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1 vs 100 beta impressions
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After four unsuccessful attempts to get into Xbox Live's adaptation of the hit gameshow 1 vs 100 (two full rooms and then two download errors), I finally managed to get into the beta for Friday night's game. The game started at 10:00 p.m. EST and had roughly 75,000 players at the beginning. Apparently the cap is 100,000 so even though the game started pretty late at night, we were still pretty close to the maximum. The game was two hours long and by the time it ended at midnight, there were still a good 62,000 players.
The rules of the game are very simple. As a player, you can either be the One, in the mob, or in the crowd. If you are the One, then you are the guy challenging the mob and answering the questions for prizes. For each question that you get right , you will knock out any mob members who answered wrong. If you are in the mob which is comprised of 100 players, you are competing against the One in an attempt to knock him out. If you knock out the One, the remaining mob members split up the winnings he or she would have had. If you are in the crowd, you can still play along and answer questions and the top three audience members of each round can also earn prizes. Since this is only the beta there are no actual prizes being given out yet.
The atmosphere of the game closely mimicked that of a real gameshow. The live host, Chris Cashman, is pretty funny and adds a nice live element to the show although I would like to see or hear more of him throughout the game. You only really hear from the host during "stat breaks" and before and after commercials (yes there are actually commercials still). He also got cut off a few times by the game resuming or a commercial starting. Hopefully they fix that issue.
While 1 vs 100 was a very fun experience, a few problems plagued it which kind of deflated the fun. The first is that there are some connection issues. Hopefully this gets ironed out before the real game launches on New Years Eve but there were at least three server disconnects during the two hour game which halted the game completely and everybody had to rejoin. As I was in the crowd, this wasn't that big of a deal but imagine if you were the One, going for that last level of prizes and you get disconnected. It would be infuriating.
The questions also seemed very odd. You would go from ridiculously easy questions such as what slows you down when you jump out of a plane (uhm...a parachute) to very hard questions like what instrument is on the Irish coat of arms. Unless you know the answer, you're going to have to just guess because seeing the answers won't help you. I also didn't like how you could instantly answer a question as soon as that answer pops up. I think you should have to wait until all three answers are present before answering. Being in the crowd isn't so much of answering the questions right, but how fast you answer them right. It gets ridiculous when you're answering as soon as you can and still answering slower because people will press the button before that answer even appears. This isn't how the game should be played.
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Overall, 1 vs 100 was a good experience and it will definitely improve when real prizes are being given out. The game is more enjoyable with friends or family playing alongside you in the same room. I had my mom helping me and we made a pretty good team. One has to wonder, however, if playing the game is even worth the time because with 70,000 players on and only 101 actual seats in the game, what are the chances you will ever be the One or even in the mob? Chances are that you will never win a single Microsoft point from playing this game, so why bother unless you simply want to experience it?
If you want to test out 1 vs 100, there are a couple shows left for the beta before it ends. The next game is Saturday (today) at 4:00 p.m. EST. Once the beta ends, the first real game is scheduled for December 31st, on New Years Eve.
Did you like this article? You might also like my Top 10 affordable XBLA games.
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