REVIEW: Rocket League

Platform: PS4, PC (Cross platform play)

Release date: July 7th, 2015

Price:  Free for PS+ users, $20 for non PS+ users

It's a scorching hot July afternoon, you grip the steering wheel, staring at your fellow drivers on both your left and right as you all anxiously await the countdown.You see the clock begin to count 3...2...1. Before you can read the words "Go", you have the pedal to the metal, your surroundings become a blur as you race furiously towards your objective. All around you cars are crashing into each other, all attempting to get ahead. It all happens so fast, but before you know it, its all over. You hear the roar of the crowd "GOOOOOOAAAAAL"

Wait...what?

That's right, welcome to Rocket League. It's the game you never realized you needed in your life until right now.

My love for Rocket League happened by chance. It was an evening in early May when PSN went down and was unavailable for most of the night. I took to Reddit, and more specifically R/Ps4 to see what was going on. A few of the comments discussed how no game was able to be accessed online at the time except the Beta of a game called "Rocket League". Having no other choice I decided to check out the Beta and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Concept

The concept of Rocket League is very simple, It's soccer with cars. Set in what seems to be the future, Rocket League features both Single Player and Multi player modes where players join a team of fellow drivers to compete for glory against an opposing team. As seen in the trailer above, Rocket League features full customization of cars. All customization is purely cosmetic and will not affect game play.

Gameplay

The game play is the real bread and butter of what makes Rocket League so good. It has a "Easy to learn, difficult to master" style which makes it great for casual gamers as well as hardcore gamers. There are 4 main buttons to Rocket League. Accelerate, Brake, Jump, and Boost. Boosts can be picked up in various parts of the field and are represented by glowing yellow beams. Standard beams give you roughly 25% boost while yellow orbs found in the 4 corners of the field, as well as midfield, give drivers a full 100% boost. Jump is mostly use to "Kick" the ball, and players can control the direction of the car by using the left analog stick mid air. These two concepts are relatively simple, but after a week of playing the Beta I found myself learning expert techniques such as jumping followed by using boost, which gives the car the ability to fly. This ability gives players an advantage on a mid air ball!

Overall, Rocket League is a very enjoyable game that, in my opinion, is worth checking out. In the era we live in where AAA games rule the market, and games have become a grind of daily objectives and "Pay to Win" mentalities, its refreshing to play game that's simple, focuses on pure game play, and is just overall fun. Every time I would score a goal, I found myself jumping up and celebrating, and I dare any of our readers to try and resist doing the same.

If you're interested in playing Rocket League it will be launching on PSN on July 7th, for the low, low price of free. Yes, Rocket League will be FREE for all Playstation Plus subscribers, and $20 at launch for non PS+ members.

If you're interested in seeing more of Rocket League, then check out this video I recorded during my time in the beta. It was a super intense match that really came down to the wire, something that you will see a lot of in this game!