A few years ago, if someone had said that you should play football with rocket fueled cars in a thunderdome style environment, they would’ve been quickly dismissed as a crazy, maybe psychotic person. But this is exactly what gave birth to something that almost everyone has come to love – Rocket League. The game has the players engulfed in a frenzy, and it’s hard to think of any reasons of why it shouldn’t.
Psyonix’s new game on the block is a perfect blend of strategy and speed, requiring the players to make split-second decisions, while acrobatically flying across a football arena, trying to score against the opponents. The approach is pretty simple. You’re placed in a football field in a 1v1 / 2v2/ 4v4 match, and all you need to do is get past the defenses and score as many goals as possible.
However, as you race up and down the field, crashing into your teammates and foes countless times, you realize that there is a lot more to the game than meets the eye. The good thing is that you don’t need to know anything about driving or football to play the game. The bad? No matter how good you are at real life driving and/or football, it won’t help you in the game at all.
Rocket League thrives on speed and momentum and unrestricted, gravity defying movements. That means that you can easily drive on the walls and the ceiling, and literally fly your way around the field. In turn, that means the possibilities are endless, and you may come across players that can handle the ball with such finesse that makes your jaw drop. The game is based on constant involvement and practice, and does not have any unlockable special items or abilities. All the areas are basically similar and there is no class system, so everyone is at equal footing irrespective of the car they choose. The only variable is the difficulty level and the team size.
The game looks amazing as well. With brightly coloured cars and even brighter, neon coloured arenas, it feels quite arcade-y. And the lightning fast, fluid motions are brought out really well. But the real joy of Rocket League is in the mechanics, as you unsuccessfully try to drive in a complete loop across the field, maybe scoring an unintentional goal in the process *wink*.
Celebrating the one year anniversary of the game, Psyonix released Rocket League: Collector’s Edition, which has a lot of goodies in addition to the base game. Here is a list of what all is there in the collector’s edition:
- The Original Rocket League base game
- Three complete DLC Packs, including…
- Supersonic Fury
- Revenge of the Battle-Cars
- Chaos Run
- Four brand-new vehicles debuting in the Collector’s Edition! Specifically…
- Esper (Neo Tokyo-inspired)
- Masamune (Neo Tokyo-inspired)
- Aftershock (Homage to the original Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars)
- Marauder (Homage to the original Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars)
- Limited Edition Art Print by Psyonix Concept Artist, Jay Zhang
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