The Ball
Skip · Shooter · 2010
Steam Deck PlayableThe verdict
SKIP IT.
The value isn't there at $9.99.
- Length
- 5.9h
- Value
- $1.69/hr
- Reviews
- 74% positive
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Minimum on the Steam store: 1 GB of memory, SM3 Compatible video card (GF6800 minimum - GF8800 or higher recommended), 1.5 GB of storage. Windows only.
As a swashbuckling archaeologist, unlock the mystery of the ancient ruins that have been hidden for centuries and discover a mysterious artifact, a gold and metal shelled Ball.
What drives the score
How to read this
Every input gets a grade, S to D, read from the buyer's side. The score is multiplicative, so an input only counts as raising when it sits near the top of its own scale. Anything with real room left is holding the score back, because that room is the gap to 100. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. The exact weights stay secret.
The value story
The lowest price on record is $1.49, set in November 2013. It has been discounted 77 times in the 14 years tracked here, typically at 75 percent off, with about 7 weeks between sales. Today it is at full price. The last sale was about 13 weeks ago, and on this game's rhythm the next one tends to arrive within 7 weeks.
On the same math Suicide Guy ($5.99, scores 74) and Moss VR ($19.99, scores 57) are the better buys, and they are the games it most resembles.
Steam's global achievement data says about 9 percent of players ever finish it. On a 5.9-hour game, that is a lot of paid-for hours most people never see. None of the 214 Steam-purchase reviews sampled here come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written March 2020 to September 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 57 percent of the 277 reviews written there were positive, against 74 percent overall, and those are 33 percent of everything written about it.
The main story runs 5.9 hours. Doing everything runs 14, 2.4 times as long.
The drop-off
54% start to 9% finishMost players never reach the end. On a 5.9-hour game, that's a lot you pay for and may never use. Steam global achievements
Players
2 players at peak in the last day.
The chart appears once this game has been counted more than once.Player counts via SteamSpy.
What players say
I took a gamble on The Ball, as I do not have the reflexes or hand-eye coordination for most fast paced shooting/dodging games. But there was something about its appearance and story which intrigued me, and because some reviews described it as not hard (for them a criticism, for me a ray of hope), I decided to take a chance. And, of course, I struggled, but with overall enjoyment and satisfaction as I slowly...
The Ball developed by Teotl Studios and published by Tripwire Interactive is a first-person action-puzzle adventure built around a single, striking concept: controlling a massive, mysterious metallic sphere deep within ancient ruins. Originally evolving from an award-winning Unreal Tournament 3 mod into a full standalone release, the game leans heavily into physics-based interaction, environmental puzzles, and...
Unique ball mechanic and beautiful visuals. Occasional bugs but fun achievements and extra stuff.
Player reviews from Steam: the most helpful all-time, plus the newest that clear the same quality bar, with the hours each player had put in when they wrote it. The mix of Recommended and Not recommended follows the game's Steam ratio. Rotates daily. Opinions are theirs.
Cite this score
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The Ball scores 35/100 on the BANG Score (a skip). The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/35460/the-ballThe BANG Score is one number for value, 0 to 100: price against how it reviews and how long it was built to be. It answers the money question and stops there; whether the game is for you is still your call.
Reviews set the ceiling and price moves you inside it, so a cheap game that reviews badly cannot climb. Ratings from few reviewers are shrunk toward the middle, so 100 percent from nine people does not outrank 96 percent from ninety thousand. Length comes from HowLongToBeat where it can be matched, measured against a per-genre floor so a five-hour narrative game is judged against other narrative games rather than against a sixty-hour RPG. Where no verified length exists the score says so and carries a dock, because the biggest input is then a guess. The full method, including where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 4, price as of Sep 24.
A number here look wrong? Tell me what it got wrong and I will look at the inputs behind it.