I Have a Secret...

December's free PlayStation Plus game and Steam's still-in Early Access cult favorite, Ponchos Secretos, is the reason my GOTY 2014 list is so late.

I've been playing it on PS4 like a wild man plays a wood whistle and I think you should too!

Rapid Fire Facts

• mostly an online competitive game
• has local competitive and a practice mode for offline folks
• has local vs online (i.e. your couch vs their couch)
• four classes with very different playstyles that you upgrade via RPG Elements
• four maps of varying sizes
• eight players max
• usually find a game within ~ 5 minutes (easiest to find is Free For All )
• three game modes (Team Deathmatch 1v1, 2v2 or 4v4) (8 Player Free For All) (Domination 2v2, 4v4)
• Netcode seems solid. Haven't dropped a game yet! No stutter, no nothing!

Why I Like it So Much

Balance.

That's the secret subtitle to this game. Secret Ponchos: Balance wasn't very sexy though, so they axed that last bit.

Everyone's experience pans out differently, but for me I find the balance of *each class* very fun to play, along with the way those classes actually collide online.

• Ammo is unlimited, but most clips are small, and reloading is never automatic.
• You have a stamina bar which allows you to do evade moves. But that stamina bar runs out very quick, and takes time to recharge.
• There is a cover button. You can't shoot from cover, *but*, you will A) reload faster, B) regain stamina faster and C) your red radar blip will vanish from enemy screens.
• A few shots can take you down, but play smart and you can live long.
• It looks really cool in motion.
• Sawed off shotgun and whip combos. Nuff said!

Have you put on *your* poncho?

So...? Have you played it? What do you think?

I think it sucks. It takes like 7 years to get into a match and I just don't like anything about it.

lol. Awesome.

Where are you having trouble matchmaking? PS4 or PC?

Also which class did you try? To be honest I love Phantom way way more than the others.

@geraltitude: Played on PS4 and I chose Kid Red. Don't know why. Phantom seems way to OP to me. When I played, a bunch of people were him just whipping everybody and it got annoying real fast.

@awesomeusername: yeah the game is transparent about the match ups being uneven. Certain classes just beat other ones in a lot of set ups. There's an ODDS stat that affects how much Bounty you get based on this match up.

As a Phantom I usually get killed by Kid Red though, so, I dunno. The giant dude, the Deserter, is hands down best bet for 1 on 1 I think. Matador is number 2. Phantom number 3. Everyone picks Phantom to start because duh, he's cool/fast/shotgun, but lots of scrubs mostly. Haven't seen a Phantom win anything in days.

Also the Ranked matches are a little rougher because then your stat bonuses come in to play, and I'm not sure quite how balanced that whole system is honestly.

If the classes are uneven that looks like a definition of a bad online game to me!

I played one match and deleted the game, it's not for me.

tell that to Dota? I dunno man. All games have uneven classes. Engineers aren't supposed to go 1 on 1 with Assaults in shooters. Same thing here. The game is balanced. The classes are uneven. It works out?

lol either way seems not much love for the Ponchos here.