Professional Underground League of Pain developed by Beyond Reality Creations published by Psygnosis for PlayStation March 16, 1997 Professional Underground League of Pain is an apt title for this futuristic combat sports game. This aggressive, rock 'em-sock 'em contest will cause your overworked and happy thumbs mucho pain. As simplistic and ultimately un-flashy as this title is, the speed and intensity of P.U.L.P. can not be ignored. This is a game that will make you want to stop eating and sleeping. You'll find all sorts of ways to make more time in the day for your new addiction. The graphics are clean and colorful but not on par with other futuristic Psygnosis titles. The sound effects and music are only adequate. Even the gameplay has some serious flaws. Still, in the end, P.U.L.P. delivers big time in the fun department, especially for those lucky enough to have PSX multi-taps and and a small army of friends to play with. Sporting? Not Today, Mr. Plimpton The insane world of P.U.L.P. has an enormous appetite for violence. It is the year 2078, and because of the rabid hysteria surrounding P.U.L.P., financial interest in other professional sports has dwindled to nothing. Fans want to see real conviction in their sports arenas. No refs, no rules - that's the foundation for this game of high stakes goal scoring. Life or death; that's what pays in the pro leagues of the future. The actual team on team contest of P.U.L.P. is extremely simple. Two teams of four players compete against one another to score the most points by the end of two halves. The gameplay is a mixture of ice hockey, basketball and bare knuckle fighting. The game takes place in an enclosed hockey-shaped rink (no ice), that has a suspended goal hoop in the center. Players run up and down the rink and try to deke out their opponents for a shot on the goal hoop. There are two oval target lines painted into the rink that correspond to the value of each shot. The further away you are from the goal hoop, the more points your successful goal is worth - each shot can be 1,2 or 3 points. The ball in P.U.L.P. is made of plasma energy. It has to be charged by either team before there can be an attempt to score. You have to run into your opponent's territory and stay inside the charge zone for two seconds to charge the glowing plasma ball. Once the ball is charged, it changes color (yellow for home team, purple for visitors). Any goal scored by either team while the ball is charged counts as a goal, either for your team or your opponent's (be careful). Getting the plasma ball away from your opponent is easy. You can slide in and swipe it, or just run up to the ball carrier and start wailing away until they finally give it up. Keeping the ball away from your opponent is a little more tricky. You have to get accustomed to quick and well aimed passes, as well as all kinds of sneaky deke moves, and if those are not helping, you can always use the plasma ball as a weapon. The last control element that you have to practice on is the use of the automatic goaltender that protects the hoop goal. When you're on defense, you have control of the goal hoop (which looks like a giant floating yo-yo in the middle of the arena). When your opponent takes a shot, you have a split second to slam the door shut and make the plasma ball ricochet off the goal hoop's spectacular metal teeth. Timing is critical; because you can't hold the protective teeth down, you have to slap the protect button at the exact moment the ball is about to hit the hoop goal. The closer in to the hoop goal the offensive players are, the more difficult it becomes to save shots. Got all that? Trust me, it's simple. It's A Small World There are 16 international teams in P.U.L.P., who each have different strengths and weaknesses: Berlin Breakers A well balanced team with some powerful players. Frankfurt Vipers One of the weaker teams in the league. Not fast, strong or very accurate (maybe something to do with Oktoberfest) - this is the handicap team for advanced gamers. LA Lasers Great name. Great speed. Leningrad Reds This team can take any punishment you dish out. Tough guys. Liverpool Dockers This team's strong players are the only things that save it from being an embarrassment. London Royals A money team. Good balanced players - lots of talent. Lyon Sharks A great competitive team with stamina and determination. These guys can do the job. Melbourne Destroyers Possibly the second most powerful team in P.U.L.P., these Aussies won't take "lose" as an answer. Mexico City Aces Sharp shooters with balanced skill sets. This is a team that Tokyo always has to keep an eye on. Moscow Maulers Don't fight with these guys. Very bad. Much misery and suffering. Ouch. New York City Knights Their long standing east-west rivalry with the Lasers notwithstanding, the Knights play a very similar game to Los Angeles. Fast and flashy. Osaka Comets Another surprise team. Their balance and tenacity will help them out in long seasons. Paris Strikers Very, very effective team. Usually ends up a close race between Paris and Tokyo. Sydney Sentinels Not unlike their rival Aussie team, the Melbourne Destroyers, the Sentinels are strong and oh so crafty. Tijuana Tigers Another team that can take a lot of punishment before they'll give up. Otherwise, not the most skilled or effective team in the league. Tokyo Tornadoes For my money, the best team in the game. Strong, fast and accurate - everything you'll need to win. 'Course, if you're not happy with these choices, P.U.L.P., like most recent sports games, does allow you to customize the teams and players. You can't create brand new teams, but you can tweak the 16 that are already in the game. You can also rename the manager, as well as the players, to anything you'd like. Spiked Gloves Surprisingly, there is quite a bit of finesse involved in playing this game effectively. You won't get very far in P.U.L.P. if you're only in for the opportunity to knock your opponents around. Hitting the enemy team can be fun but you have to be adept at spin moves, last minute passes and glory shots from outside the 3 point arc if you're in for the big points. Playing against the computer will prove a little challenging at first but after you've gotten comfortable with the controls, you'll discover that the AI of P.U.L.P. is quite lame. The defensive players on your own team scatter as soon as the other team's offensive force is coming in and when you have the ball, you'll discover that the defenders on the opposite side like to stand around a lot, making it easy for you to run rings around them. By the fifth game of P.U.L.P., I was pulling off convincing wins of 31 to 1. The computer offers you an opportunity to flex your muscles and learn the game, but when you're looking for a real unpredictable challenge, teach your friends how to play. P.U.L.P. is a superb multiplayer game. The playing area is contained and the controls are exceedingly simple, so even novices won't take too long to get a bead on how to play. I would have liked to have seen more of a challenge in the single player games but even still, I enjoyed playing tournament and season mode. The action is fast, the announcers are inspiring, and like usual for a Psygnosis game, the graphics are pretty darn cool. Hi-Res Hurting The visuals of P.U.L.P. are sharp and clean. With the hi-res (but Power Soccer-stiff) animation, beautiful light sourcing and detailed textures in this title, one could easily imagine that this game's arenas are just over the crests of some of WipeOut XL's hills. The esthetic look of P.U.L.P. is angular and shiny, with just a slight hint of Designer's Republic rave-type funkiness sprinkled over top for good measure. There are a multitude of camera angles to play the game with, but as usual, the choices will come down to one or two, as it is difficult to tell what's going on with most of them. I ended up sticking with the tried and true "X" camera angle, which was very similar to EA's 16-bit NHL Hockey viewpoint. Not the flashiest way to play but definitely the most effective, for me anyway. The colors in the game are dark and muted, to present the ominous feel of this sport. Unfortunately, the rather conservative color schemes of each team's uniforms means that being confused as to who's who will be a constant problem for whoever plays. You do get used to the look of the teams, but it would have been nice to be able to alter the colors a little more to make things easier to read. Of course, if you play the game with 7 friends, you eliminate this problem because each player is assigned an on screen representative that stays the same throughout. A great instant replay option is thrown into the package, and it will let you go through your victorious moves frame by frame. The closer in to the action you go, the more you'll see how much effort was put into this 3D polygonal sporting madness. Because the game plays so fast and furious, and so much information is flashing around on the screen at once, it's easy to miss the details. The instant replay is a great way to rectify that. One visual (and gameplay) element that isn't all that hot in P.U.L.P. is the lack of any real innovative alterations to the individual play fields. All of the arenas are nearly identical, save a few superficial changes. Seeing as this is a game without refs and rules, it would have been cool to have the ability to fiddle with the environment. Adding all kinds of potentially harmful traps and fixtures into the arenas would have sent this game into the realm of Cyclone's amazing, BattleSport, which this game more than passingly resembles. As the arenas stand though, the moving textured fans, the crisp jumbotron screens, and the occasional glowing power-ups thrown onto the textured rink surfaces, do make P.U.L.P. something to see. One Hit Wonder What little music there is in P.U.L.P. is good. But after a while, like any song you hear too much of, the pumped up jangly guitar drum beat mania of the title theme starts to get on your nerves. It would have been great if the talented, Dave Lowe, who wrote and performs all of the music in the game, had come up with a few more tracks. I did enjoy the moody, Blade Runner-like, synth-tech embedded under the credit list, however. The sound effects in P.U.L.P. are understated but still solid. The voice over work, provided by the animated duo of Dave Turner and Howard Clough, is exceptional. These guys do repeat themselves quite a bit but their genuine excitement fuels the frequent adrenaline bursts you'll have during this game. I wasn't blown away by the sounds of the supposedly brutal physical contact in P.U.L.P. but after the stupendous audio effects of NFL GameDay '97, that's a tough accolade to snag. The electrical sparks and zaps of the plasma ball slapping against the boards worked well, as did the crowd sounds, which, thankfully, are a reflection of whether or not you're playing on your home turf or not. The stereo separation and audio clarity of P.U.L.P. is in keeping with the rest of Psygnosis' high quality library of PlayStation games. A surround sound option is included on the disc and I suggest that gamers, who can, take advantage of this. Not Painful To Play Professional Underground League of Pain is a very satisfying experience. It combines the basic, essential elements of great sports games (a fast pace, lots of evenly matched teams, easy controls and multiplayer capabilities) with the flash of late ‘90's next-gen 3D nirvana. I would have appreciated more coaching and play making abilities in the game but I understand that this is supposed to be a no-holds-barred free-for-all. The graphics could also have been tweaked to allow for an easier read of the action but your eyes do become accustomed to the darker hues in this game. There are definitely components of P.U.L.P. that Beyond Reality could go in and adjust (especially if we're in store for future updates), but for now, this combat/sports title is good enough to fill many of the nights that you and your friends had reserved strictly for playing the best PSX pro sports games. And looking at the quality of the PlayStation's latest sports titles, that's high praise indeed. Professional Underground League of Pain....................8.5 out of 10 Victor Lucas