It’s sad but it’s true: I’m falling out of love with Fall Guys

metro.co.uk:

A self-confessed casual gamer laments the fact that, as Fall Guys has gone free-to-play, several unwanted changes have come with it.

I confess: I’m not much of a gamer.

As a kid, I bought every FIFA entry but little else. In my teens, I loved Grand Theft Auto and Left 4 Dead, but that was all. In my 20s, I completely fell off. I stopped buying FIFA. I tried The Last Of Us but only appreciated the story. I briefly enjoyed Rocket League until everyone (except me) mastered flying. I spent £20 of my final student loan on Borderlands 2, only to stare at an unopened box for months.

By 2019, my PlayStation 4 was used almost exclusively for Netflix. But something changed in August 2020 when I saw a clip of footballer Sergio Aguero guiding an anthropomorphic bean through an obstacle course while it shouted ‘Woo!’ and ‘Oomph!’ in response to various incidents. My heart stirred: it was love at first sight.

Fall Guys was, and remains, ideal for casuals like me. A 3D platformer with minimal lore that required little commitment; adorable characters, slapstick humour, and fair, competitive challenges; a sense of real reward when I was the one bean of 60 to grab the crown. I loved Fall Guys in a way I haven’t loved any game in over a decade.

So it breaks my heart to feel that love wilting.

My mood has gradually shifted ever since the big free-to-all launch a month ago. I’d been excited for Fall Guys to hit Xbox and Nintendo Switch so that even more players could partake in the innocent, nonsensical chaos. But with an influx of new players came a host of unexpected changes that altered the game in ways that I, perhaps naively, hadn’t anticipated. It’s been such a shame to watch it all unfold.

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