One innovative feature that I find pretty cool is the game also tracks your play style. It constantly tracks and monitors things like how long it takes for you to take your shot, how often you pot balls in quick succession and so on. This creates what they call a ‘DNA Profile’. This then means that if you want to play your friend, but he is not online at the moment. You get to play a virtual version that uses their DNA Profile to mimic their skills. This really is something pretty unique.

It adds to the enjoyment when your friend logs on and notices you have beaten him and you are climbing the ranks. Your skill levels increase as you play both online and single player games. You rank up as you go, which is nothing new but is pretty satisfying knowing you are getting better and better. One thing I did find a bit odd though was that when you start a tournament in single player you are often matched up against CPU players that are sometimes as high as ten ranks higher than you. At first you think to yourself there’s no chance, but you will find yourself beating the CPU pretty often.

I am not saying the single player tournament is easy. I am just saying don’t get too scared to face off against a higher rank. I do like the fact that unlike many pool games in the past. The CPU does make mistakes. I have found so often in pool games that the CPU hardly ever makes mistakes. Well in Pure Pool this is not eth case. The CPU will make mistakes, which really adds to the realism.

There are hardly any bad points at all that I can say about Pure Pool. VooFoo studios have made in my opinion a fantastic game. It’s such a pleasure to play after playing so many badly made pool games. All I can say to all the pool lovers out there looking for something different is run out and buy this now. It’s really good fun for such a low price.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Microsoft Xbox One code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.