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 2
Played so much of this game back in the day. Sure it’s an older title, but I still feel the mechanics are unique and the setting is interesting enough that this game still holds up well. Would love to see a remastered VR port someday, I feel like that could be a really neat experience. Beyond that, I love this game and it’s a great fit if you’re looking for an interesting physics-based puzzler with a cool storyline and unique mechanics.
Steam User 0
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 0
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 2
Obviously the narrative logic to this game is nonsense but the puzzle platformer's strong level design is more than enough to keep the game rolling.
Steam User 3
fun fact - Pee is stored in the BALL
all jokes aside
5/10 its mostly walking to get to the next puzzle
+ 10$
+ one of a kind puzzles that you could only find in this game
- puzzles are all on the easy side
+ running monsters over with the ball
- no sprint
+ can make ball semi transparent in settings so you can kinda see through
- very few checkpoints and far apart
- no map
- story could be a lot better
+ 10$
- ball takes up 85% of the screen, no reason for it to be that big
- ball can be janky at times
- broken achievement, at least one. how do i not have the 1st achievement for finishing the first levels??? i finished all the other levels
+ can turn off gore
Steam User 2
So this post is from Aug 2025, last time i played this was back all the way in 2013. Yeah my opinion is still the same. If you REALLY, REALLY like Indiana Jones. But you REALLY, REALLY like Half-Life's gravity gun. Then you might want to try this. (also the only saving grace for me, is the skin for Killing floor 1)
Steam User 3
Does your ball hang low?
Does it wobble to and fro?
Can you tie it in a knot?
Can you tie it in a bow?
Can you throw it o'er your shoulder
Like a continental soldier?
Does your ball hang low?
Does your ball stand high?
Does it reach up to the sky?
Does it droop when it is wet?
Does it stiffen when it's dry?
Can you wave it at your neighbour
With an element of flavour?
Does your ball stand high?
Does your ball flip-flop?
Can you use it as a mop?
Is it stringy at the bottom?
Is it curly at the top?
Can you use it for a swatter?
Can you use it for a blotter?
Does your ball flip-flop?
If you answer yes to all of these and the game is at a steep discount, you may be in the market for The Ball. Its puzzles aren't great and are usually trivial to solve, and it is the most UDK game of all time (to the point that the engine's website was almost entirely screenshots of The Ball for a good while), but it is also the most UDK game of all time in a way that gives it a lot of charm. Why does the Mayan ball poker have a skull with glowing eyes on it? Because it's a UDK game. Why does the Mayan puzzle game have gore and big lizard aliens? Because it's a UDK game. It is a game borne of UT3 modders realising "shoot, we can roll a big ball around in the physics engine" and proceeding to be so enthralled with this that they forget to make good puzzles around it and instead go for rote ball-rolling exercises and "combat" where you force hapless monkeys to touch your ball and immediately explode from sheer humiliation.
I cannot in good conscience call it a good puzzle game, and the sheer enthrallment some journalists had for this thing is hilarious in retrospect, but the developers' simple joy for rolling a big ball around is infectious, and now when I close my eyes to sleep I see The Ball and hear the ball poker reving up. Maybe someday I will see the dread Ball Chariot in my dreams, and then I will truly ball on a level unknown to mankind.