I make fun, of course, but Soccer is the biggest sport on the planet, and while it may not be the biggest sport in America, it's a downright way of life in other countries. I myself am a fan of Soccer and its many video game iterations. I buy FIFA every year and have a fondness for Mario Strikers Charged for the Wii, and so on. The question at hand, however, is how can you make the game of Soccer more exciting?
Horsepower!
Enter Rocket League. Where the rubber meets the grass. Where the athleticism and finesse of Soccer gets smashed together with the carnage of a destruction derby. Sounds fun, right? Well, here is what I think of Rocket League.
It's a simple, yet unique concept: instead of people playing Soccer, let's have cars do it. You can have a 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, or 4 vs 4 style matches. Personally, I feel 3 vs 3 is the right fit for a competitive team match, but I do love the chaos of a 4 vs 4 match. You also have the option of a single player season, or taking your skills online for ranked and unranked matches against people from all over the world, and also cross-platform between PC and PS4.
The most important thing about this game, though, is how much fun it is when the action gets going. The ball is placed at the center of the pitch, a countdown commences, and both teams turbo boost to the center to begin play/crash into each other. The ball is scaled accordingly, which is to say it's much bigger, and it can take some crazy bounces depending on how it hits the cars, side walls, etc.
The cars themselves are very agile and fun to maneuver. It's very easy to pull a slick 180 or boost into a somersault or a bicycle kick. You can also drive on walls or, if you decide you want to play defense, throw some sick car checks or even boost into an opponent, blowing them up and taking them out of the match for a couple seconds. Also, it's not called ROCKET League for nothing, since you can blast up in the air and kick on the rockets to begin an aerial assault.
While the game of Soccer has a lot to do with skill, Rocket League is a little skill, but mostly luck. Whether it's a lucky bounce off the wall, or you being luckily in the right place at the right time to slam home a goal, the action stays fast and chaotic and tons of fun.
The length of the match helps this frantic feeling along, as it is one 5 minute period as opposed to two halves, so it's GO GO GO and then on to the next one, which works for a game like this and reminds me of the fast pace of Splatoon. This also helps make the highlight moments stand out, cause every goal, every save, every block, every shot on goal, matters.
It also factors into your personal points and XP. As you make big plays you are awarded XP to level up and unlock new car features, such as decals, antennae accessories, hats, and even new body styles. Obviously you get the most points for scoring a goal, but things like assists, bicycle kicks, saves, centering the ball, and so on, get you points, so you always get something for participating, which is always nice.
The rewards for that are nice too. Right now I have a beefy SUV body style with a wizard hat on, a dollar sign antennae, sick stripes, and lowrider wheels, cause that's how I roll when I be scoring Golazos! Also there is a fez, because fezzes are cool.
There are a few stadiums in the game, but just like the customization options, it's all just cosmetic. No insane obstacles or traps to worry about, and that's really for the best. Though I do hope (and look forward to) more options for stadiums and accessories now that the game is out and getting attention.
While the single player mode can be useful for practice, and a nice diversion, the real meat of the game, and the main draw, is the online multiplayer. When the game was first released, there were some major server issues, but thanks to some hard work, patches and fixes, I have had no problem finding a game fast! What's also nice is that the game will search for a match while you are playing the single player, so you can queue up an online match and go do something else, which is handy.
While voice chat is certainly an option, there is also a quick chat option, where hitting a direction on the d-pad or a hotkey will bring up some pre-made chats. Also, the PC version does have controller support and I highly recommend it.
Rocket League is turning out to be one of my most addicting games of 2015. It's a 5-minute fury of chaos and finesse that gets your blood pumping and gives you super satisfaction when you somersault and slam home a goal, or make that last second save that gives your team a win. While it may be short on content right now, there is a great shell here that updates will hopefully fill with new accessories, new stadiums, and more, and the player base on this game is in full force. Sure, you can describe this game as "Car Soccer", but when you actually play it, it is much more than that, and an exhilarating rush of a good time.
Rocket League is available on Steam ($19.99 as of this writing) and PS4 (Free for PS Plus members in the month of July).
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