For those who do not know, or haven’t played it, Pure Pool is, as the name says, a game about pool games, and it’s one of the most realistic that you may find out there. The main game comes with 2 different pool game types, US 8-Ball and 9-Ball, and both can be played in all the modes available in the game. Career, Free Play, Practice against an AI opponent, Online and Local multiplayer, and Challenges.
The new DLC called Snooker relies on the same game mechanics presented in the original game, the only big difference is the new game type that it brings, 2 more challenges exclusively using the snooker game type, and also new Accolades that can be earned by performing certain tasks.
All the basic rules of Snooker are featured in this game. Potting a red ball gives you the change to pot any of the other colours, which will increase you score. The player that has the highest score at the end will win the match. In Career mode, you start on the Amateur level and progress through a serie of tournaments against AI players, each time you win a match you are granted with a star, that are used to unlock the next stages. Every match as a total of 3 starts to be earned, one for winning the match and the other two are earned by performing the require actions on the description (the same method presented in the main game).
Alongside the regular matches, there are challenge rounds that also grants you a maximum of 3 starts, and this are the 2 new and exclusive Snooker Challenges. One is called Snooker Colours, and the objective is to pot all the coloured balls in order in the fastest time. The other challenge is called Snooker Breakpoint, the objective is to reach the highest score you can before times runs out, and in here the Red Balls rewards you with extra time while the coloured ones give you the points and the basic Snooker rules are applied in here.
The down part of the DLC is that the same issues presented in the main game are still present in the DLC, like the fact of the camera not allowing much liberty to see the surrounding area with using the “Stand” view, which can sometimes make a bit hard to do some bank shots, another little issue is the fact that on the timed challenges (which in the Snooker DLC are both) the animation of the camera flying around doesn’t make “pause” to the clock, which can still you those needed seconds to fulfil the challenge in the less time possible.
In resume, the new DLC does not add much to the main game besides the Snooker game type and the 2 new Challenges, but even so the game still remains with all its magnificence in the graphic and sound department as well as in the realistic table and balls behaviour. So if you own Pure Pool and you are a fan of Snooker games go for it.
João is a games journalist, Senior Editor at XDA Developers. They contributed 156 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: previously reported for Neowin before joining XDA Developers in 2021, where he leads coverage of Windows, Microsoft, and hardware.