2XKO Review – Let’s Go!

Looking at the various spin-off games and even the critically-acclaimed Netflix series Arcane, it has been no secret that Riot Games has been looking to expand the reach of League of Legends to new heights. Now, don’t get me wrong. League of Legends is still an immense franchise with millions of players enjoying the MOBA every day. Looking to conquer a new competitive landscape, the company has now set its sights on the fighting game genre with the release of 2XKO. Much like League of Legends itself, 2XKO also hides its complexity and depth behind a beginner-friendly facade in efforts to bring in a larger player base than one would see for genre stalwarts like Street Fighter or Guilty Gear.

2XKO is, at its heart, a tag fighter. While it does offer some options in this regard—and we’ll get into that later—every match starts out with both sides picking two characters. Depending on the kind of “tag” bonus you pick, your second character could be for little more than just using assist moves, or it could be one that you can switch to mid-combo. Regardless, a round is won when all fighters on one side have been defeated, and each match is made up of a total of 3 rounds. Importantly, it’s built around 2v2 duo play: you can pilot both champions yourself, or team up with a friend and split control, which adds a layer of coordination you simply don’t get in most traditional tag fighters.

Right from the get-go, it’s quite obvious that 2XKO is hiding quite a bit of its depth. One of the biggest ways the fighting game sets itself apart from titles like Guilty Gear Strive and Street Fighter 6 is by simply not featuring any motion inputs. This means that iconic actions like the down+forward+punch motion that results in Ryu throwing out a Hadouken simply isn’t present. Rather, players have dedicated S1 (Special 1) and S2 (Special 2) buttons, each of which is responsible for certain specials depending on their characters. These keys can then be paired with either the light, medium or heavy attack button to pull off a stronger move at the cost of your Super meter. Hitting S1 and S2 at the same time will use up three levels of your Super meter to pull off a high-risk, high-reward move.

"Right from the get-go, it’s quite obvious that 2XKO is hiding quite a bit of its depth."

2XKO also offers an optional auto-combo option called Pulse Combo. When it’s enabled in champion select, repeatedly pressing a single attack button will chain into longer sequences (and can even spend meter for Supers). For those looking to move beyond just mashing buttons, however, the fighting game also features bespoke combos that can be used through combinations of the three attack types, as well as directional inputs and even tag and assist moves.

Speaking of which, the core combat of 2XKO feels fantastic. It’s clear that the team behind the game has quite a bit of experience in developing fighting games—as could be seen with Rising Thunder. Everything from the ground game where you’re dashing around to aerial moves feels responsive, and things like jump arcs are fantastically predictable. Still, the core of the combat here largely revolves around the neutral game—how you and your opponent can close the distance or keep each other away, as well as how you start off your combos. On the defensive side of things, you can block, sacrifice your assist cooldown for a push block, and tech throws (throw escapes) with the right timing. There’s also a Break meter that fills up over the course of a match, which you can then expend to get an assist-based escape from any combos you might have gotten caught in. Breaks don’t refill fast, and you will likely get to use one or maybe two in each round, so you’ll need to be careful with how you use it. You’re not going to get much else in the way of defensive options beyond system mechanics like Parry (which is available to everyone, but costs meter), unless your chosen champion also brings extra defensive tools.

Despite all of this, 2XKO never really feels chaotic. Sure, the combos can often be flashy, and every character’s level 3 Super is basically a small cutscene if it hits, but things always remain readable thanks to the clear art direction and visual design that exaggerated some characters’ features, like fists or weapons, to let you properly observe their moves and keep an eye out for what they might do next. Even at its most hectic, where both sides are making multiple tags in and out as part of longer combos, 2XKO remains perfectly legible, even to those who may not have seen a fighting game before.

"Despite all of this, 2XKO never really feels chaotic."

Speaking of tag-based chaos, there are a few options for how you want to set up your team, referred to in-game as Fuses. Aside from the more traditional tag-styled gameplay similar to titles like Blazblue Cross Tag Battle or Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 available through the Double Down Fuse, players can also opt to simply focus on a single character by picking the Juggernaut or Sidekick Fuses. While this means that you don’t have backup if your character’s health is low, it offsets this by giving you more base health to begin with. Along with this, getting down to less than 30 percent health also gives you a defense bonus. It is worth noting that, except for the Juggernaut Fuse, you still have your second character that can come in for assist moves.

The other Fuses—2X Assist and Freestyle—all revolve around tag-based play, giving you different options for assists and tag combos depending on your play style. 2X Assist, for instance, allows you to pull off multiple assist moves before your second character goes back in cooldown. Freestyle, on the other hand, allows for multiple Handshake tags in a single combo, letting you get various hits in with both characters. While this might sound like too many options, don’t worry; some of the more advanced Fuse styles—namely 2X Assist and Freestyle—have to be unlocked through tutorials, which also has the beneficial side effect of teaching you how these Fuses work.

Because of the general nature of these Fuses—especially Juggernaut—and other gameplay elements, no match in 2XKO ever feels completely hopeless. Regardless of how low your health might be, or even if you’ve already lost your tag partner, there are gameplay elements that you can combine with strong fundamental knowledge like knowing when to block and when to strike that can bring you back from the brink of death. Pair this with even some auto combos being able to take down large chunks of a health bar, and you get a game that, while it doesn’t swing too wildly, will still keep you at the edge of your seat.

"It is worth noting that, except for the Juggernaut Fuse, you still have your second character that can come in for assist moves."

One of the most important aspects of any fighting game tends to be its roster, and 2XKO has come out of the gate swinging with how varied and interesting its characters look and feel right off the bat. There are currently 12 characters to choose from, and while this number might seem small, it is worth noting that every single one of them feels different in meaningful ways. Depending on your play style, you might be drawn to the zoning capabilities of Caitlyn, and pair her up with Teemo to cause extra headaches for players who dare to venture too close to you thanks to the latter’s mushroom mines. If you prefer getting up close and personal, you might find yourself playing a combination of Warwick, and pair up his rushdown-centric gameplay with Blitzcrank’s hard-hitting grapple moves.

I personally found myself ultimately playing the bruiser Illaoi, who can summon tentacles to help her get control of the arena, along with the quick and hard-hitting Vi, whose boxing-styled combos and aerial grapples proved essential for when I faced players who preferred aerial attacks. Most of the archetypes you’d expect from a fighting game are represented in the roster here. Interestingly, in my time with the game, I saw quite a few players drawn to Yasuo, who is a bit of an all-rounder, likely thanks to his cool samurai aesthetics and the surprisingly long reach afforded to him by his medium attacks.

Since much like most modern fighting games, 2XKO is primarily an online multiplayer game, its online systems require quite a bit of scrutiny, and so far, my experience with it has been tremendous. Aside from some hiccups during the first few days after launch, the multiplayer experience has been fantastic. At least for the time being, lobbies are quite well populated throughout casual and ranked modes, and it doesn’t take more than a minute or two to find a match. The game makes use of rollback netcode, which means that even if you happen to get quite a bit of latency, the game never stops feeling fluid. Once you get into a fight, the menus largely tend to stay out of the way, and even rematches are quick to get back into.

"I personally found myself ultimately playing the bruiser Illaoi, who can summon tentacles to help her get control of the arena"

Of course, since this is a fighting game, competing to be the best comes with the territory. The Ranked mode supports this quite well by making use of systems that we’ve seen working well in other competitive multiplayer games. You can access Ranked mode once your account has hit level 3, which means that you’ll be spending time and learning the game in Casual mode. After this, you get assigned a rank based on your performance across five placement matches.

Depending on how well you’ve done, you’ll be placed into one of 11 tiers, with Aspirant being the lowest rank, all the way up to Challenger, which is where the best of the best play. Winning Ranked matches earns you Ranking Points, with tier advancements coming in at every 100 of these points. It might take you longer than you think to get higher in ranks, however, since each tier is above Aspirant and under Grandmaster – the second-highest tier – is further split into 3 distinct ranks. Reaching Silver I, for instance, needs you to earn 100 Ranking Points in Bronze III. Accumulating losses, on the other hand, will end up with you dropping down the ranks.

Console players should keep in mind that crossplay only allows matchmaking with other console players. This means PS5 players can match up with those on Xbox Series X/S. PC players, on the other hand, are restrained to their own matchmaking pool. If you would like to keep switching between a console and PC, 2XKO also supports cross progression, which means that all of your progression and unlocks carry over across all platforms as long as you’ve linked your Riot Account to the appropriate platform.

"The Ranked mode supports this quite well by making use of systems that we’ve seen working well in other competitive multiplayer games."

Unfortunately, if you’re not going to play multiplayer, 2XKO simply doesn’t have much to do. Aside from local matches with bots or perhaps another person, you’re largely limited to the tutorials and character-based combo trials, which are essentially more in-depth ways for you to learn how a character works. There isn’t anything like an arcade or story mode, so those looking for single-player content won’t really find what they’re looking for here.

With all of that out of the way, it’s time to talk about presentation, and 2XKO knocks it out of the park. Thanks to its use of high-contrast colors and vibrant character designs, along with smooth animations that seemingly flow into each other without much difficulty, each match feels like you’re watching a high production-value animated show. Hits are punctuated with crunchy sound effects that really emphasize the impact that these attacks might have, and character call-outs also go a long way in letting you know if you should be worried about an incoming assist from your opponent, or if they’ve managed to use Break to get freed from your combo.

The major downsides of 2XKO largely revolve around its monetisation tactics. While it has everything you would imagine a free-to-play title might, ranging from character skins to cosmetics for your online lobby avatar, you also start out with quite a few characters locked. Now, it is entirely possible to unlock these characters simply by playing the game and getting unlock tokens and other in-game currencies, you can also choose to unlock these characters instantly by spending some real-world money.

"The major downsides of 2XKO largely revolve around its monetisation tactics."

Of course, it also doesn’t help matters that 2XKO has quite a few currencies that further muddy the waters. There are three distinct types of currencies: KO Points, Champion Tokens, and Credits. The last one of these can be earned over the course of regular play, and is limited to 12,000 in total per account. KO Points are what you need to get if you want to spend some real-world money. Among other things, these can be used to unlock characters, cosmetics, and even the premium track of the Battle Pass. Both of these can be spent on Champion Tokens, which straight up allows you to unlock a Champion.

This essentially echoes the monetisation from League of Legends, and while 2XKO is also a free-to-play game, the health of its competitive playerbase in the long term will depend on its cadence of new roster additions, how they are priced, and whether the game will provide enough free-to-play currency in the meantime to make sure that you never miss out. While balance is generally fine for the time being, the fact that new characters can be bought also has some negative implications for future game balance in case an overpowered character is released.

2XKO is off to a rather strong start. Even without motion inputs for special moves, the fighting game offers plenty of depth for seasoned fighting game players thanks to how varied its Fuses are. At the same time, it is also incredibly beginner-friendly, giving players enough onboarding support to get comfortable with its systems quickly. Throw on top in-depth tutorials that teach you just about every gameplay mechanic, as well as a strong training mode that gives more advanced players tools to understand minutiae like frame data, and you have an incredibly strong fighting game in your hands. Since it’s a free-to-play game, it’s an easy recommendation to anyone that might be curious about the world of competitive fighting games. The only thing Riot Games needs to maintain this momentum is to keep an eye on how it monetizes future character releases while also ensuring that they’re as varied and interesting as the base roster is.

This game was reviewed on PS5.