Who doesn’t like a good freestyle basketball game that is Free, Multiplayer AND fun to play?? If you are one of them that like it, then Freestyle2: Street Basketball is the game for you! This is a game that requires skills with buttons and know-how of the gameplay. With it being free, we will take a look whether it’s worth your time.
(this review is written with excessive care to avoid any errors, however, there might still be some appearing due to human error)
Gameplay
Your avatar is played with just a few keys that you can customise. Most of them are the standard arrow keys for moving around in the three-dimensional half-court. There are buttons dedicated to shooting, which involves holding them till a bar appears and releases to shoot the ball. When you release the button at a certain ‘green area’, you will have a higher chance of shooting in. However, I have tried and verified that it actually also depends on your proximity to the net. For example, if you are nearer to the net, you don’t really need to hold till the green area to shoot in. Basically, use your instinct and logic to shoot.
The game is played in a half-court typical of freestyle basketball. It is based on a team of three that can comprise of your own friends or strangers. Within these three are comprised of various roles: Point Guard, Centre and one other role. To create a balanced team, it’s best for teammates different roles and skills. However, nothing is stopping you from experimenting with three centres or three point guards, who knows it could be the new meta :D.
Each role has a different set of skills other than the basic passing and dashing. The Centre possess the power to slam dunk while the point guard has a higher chance of stealing balls and shooting three-pointers. There will be more skills available to unlock as you keep playing and level up. In essence, I felt that this could prove difficult when you are a beginner suddenly facing off an experienced player with big differences in skills. Trust me, some of the better skills are quite over-powered(midcourt dunk, extreme trick shot etc), and you can only hope they screw up somehow. Though the chances of stealing the ball and slam dunk are still the same regardless of levels, thus you can focus on the basic and win the match slowly but surely.
The game will end after 10 minutes and whoever has the higher score wins the round. One fun part is for every shot you get in, you can taunt the enemies with a variety of actions. This makes you feel BADASS, but remember, the enemy team can do the same to you and become the LOSER.
Graphics/Music
The graphics are cell-shading type often seen in Borderlands series or some JRPG. The thick outlines and bright colours stand out in the otherwise bland court. There are some courts that can be unlocked which feature cool graffitis and more reactions from the bystanders though. When you are playing, the enemy team will be rendered with mute colours to distinguish the two teams. This allows you to focus on your character and not be distracted by their flashy costumes. The same can’t be said when your teammate wears similar costumes or have the same avatar model as you though; you will get confused and just keep looking across the screen to find your avatar.
The music is one that is mixed with hip-hop and rap, with a limited number of music from USA and Korea (as the creators are Korean). They are pretty catchy and sounds cool when you get a shot in. It pumps your adrenaline during the whole game like it’s some intense basketball match. However, with such a limited playlist made them feel repetitive after a while. I do wish that the creators can add in more current music, or just allow us to play our own songs.
Multiplayer
It’s quite easy to find people online to play with. When you find a server (Competitive or Casual), you will get into a room that you have to create beforehand. You can set the role you want to be included in the room or invite your friends. The people get in pretty fast in most of my play-through, signifying a sizeable player audiences as of 10 April 2016. You will take less than two minutes to get into a new match. After a match has finished, you can choose to play with the same people or get out to find new ones.
