Sometimes – and this has been increasingly the case with games over the years – less is more. With the arrival of Pinball FX Williams Volume 10, that is certainly what’s going on. Out of its three tables, Diner, Fire!, and Comet, the first is easily, handily, and by very far, the one that makes this DLC more than worth getting, while the other two are there to serve as filling, mostly.
That statement might sound nasty just for the sake of it, but that is what really goes on with this volume of Williams tables for Pinball FX, as Diner is so much of a highlight that it manages to die down the other two, which aren’t that much to write home about to begin with. In that one, you play classic pinball in the role of the titular diner’s waitress, tasked with filling orders for customers.
There’s a handful of them sitting at the windows prominently displayed at the table, and in order to satisfy them, you’re gonna have to hit specific shots on the board. It’s the sort of table where the objectives actually make sense not only in a gameplay sense, but also in the tiny little narrative built into the flow of playing a ball in one of those things. It’s the same feeling I had playing the previous Williams pack and having Whodunit as its highlight.
The thing with Fire! and especially Comet is that they’re unremarkable for themselves alone but even more so compared to what else is on offer for Pinball FX when it comes to Williams tables. One reason for that is that we’re spoiled for choice at this point in the game, having received ten DLC packs for this particular company’s excellent decades-long catalog of releases. It seems like the proverbial barrel is starting to be scraped.
Historically important but not necessarily exciting to play, both of the remaining tables in Williams Volume 10 are, like Diner, very lovingly recreated, while not being close to be best playing offerings. Comet is particularly egregious in regards to this, as its main draw seems to be the fact that there are plenty of ramps to be ridden, given its main inspiration being a famous rollercoaster in the Chicago area that used to exist when Williams was there years ago. But it’s just ramps and you need to keep hitting them. That’s it.
Fire!, on the other hand, is based on the 1930s cataclysm that took place in town, and in it, you guessed it, you play as the good guys who go around putting out fires. Generally, it’s one of those tables that has you hitting specific lanes as they light up in order to keep your game going, and in that, it does a decent job at being a table that keeps you constantly busy, but design-wise, it’s just a straightforward affair at best. And there are much more exciting alternatives to be had with other packs.
So unless you’ve got nostalgic feelings going on for these tables, there’s nothing particularly noteworthy to them, sadly. Thankfully, Diner is the grand reason to invest in this pack, and given Zen Studios’ current knack at constantly having their tables on sale – over at Steam, anyway – you won’t have to worry about completing your collection at full price when investing in these. I’m curious to see what they’ll come up with for the next one and hope it doesn’t end up being a sack full of duds.
