It’s football with cars. Online, multiplayer football with a giant football, a futuristic arena and superpowered cars – but it’s football with cars. It has fancy graphics, smooth gameplay and short matches that lend themselves nicely to videogame addiction – but it’s football with cars. Whether one bothers with Rocket League at all depends entirely on how much the player cares for football, cars and the two being combined in one game.
Several modes of gameplay are boasted by Rocket League, allowing for various states of football and car sportsmanship. Group or single matches, with or without bots, in varying arenas, with slightly different looking footballs and cars. Play with friends or strangers – but never alone (there wasn’t even a training mode in the Beta version) – for varying amounts of time, Rocket League is… well, it is what it is. Football with cars.
Gameplay is enjoyably frantic, with various boosts and power-ups available on the pitch, and gravity-defying speed allowing the player to traverse up walls and into balls (well, just the one) from a great height and distance. Whacking it into the net results in the nearby players being blasted across the field, while there’s great fun to be had in smashing other cars out of the way in pursuit of the ball. In this respect, it’s reminiscent of Street Racer on the PS1 – which only made me wish I was playing Street Racer on the PS1 (we’re due a cleaned-up HD version about now, surely!) instead. Still, matches are quick and crazy enough that there’s no time to get bored, and if another player is too good (there’s always one) it’ll be over so soon that rage-quitting isn’t even necessary.
Whether it’s a fun way to kill half an hour or your next gaming addiction, Rocket League does what it does perfectly well. It’s football with cars! And on that bombshell…
ROCKET LEAGUE / DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: PSYONIX / PLATFORM: PLAYSTATION 4, PC / RELEASE DATE: TBC (CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AS BETA)
