Rocket League was developed by an American studio called Psyonix a, studio which prior to Rocket League developed two car games such as shooting and arena power ups for the windows and ios. Psyonix big success came with Rocket League which was
published by themselves in July 2015. Upon it's release the game was heavily praised for managing to create a pleasant and unique experience that combined cars and the sport of football/soccer into one game. The idea was not original as many indie games
could have been seen in old free gaming websites such as Miniclip and Y8, but none had an impact with players around the world. Rocket League had an enormous amount of sales and a whooping 20+ million active players which also allowed the developers to make
the game an Esport with plenty of tournaments taking place and plenty of gamers spenting a huge ammount of time becomming profesionals. Five years later, in 2020 Psyonix made the best decision on making their game free to play, which did not only appeal
to players who never played it, but also raised the stream viewership, the ative player numbers and numbers of spectators in regards to it's esport. The descision to make the game free was also supported by the idea that the game had a lot of cosmetics and
items that the players can obtain only by spenting real currency. In other words since the game had alot of micro transaction in it's unlockables (cars,wheels,boost etc) it wouldnt make sense to be charged 25 euros. ( Which it was in the online ps store ( unless
there was an ongoing sale) as i bought the game 1 month prir to the game going free to play...).
The game is available in all available consoles and it supports cross-platform gaming. This means that the players around the world can play together despite their console of preference. For example in a single game of 3vs3 a team can consist of
Playstation players (Ps4/Ps5)
X Box players (XBoxOne/Series X/S)
Nintendo Switch
Pc Players
Steam Deck
The console of the player can be visibly seen in the players name. The game also offers a local multiplayer with up to one player.
Gameplay
Rules
Rocket league is a sport game where cars shoot a giant ball towards the goal. In simply terms it's the sport of soccer/footbal but instead of human players the player controls racing cars. The purpose of the game is to score as many goals in the enemy goal as
possible during the 5 minutes timer OR simply score more goals than the enemy team.
Gameplay
The controls of Rocket league are easy to any new comers who decided to pick the game however, if someone dedicates alot of time on the game they will eventually become better than average players. Similar to Dragon Ball FighterZ, it is an easy game
for begginers to pick up in order to enjoy a casual play but in order to procceed in higher ranks and enjoy a more competitive side of the game, someone will have to play and learn more stuff and mechanicks. The player can move around the car but also move around the camera. The camera also
has a button that when pressed, locks the camera on the ball, so the player will always look at the ball, but when pressed again it allows the player to freely look around. A directional button should always be escorted with the acceleration button in order for the engine to start. In other
words always press the button to move and not simply the direction. In order to stop the cars movement, the player will have to hit the brakes. Hitting the breaks when accelerating can cause the car to drift, but when the car is fully stoped, the car can move backwards. Moving backwards should
be combined with the appropriate button that shows the reverse camera. All of the maps have yellow circles, or circles with spheres. These are Boost/ Nitro and when the player drives onto them they gain boost in their boost meter located bottom right. A single spot offers a total of 12%, but a
spot with a sphere is a 100%. The boost can be used by tapping and holding the boost button. The game has a button that will cause the car to jump on air. Pressing the same button again and one of four directions (Up,Down,Right,Left) will cause the car to do a flip/spin. This is the best way to
shoot the ball towards a direction, win a crash and prevent the ball from going in the goal. Two buttons are also available for a side flip (different than x and direction). The jump button can be used if the car is upside down in order to flip. Jumping and using the boost can allow the car to
hover. Pros use this mechanism to stay airborne and control the ball in the air. The game allows the users to insert text in order to type a message to teammates or even in the general chat that even the opponents can see. Playing with a controller though, takes a while to insert text BUT the game
offers a total 16 quick commands that can be costumized. There are strategic commands such as, take the shoot defending... , commands that apology for mistakes being made, commands to give complements towards someone and general expressions such as WOW.
As mentioned the game is simple but also complex. For example, there is not a single button that can pass the ball to teammates. Skillfull players however, have found a way to pass the ball around whether is through shooting or through other means. Some even are capable of dripling the ball around
and even control it mid air with their use of boost. Fouls and free kicks do not exist but the players can eliminate each other by driving towards an opponent in high speed. This will cause an explosion animation and will spawn the player within seconds back to the side of the goals. This can be used strategic
wise to remove an opponent for a few seconds and to cause them to lose their boost, as any car exploded will spawn with the default 33%.
Gamemodes
The game offered a few game modes but the more it stayed the more it improved and added more to it. These game modes are :
Normal/Competitive Game
Normal round of the consist of two teams and a timer of 5 minutes, the team to score the most wins. The game had it's own team rules:
1vs1
2vs2
3vs3
4vs4
Tournament Mode
This is the same mode as normal, however winning the game will allow the team to ascent to the next game, whereas losing the game means elimination.
Basketball Mode
The game mode plays as normal, however the goals are replaced with Basketball Hoops. In order to score the players must shoot the ball inside the hoops
Snowday
The game mode plays as normal, however the ball is replaced with a hockey puck and the ground with slippery ice.
Dropshot
Dropshot doesnt have goals but instead the object is to put the ball into the floor. The ball is powered up according to the colour of the team that hit it last.Every time the ball bounced on the floor, it opens up a space. When the ball is fully lit up, it does a medium amount of damage. And when the ball is completely lit up and in ultra mode, it will deal the most damage possible. If the ball drops inside an open space it will count as a goal.
Normal but not really
The game mode is similar to normal, but the maps are very different with walls left and right, multiple goals and other crazy map designs
Rumble
Rumble is similiar to normal however each player receives a random power up every 10 seconds. These powerups have the ability to affect the ball, the player or other players. Abilities that freeze the ball, boot the enemy away from the ball, a tornado that affects both the opponents and the ball
Car Customization
One of the best things the game has to offer is the ability to customize as many cars as the player wants. To begin with, the game has an enormous roaster of car models to pick from This is the main skeleton/body of the car. The game begins by offering a great ammount of bodies and a few can be unlocked by radomly receiving them through boxes. Once the selection
of the skelton is made, the player can pick the painting alongside its colors. The player must select a total of two colors as a set for two different palletes, the pallete of Home and away.(Orange and Blue) These colours can also be customized with materials, such as made out of wood, iron, sun exposed and others. Once again the game offersalot of styles for starters but
also drop more often than bodies. After the coloring is done, the player can choose decals( which can only be obtain by boxes). These decals are patterns such as skeletons, stars etc. Then the player needs to customize the car wheels from a huge variety of wheels. Once again wheels can be obtain from boxes. Moreover, the players are capable of customizinf the car's gas when boosting and the tail it creates once the car speeds up.
The trail and boost can be anything from fire,water, stars music everything where's the trail is usually something like colored lines or special effect like smoke. Furthermore the cars engine noise is also customizable. In addition the player can not customize the top of a car with silly stuff like worms, hats, glasses and plenty of other staff but also place a flag on it's antenna. The flags can
represent a country, a community or something else. Last but not least the final customization obtion is the goal celebration when the player scores a goal. This can be a simple explosion, an explosion that causes woods to grow and plenty of other clever and nice celebrations.
Bad Thing of the Game
The main negative thing about the game comes in the form of pay to unlock. The game became free to play so the company needs a way to get money, and it came with the form of blueprints and season pass. While playing the game, the player gains experience and levels which unlock some items that you can use as rewards. However, most of the items are either 'boring' items such as potraits or simple car wheels. It is very rare to get a 'decent reward'
as most of the good stuff like goal celebration or car bodies are locked behind blue prints. These prints contain an item that can only be unloced by purchasing it with real money. This can be frustrating as some cool looking items like meteor rain (when scored) or any other certain goal celebration can be on the players possession but cannot be used unless money are given, (which some times are expensive). The game does not reward the player with in game
currency unless the player purchases the Season pass. There are two season pass, one for free and one for currency. The one people pay for, has a reward each time the player levels up which can be really goof if someone will play the game alot and not just for fun. The season pass also includes small award such as ingame currency which can be used to unlock the blue prints. There should ve been
a way to get items outside of simply paying money. I do believe the game should have micro-transactions in order to continue the support cycle but offer something interesting here and there for the casual players.
Final Thoughts
Over all the game is fun is very interesting with good mechanics. The level design although is limited to how it can be design given this has to be a soccer/football kind of map is still gorgeous. Whether the maps represent a sandy beach, a big mountain in Japan is still looking good and unique. The gameplay is easy to pick up and can offer plenty of enjoynment when played with
friends, both as a team and as opponents. The game offers a huge variety of car customization and everyone can make unique designs for their car. The one and only problem of the game is the one mentioned above about how the game requires to spent currency to unlocked items gained and generally to get more customization options. Nevertheless the game is free to play which can easily
be downloaded in order to try yourselves.
This is a video with my Honest review close to when i played the Game
