3D Live Snooker Review

For a game that could almost fit on a floppy disk, 3D Live Snooker packs quite a pleasant punch. Setting up and playing a simple snooker game is a piece of cake, thanks to easy-to-navigate menus and simple controls. Once you begin a game, you are treated to decent 3D graphics and a charming pub atmosphere. Striking the cue ball feels quite natural, and the resulting ball physics are also passable. With the full version of the game, you also get some nice aesthetic extras, including additional ball sets, cues, and tables/scenes.

While there are a number of positives to be said about 3D Live Snooker, I should point out that it is by no means the best billiards simulator out there. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, except the best billiards simulator out there is readily available, still as good as ever, and, oddly enough, nearly $10 cheaper.

This game I refer to is Virtual Pool 3, which has been the gold standard in billiards games since its release several years ago. Not only does VP3 allow you to play snooker (with 3, 6, 10, or 15 reds), but it also includes 20 other billiards games (which can be player against CPU or with local or online multiplayer), as well as the option to do setup/trick shots.

Where 3D Live Snooker is designed to be ridiculously easy to pick up and play, VP3 is designed to provide the most expansive, realistic, and entertaining billiards experience you can possibly get. Naturally, VP3 is slightly more complicated to operate if you want to get the most out of it, mostly because of the myriad keyboard shortcuts. But it is by no means overly difficult to operate, and anyone who can install and set up a game in 3D Live Snooker shouldn't have any problems doing the same in VP3.

The bottom line is, if you are in a situation where VP3 is simply not an option--say, you firebombed the house of one of the people at Celeris and they refuse to sell to you--then I would say that 3D Live Snooker is a decent game that will probably satisfy your snooker needs for quite some time. (It is true that the extra locations of 3D Live Snooker are more imaginative and fanciful that those of VP3, and if all you want to do is play snooker in a castle, then I guess VP3 can't match that.)

However, if gameplay and value for money is what you want then the choice is blindingly obvious. A simple glance at both games shows that nothing about 3D Live Snooker justifies its expense. Hence the title: nice, but not nice enough.

Not worth purchasing.