Electronic Theatre In-depth Review: 1 Vs 100 LIVE (Season Two)

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The first season of 1 Vs 100 LIVE, originally available back in July of this year, was commonly thought of as the beat testing phase for Microsoft’s latest Xbox LIVE initiative. While offering regular prizes for those lucky enough to find themselves chosen for participation in the Mob, or perhaps even chosen as “The One”, there was a distinct lack of statistics monitoring or those all-important Xbox 360 Achievements. The launch of 1 Vs 100 LIVE season two aims to change all that, offering a persuasive representation of the future of games shows.

1 Vs 100 LIVE performs in the expected format based upon it’s television show namesake. Before each game, The One is chosen in addition to one hundred players which form the Mob. Players in excess of this one-hundred-and-one total will Electronic Theatre Image still be able to take part, answering every question in exactly the same fashion as part of The Crowd, but with the opportunity to win prizes limited to only the top three players. To be in with a chance of playing as either The One of part of the Mob, players must achieve the greatest score they can across season, weekly and previous round totals.

Questions are answered with increasing difficulty as the round progresses. The One is tasked with eliminating as many members of the Mob as possible through answering correctly as they answer incorrectly. Three “helps” available to guide them through difficult questions; Trust The Crowd takes the most common answer from The Crowd, as does Trust the Mob with, unsurprisingly, The Mob. Trust the Top 10 is a revision of one of the helps available in the first season of 1 Vs 100 LIVE, now taking the most common answer from the top ten players of the round, rather than the single leading player. The One will win an increasing amount of Microsoft Points for every ten members of the Mob they knock out, and is offered the opportunity to take their winnings or continue for a greater amount whilst risking that which they have already accumulated upon each new level of winnings.

Each game lasts around thirty minutes, and the varying topics mean that there’s something nearly everyone can feel like a winner at. There are Electronic Theatre Image currently only a handful of prize-offering games a week, listed as Trivia Events, with many “Extended Play” features offering the player the opportunity to improve their score and stand a greater chance of being picked for participation in the Mob or as The One. The fact that a number of the Achievements can only be earned during Trivia Events is certainly likely to push up the attendance rate for a while, but the Extended Play games do provide additional assists for all players presenting itself entirely as an opportunity for practice.

The game allows for up to four players to take part simultaneously on a single system, either multiple Gold Subscribers or Guest profiles in association with a single Gold Subscriber. This option suggests 1 Vs 100 LIVE as a tempting alternative to the likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band for an evening’s entertainment with friends, and the fact that it’s entirely free to play for as long as you wish means that for many it will often be the first choice. And with the Xbox LIVE Xtival taking place this weekend, giving anyone with their Xbox Electronic Theatre Image 360 connected to the Xbox LIVE network the privileges of a Gold Subscription for the whole weekend, there simply hasn’t been a better time to sample the unique treats that 1 Vs 100 LIVE has to offer.

1 Vs 100 LIVE is the start of something very new. With the game representing the first truly interactive game show that players can take part in from their living room, it would be hard to deny that it holds the possibility to set the mind racing with ideas as to where the future of television will end-up. With so many new features arriving on the Xbox 360 Dashboard in recent weeks, it would be easy for any one new addition to be swept under the rug, ignored by all but the most explorative gamers. The launch of the second season of 1 Vs. 100 LIVE has arguably received less coverage in both the mainstream and specialist press than the arrival of Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm, but of all these new features, 1 Vs. 100 LIVE is certainly the most progressive for the videogame industries.

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