With the 2XKO closed beta coming to an end, and with the early access on the horizon, now is a better time than any to look back on the beta and give my overall first impressions of the upcoming fighting game. In this article, we’ll see what it does well, what could be improved, and to see whether or not the game will be worthwhile when it finally comes out.
There’s plenty to discuss when it comes to 2XKO, but first, I would like to talk about what I enjoyed during the closed beta.
What I Liked
For starters, I really like the gameplay. As with most modern fighting games, the controls are fluid and responsive, with little to no input lag. The actual combat of 2XKO is really where it shines. Each character feels distinct from the others, employing vastly different move sets and abilities. This makes comboing in with assists a whole lot of fun, especially with the variety of attacks that you can use to chain into combos. Like with a lot of modern fighting games, 2XKO has a classic fighting style and a simplified fighting style, known as Pulse Combos. I’m always a fan of giving casual and competitive players a way to play the game how they want to, and this is no exception. With a variety of moves, assists, combo breaks, and more, 2XKO gives the player a lot of options to use at their disposal, and I’m always here for that.
The online also works quite well. There are several different online modes, including casual and ranked lobbies, which is nice. The game also features rollback netcode, which is always a great addition at launch. It makes playing online a very smooth experience, which is great to see. I did have some trouble with lag online, specifically with an unusually high ping, but I’m not entirely sure if that was my fault or an issue with the game’s servers. Besides that hiccup, though, I haven’t had any issues with the online, which is a great sign for the upcoming early access.
The best part about the gameplay, however, is the fuses. Fuses are a unique mechanic that allows players to give themself a unique power-up to help them throughout the match. The fuses include Freestyle, Double Down, 2x Assist, Sidekick, and Juggernaut. Each of these fuses has a variety of different effects, like granting you an extra assist or only letting you use one powered-up character, and adds an extra level of strategy to every match. You have to carefully consider how each fuse might help you in the long run, and I really like that. It helps 2XKO stand out from other fighting games and gives you a reason to give the game a try over other games. I can’t wait to see if Riot will add any more fuses to the game and how those fuses might impact the competitive scene as time goes on.
What I Didn’t Like
Now let’s talk about the things I didn’t like. First of all, I hate the free-to-start aspects of the game. Typically, free-to-start fighting games have been hit or miss. Sometimes, you get a huge success like with Brawlhalla, but other times, you get a colossal failure, like with Multiversus. Having to unlock characters by either grinding out a currency or paying to buy them individually really doesn’t sit right with me. I would much rather buy the game outright and unlock the characters in a reasonable way. Instead, if I want to unlock the whole roster, I have to grind for Fighter Coins. Of course, there are also missions to clear, just like every other live service game. These can range from healing your characters to using assists in matchmade lobbies. I’ve never been a big fan of games doing this. I get that they need to keep players coming back, but I find it so tedious having to come back once a day or once a week just to clear a set of very specific missions. It just makes me want to play the game less.
On the subject of the character roster, it’s really bad! Now, I’m not a fan of League of Legends, so I don’t know how representative the roster is of the series. That being said, I still find myself questioning why the devs decided to make a tag-team fighting game, only to include a dozen characters or so. As of now, 2XKO only has nine characters, with one more on the way before launch. While these characters are very distinct from each other and have a lot of depth in their kits, 10 characters is a pathetic number for a modern fighting game roster. Over time this roster will expand, but I would rather have a decent roster at launch than be drip-fed content for the next few years.
My last big gripe with 2XKO so far is with the amount of content in the game. While 2XKO has everything a fighting game could really need in terms of modes, I’m always hoping to see something a little more. As it stands, 2XKO only has a training mode, an offline versus mode, and the casual and ranked online modes. Besides this, though, there’s not much else to do as of right now. Now, there doesn’t really need to be anything else; 2XKO is doing exactly what a fighting game should do. At the end of the day, this is a closed beta test, so we very well could see some more modes in the future. As it stands right now, though, it just leaves me wanting more.
Final thoughts
Overall, while I really liked the gameplay of 2XKO, I can’t really recommend it to anyone. The free-to-start nature of the game really kills it for me. The small character roster also doesn’t help, even if the characters are distinct from each other. It’s a shame, really, the game has so much promise with its gameplay and unique game mechanics, but this trend of making everything free-to-start has taken this from a great upcoming player in the fighting game scene to a mediocre game that could be taken offline any day.
I’m not too enthusiastic about the future of 2XKO. Due to it being a free-to-start game, it has the chance of being shut down at any given moment. If the game doesn’t perform well, it’s getting taken offline. The devs don’t want to support it? It’s going offline. I hate that companies can just take away these awesome games whenever they want. Unfortunately, I think 2XKO will one day befall this fate. There are just too many incredible fighting games out there that players will gravitate towards instead. It sucks because 2XKO has some great ideas packed into it, and if the devs ever made it a paid game that included a full roster and some more modes, I would be more inclined to recommend it. As it stands, however, I just can’t recommend it.
I want to be wrong, and I want to see Riot improve this game and make it the best that it can be. The free-to-start model, though, just doesn’t allow for that, and more than likely, I can see this game fading into irrelevance, becoming another fighting game that’s lost to the past.
Have you tried out the 2XKO Closed Beta? Let us know what you thought in the comments below or on our social media!
