If I had to name the one thing I miss most about my school days (and to be honest, I’m going back a fairly long way here) I’d say it’s the ability to play football every day. I’m sure I could do that now if I really wanted to, but never again will I be in a position to run out onto the playground or field every breaktime and always have enough people for at least some five-a-side. It was glorious. Tennis ball, sopping wet sponge ball, tatty old mini leather ball… we’d have kicked around a bunch of rolled up paper if we had to. Having played Sloclap’s (Sifu, Absolver) Rematch for a few hours it’s already provided the closest I’ve experienced to those classic days of scuffed shoes and grass-stained trousers.
This kind of five-a-side-style game of football isn’t new to video games, of course. It’s most memorable for me in FIFA 97 (the one with legend David Ginola on the European cover art), although unlike in Rematch the gameplay on the 32-Bit systems of the time is viewed from the side of the pitch, with you essentially possessing whichever player has the ball. In Rematch you control one player who is part of a three-to-five-player team. If you’ve played Be a Pro/Player Career in modern FIFA/EA FC, with the camera hovering behind your player, you’ll know what to expect. The difference here in Rematch is the level of control you have over what you do with the ball and the more arcade feel to the matches.
It’s easy to see why onlookers have somewhat hilariously labeled Rematch as football Rocket League. The visuals (futuristic and neon), the arenas, the slightly closed-off feeling as you can’t easily see what’s around you, it all has that Rocket League sauce. But ball control, as you might expect from an actual football game, is very different. Passing is angled to where you point with the left stick (when playing with a controller), shooting is precision-targeted to where the camera is pointed as if you are playing a third-person shooter, strength and loft can be decided, and you have some finer close-control that simply isn’t possible when hitting an oversize ball with a car. This is the closest a game has come to mimicking the feel of playing football, and I’m loving it.
I’ve mostly played 3v3 matches so far, although you can also choose 4v4 and 5v5. Despite a tutorial that runs you through the basics, nothing prepares you for the intensity of an actual match where you’ll likely fumble under the pressure that simply isn’t felt during the training. 3v3, if anything, at least means I am letting fewer people down, so I’m sticking to this mode for the time being. There’s a fairly steep learning curve to battle through in Rematch, and the added stress of having more people wanting the ball or trying to dispossess you of the ball isn’t conducive to learning.
You’re always playing with and against other humans online in Rematch, whether it’s a bunch of friends who you regularly party up with or a group of randoms, and thus the school playground feeling is thrust front and centre. There are none of the deeper rules in Rematch (so no offside, no fouls, no handball), just a requirement to score more goals than the opposing team. There’s also no set goalkeeper (oh, hello core school memory that has just come rushing back), so you can be diving to save a shot one second and charging up the pitch the next as you attempt to score yourself.
This free, casual feel in a fiercely fought online game inevitably, at least in these early days, leads to chaos. The positionally-decided goalie is reminiscent of “rush keepers” from school, wherein anyone could be in goal, but it could only be one person at a time. If there’s a defining characteristic of school kids or people who play competitive games online, though, it’s an eagerness to show off. That goalie who ended up on the half-way line (honestly, there were some right liabilities for this at my school) is often dispossessed while trying to flick the ball over their head, leaving an open goal for all but the most spherically incompetent.
Let’s not pretend I’m innocent in all of this, either. Everyone, I assume, sees the spotlight focus on them at crucial moments, thinking for that split-second that you are in fact Romario and not actually a slightly chubby 11-year-old. Or, in Rematch’s case today, Harry Kane and not actually 42 – the chubbiness remains. Over time I’m sure this ball-hogging and headline grabbing will make way for more finessed play, and the signs are promising. I’ve already mildly thrown a fist or two into the air after a peak-Barcelona move ended in a goal to win a game in the dying moments. With two teams battling hard, not making mistakes, these sequences of play will be even more jubilant.
Concerns at this stage are mostly to do with goalkeeping. Not so much the way players leave the goals exposed, which is part of the game, but the act of saving itself. I’ve got to grips with the fundamentals of passing and shooting so that I’m not a complete embarrassment, but I still find myself diving in comical fashion as my hands flail nowhere near the ball, with replays confirming I was beaten by shots even the previously lambasted school children could have saved. I’m going to hit the training modes some more to see if I can become more competent.
There’s also the longevity to consider. Sloclap has promised new content in each season, but this is impossible to judge at this point, as is the general hook of leveling up your rank. An online-centric game like this also needs a healthy player base, which is far from a given. Rocket League, if you remember, launched into PlayStation Plus back when it was a premium paid-for offering. This helped establish a community. Rematch is part of Game Pass, but the early going will need to be smooth for those initially interested players to stick around.
I’ve tried at various points to get into Rocket League. I understand its popularity, but I never quite gelled with it. Rematch is an easier sell. I understand it and can intuitively play it, while there still being a clear path to improvement. Whether or not I’ll still be playing in a month or six months, who knows, but for now I’ve got my evening gaming sessions sorted. It feels good to be back, knocking a ball about – and this time not having to worry about smashing Class 3B’s window.
A copy of Rematch on PS5 was provided by the publisher.
