Rebound: Dodgeball Evolved Review

Rebound: Dodgeball Evolved is a fast paced, multiplayer sci-fi themed dodgeball game. We all know the 5 rules of dodgeball – dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. However, for this game it’s more dodge, dash, danger, dull and dodge.

The aim of the game is to pick up the balls around the map and throw them towards your opponent. You can customise the game to score points according to how many people you knock out, who the last man standing is or both combined, so being the last one alive doesn’t necessarily make you the winner. The longer you charge your throw the faster the ball will go. You can also try to dash into the ball to catch it rather than being hit, but that is easier said than done.

Jumping in on your own, you have a “training” mode which enables you to learn the game through a set of challenges for movement, catching and hitting targets. Getting gold is the main aim, but this requires dedicating some practice time.

In the main game, you go up against AI or other players, either online or local. Single player is just against your classic Easy, Medium or Hard AI, but it is the multiplayer against friends where this game excels. You start to find yourself getting very competitive.

With the ability to have free-for-all or team mode, you can either work together or just go all out. There are over 15 maps to pick from, offering great variety. You can alter the game mode using “Mutators”, which change up the rules. However, at times this can get confusing very quickly and there are far too many different options to pick from. You can create your own playlist of different game modes you wish to play or just pick one of the ready made default playlist options available. They all seem to be themed quiet well and will normally be your go-to choices.

The gameplay movement can take a while to get used to due to its very hectic nature. It will take a few games to get into the swing of things and with no controller layout guidance (unless you’ve done a bit of the training mode) you will have to figure the buttons out yourself.

With the instant kill you are sometimes left wondering how you died and waiting for the next round to begin. This was especially true with some of the crazy options, like Multi-Ball where three balls are thrown instead of one which are difficult to dodge, or Split Ball where the ball splits in two whenever bouncing off a wall.

The feature of having up to 5 lives makes it much more enjoyable, so at least if you die you can be spawned back in straight away and continue the fight. The audio fits the game during the fights but can at times be very quiet. The countdown before each game does get you ready for battle with its brilliant voiceover, it’s just a shame there isn’t more during the game to heighten the suspense.

Conclusion

The idea of this game is appealing, but the execution fell short and didn’t give enough to fall in love with. It feels like a game that you would play a couple of times before becoming bored and letting it gather digital dust at the bottom of the game pile. There’s no story, just basic single player and hectic multiplayer action, both of which become frustrating pretty quickly.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox One. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version.