Mohamed FarisGame Review: Rocket League
What could possibly go wrong when cars play football? In the case of Rocket League, absolutely nothing.
Rocket League is a video game where players play as cars in a game of vehicular football. The game is developed by Psyonix for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows.
Gameplay
First things first, Rocket League is incredibly fun. It’s been long since we’ve played a game as fun as this, and for such a simple concept, it’s great at drawing players in. The game is really fast paced, but at 5 minutes a match, it feels like a good balance.
There’s a bit of derby demolition to it too, with major crashes that end up destroying your vehicle. But don’t worry, you’ll respawn in a matter of seconds. That’s right, you can have your revenge in just seconds.
Score the most goals, try not to blow up and you’ll win. Easy.
Online & Seasons
As with all new games with online multiplayer capabilities, having solid servers is massively important. Thankfully, we found Psyonix’s dedicated servers to be smooth sailing. Electronic Arts can learn a thing of two from it.
Unfortunately, we were disappointed at the lack of game modes both offline and online.
Offline, there are exhibition and season modes. Players get to head into a single match or an entire season of matches, in solo 1v1 or as many as 4 cars a team. We went through a whole season and won the championship, but there was no significant reward for our triumph.
Zeroing onto online mode, there are also 1v1 up to 4v4 exhibition matches that can be played and we appreciate this, but that’s where it ends. There should be more than just friendly matches and ranking up. We don’t even know how ranking up helps us in-game.
A game mode where online divisions or seasons are implemented would have value-added to the online aspect of Rocket League.
Image & Graphics
There was nothing special about the graphics in Rocket League. Playing on the new-gen PlayStation 4, it wasn’t lacking, but neither did it stun graphically. Apart from a few glitching tyres under the playing surface, the game was fluid. The imaging and feel of the vehicles and arenas still gets our praise.
Players get to make their vehicles their own with unlockable customizations. Don’t fret, there’ll be unlocks almost every other match you play, and we especially loved how we unlocked customization items even after a loss. With thousands of combinations players can choose from, it would be hard to find a vehicle that looks exactly the same as one another, and that’s okay. We like having a blue van with white spots on it.
Final Words
Rocket League has been the most fun we’ve had playing video games in a while. It’s fast paced, exciting and full of in-game action. However, this is not a complete package as it is seriously lacking in game modes both offline and online.
Given this is a sequel to Psyonix’s 2008 Battle-Cars, we’re looking forward to the third installment. We’ll hope it has all that we ask for and more.
If you haven’t already, the game is worth a shout and worth your time. Play with friends online, we promise you’ll have a blast. Just don’t get into cars and drive down to the new National Stadium to test the game out in real life.
[xrr rating=4/5 display_as=textstars label=”Our Rating:”]
Information
Release Date: 7 July 2015
Developers: Psyonix
Publishers: Psyonix
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows
Price: PlayStation 4 (Free for PS Plus subcribers), Microsoft Windows ($20 on Steam)