ROCKET LEAGUE: THE ULTIMATE SOC-CAR GAME

Being the sequel to the obscure PS3-exclusive Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, there was not much hype surrounding the release of Rocket League. But within one week of its release, it got a 10/10 rating on Steam, reached 120,000+ concurrent online players and is now the latest video game to officially become an eSport. That should be enough to tell you what a great piece of work this game is.

Rocket League
Developer : Psyonix
Publisher : Psyonix
Engine : Unreal Engine 3
Platforms : Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4
Review Platform : Microsoft Windows
Release Date : July 7, 2015

The gameplay of Rocket League is extremely simple, but its simplicity is its beauty. Rocket League is about two teams (Blue and Orange) of miniature sports cars, nicknamed Rockets, trying to send a gigantic soccer ball into each other's goal post in an enclosed arena. Enclosed arena means that the play is not limited to the ground only. The rockets can use the four walls (and sometimes the ceiling too) to their advantage. Each match is five minutes in length and the team with the higher score at the end of regulation period is the winner. If the match is tied then the play continues onto "Overtime" which is pretty similar to "Golden Goal" except that there is no time limit. The controls are pretty basic too. Besides driving them around, you can apply boost and perform acrobatics with the rockets by combining the directional input and the jump input. The game has an in-depth training mode which will help you master the game. There are ten rockets which can be unlocked through progression and their decal, paint, wheels and trail can be customised. You can also add hats or antennas to them. These customisation items need to be unlocked through progression as well. The customisation mechanism, while not too deep, is still very enjoyable.

The game has single-player, local split-screen multiplayer and online multiplayer modes. Besides Exhibition Mode, this game also features a Season Mode. There are four types of matches in the game –Duel (1v1), Doubles (2v2), Standard (3v3) and Chaos (4v4). In Duel, the job of both attacking and defending falls upon a single player, which can be quite stressful. In Chaos, the arena becomes way too crowded and it becomes difficult to keep track of events. That's why I personally prefer the Doubles and Standard modes. The single-player is fun at first but the gameplay might become repetitive, mainly due to the AI's tendency of scoring own goals. The frustration increases when your AI teammates score own goals and cause you to lose. The multiplayer, however, is a completely different story. The servers are always jam-packed and you will never face the lack of partners to play with. The only issue with the multiplayer is that currently there are only four servers – Europe, US-East, US-West and Oceania. There are no servers yet for Asia or the other regions so you will get ridiculously high ping and suffer from lag issues time to time. But these issues are not very frequent and they might be fixed in future updates.

To sum up, Rocket League is a must play if you are looking for a good time.

Nony Khondaker is an introvert with immense passion for tech, gaming and music. Feel free to send in your constructive opinions at nonykhondaker@live.com