Review: Ridiculously fun ‘Rocket League’ gasses up, shoots, and scores

It’s soccer with cars.

That’s both the elevator pitch and a near-complete description of Rocket League. Built by small independent studio Psyonix and fast becoming a sensation on the PS4 (it’s available for PC as well), the competitive vehicular sports game is, when you boil it down, exactly as straightforward as it sounds.

It’s soccer with cars.

Maybe that doesn’t sound interesting to you. It didn’t to me, but the more time I spent hurling my car into a giant ball in an effort to push it into the opponent’s goal, the more I realized that it’s not just interesting, it’s amazing. Despite its limited scope and the occasional connection issue, Rocket League is one of the year’s best online games.

Why are you smashing your car into a ball? Is it a toy? Life-sized? Is there a driver? Is it a drone car? Is car soccer some sort of futuristic bloodsport for a totalitarian regime?

Purge your mind of such complicated questions, because Rocket League offers zero answers. It doesn’t have time for a plot or characters or even a whiff of a narrative backstory. It’s too busy showing you that if you time it correctly, you can pull off a Pele bicycle kick with a car.

That’s pretty rare, however. Most of a five-minute Rocket League match is spent bumping a big ball around a large field. The simple, arcadey controls, accurate physics, and surprisingly agile cars make this immediately gratifying. You can gas, brake, jump, and boost (that’s the rocket part), but the joy comes in discovering exactly how to use these basic moves to turn your little ride into an elite mechanical athlete.

Good controls aren’t just important to a video game; they’re everything. There are great games with lousy graphics (see: You Must Build a Boat) and great games with lousy stories (see: Destiny), but great games with lousy controls are exceedingly rare. If you don’t feel like you can properly run, jump, shoot, kick, or steer, if you’re fighting with the gamepad instead of the enemies, you are probably not playing a great video game.

But when controls work in perfect harmony with the game? Now we’re cooking with grease. And gasoline. And soccer balls. Rocket League’s precise, responsive, instantly comfortable controls elevate it from a solid competitive car soccer game into a totally awesome car soccer game.

It takes some time before that clicks, however. For the first dozen or so matches, you’ll mostly just chase after the ball, thrilled if you actually make contact. Eventually you’ll score a goal; perhaps it will just be a glancing shot, or a lucky bounce, or maybe you’ll flip the car in the air and miraculously knock it in with a fender. The goal explodes, sirens blare, the crowd roars, and boom, you’re hooked. The next few hours (or days, or weeks) will be a blur as you start digging into Rocket League’s nuances.

Just like soccer, the game isn’t only about scoring. You need to learn how to defend, when to position yourself midfield, and why sometimes charging away from the action to collect more boost juice (scattered around the field) is the best play. Simply switching between the two camera options — one that keeps the focus glued to the ball, and one that’s player-controlled — is a surprisingly strategic decision. Rocket League is the definition of a game that’s easy to learn and tough to master.

At its highest levels, Rocket League evolves from “soccer with cars” to “soccer with flying cars.” Mastering the jump boost leads to stunning aerial play. I mean look at this:

That’s exactly as hard as it looks.

But even if you never get comfy catapulting your car into the sky, you’ll fall for Rocket League’s addictive loop. Every new match is an opportunity to showcase your emerging skills, and the game pleasantly rewards your efforts with a point-based leveling system. You’ll also earn customization options, from different chassis and decals to, believe it or not, hats. For your car. Car hats!

At first I was put off by the fact that none of these upgrades actually did anything; they’re purely cosmetic. Why not get a better boost or a higher jump? The reason is to keep the playing field level, and considering the game’s competitive nature, I think it was a wise move. You’ll never lose a match because someone else’s car wore a cooler hat.

Rocket League is a bit short on modes. A few training lessons will help you learn the basics and more advanced techniques, while an offline Season mode pits you against AI-controlled teams. Unfortunately, they’re pretty brain-dead. After a few matches, you’ll start walloping them routinely and thirst for something more.

You’ll find it by heading online. The standard way to play is 3v3, but you can opt for more intimate 2v2, chaotic 4v4, or intense 1v1 matches. The rules are the same regardless, though the strategies change significantly based on the number of players. Split-screen is supported as well, turning Rocket League into a great co-op couch game, too. And while its pro gaming, eSports undercurrent might feel daunting, it turns out to be pretty welcoming. Even the best players will make the same stupid mistakes you will, so don’t feel too bad about missing that backflip and banking the ball into your own goal.

Rocket League does suffer from some stability issues. Laggy matches occur more frequently than they should, though the experience has improved since the game launched. Psyonix has clearly been overwhelmed by sheer number of players flooding their servers. It’s a good problem to have.

Rocket League is, incredibly, totally free to PS4 owners who subscribe to the indispensable PS Plus service. But even if you don’t, the game’s an absolute steal at $20. It harks back to simpler times, when video games didn’t need a billion bells and whistles to keep players interested. They just needed great design, and that’s exactly what you get with Rocket League. Soccer with cars, man.

What’s Hot: Fantastic design; spot-on controls; wildly addictive; perfect learning curve; car hats

What’s Not: Connection problems; a few more modes would be nice

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