If you’re looking for a full-on breakdown of this month’s top PlayStation Plus offering, keep an eye out for when our full review goes live later this week. For now, however, we can tell you this: Rocket League is sublime.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise really. Even today, many years after its underground debut, League’s gracelessly named predecessor, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, still cruises within the PlayStation Network hall of fame. Why? Because it nailed the basics of what a downloadable game should be: simple, fun, and an absolute blast with friends – either online or intensely huddled around the same screen. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve lost to Battle Cars but I know it was all time well worth spent.
Having dreamt of playing a sequel for so long, it feels almost surreal typing up my thoughts on the game. In a nutshell, everything has been refined and expanded to suit the needs of every player. Whether you’re a returning veteran with thousands of ranked caps, or someone looking for a quick slice of fun and frantic gaming action, Rocket League has you sorted.
With Battle Cars’ spiritual successor spearheading this month’s PS Plus selection, making the game accessible to everyone needed to be a top priority for developer Psyonix. Although fans will no doubt jump straight in, there are a slew of helpful tutorials on-hand, going well beyond a simple breakdown of the control scheme.
Again, we’ll save our in-depth analysis for the review, but if there’s one thing that has worried us slightly about Rocket League, it’s the roster of stadiums available at launch. There’s a handful on constant rotation, each with its own unique backdrop and setting. However, the actual design of these maps very similar and almost all of them identical in size and shape.
It’s something newcomers may not pick up on, but for long-time fans, this initial spread of stadiums comes off as somewhat lacklustre. If there was one thing I loved alongside the original’s sharp gameplay, it was the crop of bizarre and unpredictable map designs. From the doughnut-shaped castle and oversized dune to the simply bonkers pirate galleon, each had a sense of character while drastically changing the pace of play.
Don’t get me wrong, everything else in Rocket League is tip-top. When not earning experience points online and unlocking new car parts, I’m leading my own team to the top of a football-style league in season mode. It’s just a shame I won’t be able to pop off shots within a more diverse array of maps.
Thankfully, Psyonix has already promised a sustained feed of downloadable content. The studio’s close ties with the community also mean that, if enough people request a more varied stock of maps, they’ll no doubt hop straight to it. Unless, of course, they haven’t already got a stable of zany maps already in the pipeline…
MrYd
Not quite as strange as the terrible AI. Cars on your own team seem to have a tendency to decide where they’re going and nothing is going to stop them trying to get there.
I’m guessing it’s not really meant to be played on your own.
MrYd
Also, from having another little go on it…
The physics is “interesting” to say the least. If you drive towards the ball and hit it, it should go straight ahead. Now, I can understand if your aim might be a little off and it shoots off at an angle. But the direction it travels should at least have some sort of forward component. It absolutely shouldn’t suddenly decide to go backwards.
And if you drive straight ahead from the start and hit the ball, and nobody else gets in the way, you score. Except those times when you don’t, for no obvious reason. Looks like the physics has some random factor to it, which varies between “a little bit random” to “welcome to opposite world”.
Oh, and the servers have fallen over.
Overall, it might amuse me for an hour or two, and then probably get relegated to the pile of PS+ games I mean to come back to someday, honest, no, really, I’ll get around to it, just let me finish something else first. Around 6/10, assuming the servers work.
MrYd
It’s worse than I thought. The AI sometimes goes a bit mad and likes to score for the other team.
Not just the odd accidentally knocking the ball in the wrong goal thing. The 2 AI players on my team were doing it deliberately. It was effectively a 1 vs 5 match instead of 3 vs 3.
And it’s making the fans in the PS4 get a bit excited too. I’ve never heard it that loud.
If anyone was going to download it tonight (if the PSN is working again yet), I’d recommend waiting until they update it and fix it, assuming they do, or the servers start working. The single player side of it is an annoying, broken exercise in getting lucky.
Jimster71
The similar stadiums was done on purpose for a couple of reasons. They wanted new players to get used to the basic gameplay before they mix it up with different arenas. They also have an eye on e-sports. Because of this they wanted the ‘sport’ to have regulation style stadiums.
I thought the AI was ok when I played through the championship, different AI cars have different characteristics.
beeje13
So is the lack of variety of stadia the ‘one strange ommission’. That’s not too bad then.
bunimomike
Agreed. Didn’t feel strange at all but then I’m weird so perhaps “strange” is not so strange any more. :D
Stefan L
A strange omission when taken in the context of what went before.
Forrest_01
I thought for a moment that the strange omission from rocket league would have been an actual ‘league’. That would have been quite funny! ;)
Although if the maps all feel the same, how long is it going to take for repetition to set in?
Jimster71
It’s similar to saying that all of the ‘maps’ in FIFA feel the same.
Forrest_01
Yeah, I suppose it would be actually. Fair point well made.
MrYd
About 5 minutes? The length of a single game?
Forrest_01
Can’t comment on that as I am yet to try it – I hope not, but I’ll reserve judgement until I have actually given it a go. :)
R1MJAW
Repetition isn’t really a major problem because you’re usually too busy trying to keep tabs on where the ball and your teammates/opponenets are to actually worry about which stadium you’re in.
I do hope they add in some of the SSARPBC stadiums though as it makes things even more crazy.
Forrest_01
Yeah, Jimster made a good point about that above. Like you though, I would also like to see a bit of crazy creep in at some stage though.
Maybe a bit of free DLC might not go amiss? Game on plus, crazy courses/arenas for a measly sum maybe?
R1MJAW
They’ve already said that any additional dlc stadiums will be free, which is nice.
Forrest_01
That is indeed very nice – Does make you wonder what exactly they are getting out of this plus deal though.
tonyyeb
This doesn’t bother me personally as I liked the more standard rectangle arenas. DLC would be nice (and I’m sure is coming) but for the moment this has to be one of the best sequels to date.
colmshan1990
Headline nearly gave me a heart attack, my mind jumped straight to local multiplayer.
Thankfully this gen (mainly because of indies) seems friendlier to split screen multiplayer and playing in the same room as your friends than the last one. SARPBC was utterly amazing split-screen (not sure I bothered online, and single player was boring), I can’t wait to get stuck into Rocket League’s split-screen.
coruscant
This also really bothered me when I played the beta, glad to see it’s not just me! I hope all the DLC maps have different designs, cos I don’t get the point of having the same map over and over again just with a slightly different skin!