Bethesda Pinball Review – Xbox One/PS4

I was sure with the new movie just around the corner the next pinball tables we’d see from Zen Studios would have been Rogue One related. They never seem to miss a Star Wars opportunity, but here we are with three new tables – perhaps some of the best and certainly the most ambitious table designs in their 80-table library, and all with the common theme of being based on Bethesda properties.

Bethesda Pinball brings together mega-hit franchises, Fallout, Skyrim, and DOOM to create one of the most visually stunning and mind-blowingly complicated tables in the history of computerized pinball simulations – so much in fact that often, the art of actually playing pinball is nearly lost.

Perhaps the most basic of the three new tables is DOOM, where you get to fight your way through the demon-infested UAC research labs. This was my favorite of the three new tables mainly because it was pure pinball – nothing but shooting at ramps and targets to trigger missions and spawn demons that would appear on the table as actual 3D targets. Fun nuances to the game include a weapon wheel that lets you switch guns and fan-favorite power-ups like Quad Damage. My only minor issue with the DOOM table is that the volume is exponentially louder than any other table in my collected – so much that I had to lower my Denon amp down a full 10db just for this table.

The Skyrim table is up next, and it begins a downward spiral into a new level of complexity that really has no place in pinball. Skyrim is a massively deep RPG full of systems and game mechanics that the Zen team tried to bring into the world of pinball and just mucked it up. You’ll spend more time in menus tweaking your inventory or adjusting skills or leveling up your…err…character than you will hitting the ball, and 80% of the time when I exited a menu I’d forget where the ball was in play, and it would drain down the center. Even the combination of left/right (sometimes both) flippers and launch button controls to navigate those menus is horrible. I have a fully functional D-pad not being used and Zen is trying to force some pseudo-pinball reality on me. It’s sad really because the design is as epic as the game this table is based on with all sorts of window dressing including a formidable dragon that will swoop over the table setting everything ablaze. Your RPG progress can be optionally continued across multiple sessions of pinball for those who are in this for the long haul.

The Fallout table shares this same level of complexity to the point where you must create a character even before you launch that first ball. Thankfully there is a randomizer if you just want to skip over this padded process, but even after launching the ball you’ll have to watch for radiation and collect bottle caps then spend them on upgrades. The nice thing about Fallout is that you can pretty much tune out all the RPG stuff and approach this as a regular pinball table. At this point you will enjoy some great ramps, rails, targets, and interactive 3D characters along with some stunning lighting effects, but if you are going for the top of the leaderboards, you’ll eventually have to embrace all the non-pinball fluff surrounding this table.

The Bethesda Pinball collection seems like a significant misstep for Zen Studios. The tables are overly ambitious (at least two of them) in their game design. I have nearly 80 tables in my library now and nothing before this has been this “un-fun” to play. It’s sad really because these tables are pure artistry when it comes to design, art, and all the 3D special effects. They’ve really captured the flavor of all three games visually and especially with the fantastic audio package full of authentic music, sounds, and voice overs. There needed to be more music though, as often a track would end and not even loop back on itself leaving you to play with sound effects only.

As always, Bethesda Pinball supports up to four players in hot seat multiplayer and there are all sorts of hidden trophies to discover and leaderboards to climb. The persistent world of Skyrim is a nice touch for those who want to carry their role-playing across multiple pinball sessions, but for me, DOOM was the only table out of this trio worth playing, which makes it even sadder you can’t purchase these tables individually. $11 for a 3-pack is a good deal but not when you likely won’t play two of the tables.

We reviewed Bethesda Pinball on both the Xbox One and the PS4. This was our first time playing Zen Pinball 2 on our new PS4 Pro. Our initial observations were that the new DualShock 4 (the one with the light bar on top) sucks for this game. The R1 and L1 buttons are now very mushy and introduce crippling lag into the flipper action. Going back to an older model DualShock 4 resolved most of our flipper problems, but there does seem to be a potential for framerate lag when the PS4 is upscaling to 4K. Views 1W and 6 seem to minimalize this effect.

The Xbox One version is solid all around, especially if you are using the ultra-responsive Elite controller, and for this particular release I’d have to give a slight edge to Xbox. I’d like to see a new redesign for the table selection interface. The only thing worse than scrolling through a linear selection of theme boxes on the Xbox is trying to pick your table from a grid of 80 tiny thumbnails on the PS4. We need something better and uniform across both consoles.

Somewhere along the line Zen Studios either got too ambitious or lost touch with their core audience. We play this game and collect these tables because WE LOVE PINBALL. The themes are just a nice touch that enhance the art of flipping steel balls at targets and lanes in our quest for high scores, but when those themes dominate and even overshadow the basic premise of pinball, it’s time to reevaluate and find a more tempered balance of gameplay and concept.

When you’ve been playing this game for as long as I have on nearly every format available with every table in the library it’s only a matter of time until you get a stinker or two. It’s sad they had to appear in the same bundle because that makes it a tough recommendation. Pinball lovers would do best to steer clear of Bethesda Pinball, but for those who enjoy the RPG minutia of Fallout and Skyrim and don’t mind a little pinball on the side go ahead and give this a shot. The art design and presentation of the tables alone is nearly worth the price of admission.

Screenshot Gallery







Author: Mark Smith
I've been an avid gamer since I stumbled upon ZORK running in my local Radio Shack in 1980. Ten years later I was working for Sierra Online. Since then I've owned nearly every game system and most of the games to go with them. Not sure if 40+ years of gaming qualifies me to write reviews, but I do it anyway.

1 thought on “Bethesda Pinball Review – Xbox One/PS4

  1. It’s worth mentioning that since I reviewed Bethesda Pinball there has been a Day One patch for the PS4 version of the main game that actually sorts the tables by theme/franchise. So that is one less complaint and one step closer to perfection.

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