The Ball
The Ball is a first person action-adventure game featuring a full single-player experience built on Epic’s Unreal™ Engine 3 technology. As a swashbuckling archaeologist working on the slopes of a dormant volcano somewhere in Mexico, you get stuck in a cavern. It doesn’t take long before you realize this is more than just a cave. You reveal ancient ruins that have been hidden from outsiders for centuries and discover a mysterious artifact, a gold and metal shelled Ball. As you progress towards solving the mystery of this amazing place you must unlock the secrets of the Ball and learn to control this ancient artifact. Venturing deeper into the volcano, you reveal some of mankind’s greatest secrets and you will start to encounter not just puzzles and traps, but also various strange creatures – the guardians of this mystery. These creatures have to be overcome, using only the Ball to defend you.
Key Features
- 8 hours of single-player adventure
- Game mechanics that are very simple to pick up, immersing the user in the physics-based gameplay right from the start
- 8 huge levels to explore
- Includes bonus Survival game mode, with 4 additional levels
- Wide range of enemies to overcome, including mummies and an undead gorilla
- Unique vehicles – an underground train and the mysterious “Ball Chariot”
- 35 secrets hidden away to be discovered, as well as multiple achievements for the player to earn
- Steamworks™ features including achievements and leaderboards
Game Discussion
Steam User 1
Unique ball mechanic and beautiful visuals. Occasional bugs but fun achievements and extra stuff.
Steam User 1
This is a gem of a game! They found a fun simple mechanic and really rolled with it. Great blend of puzzle solving and action / combat. The levels are fun to explore and find the secret areas. I played this 9 years ago in 2016 and just now in 2025 I enjoyed playing through again.
Steam User 1
This game rolls! Well, it's still good enough to play in 2025 anyway. Sometimes it gets a little frustrating but I don't have any actual problems with the design.
Steam User 0
A surprisingly fun puzzle game. It was easy to understand and I had a great time!
Steam User 0
This was a pleasant little surprise. It's as if classic PC game Heretic and classic arcade game Marble Madness had a child. Mostly puzzles, but with a bit of combat thrown in as well. I'm definitely going to check out the other games by this studio (Unmechanical, The Solus Project).
This game is proof that dozens of abilities aren't required to make a good game, as well as a callback to the days when level design was king. The keybind screen is only one page long, without even any scrolling, and that's enough.
-- THE GOOD --
- Uncomplicated mechanics
- Clever, interesting level design
- Sound effects
- Good, logical problems with rules that are consistent (for the most part)
-- THE BAD --
- POV is oddly close to the ground, making it seem as though the crouch command is constantly being pressed
- Not sure if this is to do with widescreen, but the display has a somewhat fisheye effect at times
- A couple instances where I had to resort to a walkthrough because I didn't know the mechanics of this game supported certain actions. For example, the fact that the hammer device does nothing to pots or crates lying around the map heavily implies that it works only on the Ball or the blocks with glowing runes, but using it on a different type of target is required as the game proceeds.
-- THE UGLY --
- No manual saves - autosave/checkpoint only
- There's a lot of 'learn by dying' in the later levels
Steam User 0
I bought the ball to get the KF1 achievement, but I actually ended up enjoying the game itself quite a lot. its simple & chill with nothing too hard but a good 9 hours of content if you want to 100% the game which is well worth the price
Steam User 0
I took a gamble on The Ball, as I do not have the reflexes or hand-eye coordination for most fast paced shooting/dodging games. But there was something about its appearance and story which intrigued me, and because some reviews described it as not hard (for them a criticism, for me a ray of hope), I decided to take a chance. And, of course, I struggled, but with overall enjoyment and satisfaction as I slowly overcame the mixture of puzzles, combat and exploration in the Campaign part of the game.
The Ball is an old game (2010), but there are some very helpful guides to updating its range of screen resolutions and refresh rates, which greatly improve the experience. There are a range of different achievements for game progress, destroying enemies, collecting story lore, and performing quirky actions (such as balancing & moving on the ball).
Of course, in the end my gameplay weaknesses were ruthlessly exposed by even the most gentle of the Survival levels and I gave up on these without regret. But, given I paid an 80% discounted price of UK £1.39 and had over 30 hours of play time, I have no concerns about value - and entertainment - for money.