Back in the summer of 2015 a game was released that just blew PlayStation 4 players away and started a craze that just took console gaming by storm. It was a simple idea, rocket-propelled cars on a pitch trying to smack a huge metal football into the opponent’s goal. It was chaos and mayhem with nitro and more competitive than days of old using jumpers for goal posts in the local park for a kick about. The day Xbox One gamers have long been waiting for has finally arrived. Rocket League has released on Xbox!
I was pleasantly surprised when Rocket League was made available as a free title thanks to PlayStation Plus in July 2015. I was not aware of it until then but after a few matches I was hooked, it was the video game version of the car football I found so entertaining when used on Top Gear but now I was playing it. It has been a solid seven months since the PS4 release and the patience of Xbox users has been rewarded with the launch on Xbox One. I was intrigued to see how it would port across and how developer Pysonix would make it up for the long wait.
For the asking price of £15.99, same price as on PSN, Xbox One players are getting quite a bit more than just the base game as all the DLC, bar the Back to the Future Delorian pack, is included as well. To make the pot just a little more sweet, some exclusive Xbox themed content has been created as well. This makes the Xbox One version of Rocket League the most complete version to date. Not a bad way to make up for the wait really.
Pleased to say that the transition into Xbox One is a very smooth and consistent one with lessons clearly learned during its time PS4 and PC. For those looking to practice skills offline the comprehensive Season mode makes for a great training option. In season mode you will face off against teams of bots in a typical league structure. Win enough games and you will go into the playoffs before battling for the Championship. The length of the season can be Determined by the player and can be a short run of nine weeks or up to thirty-nine weeks. The difficulty of the AI bots can selected as can the size of the team. This is the best way to practice the skills needed before going into the competitive online and you can start to unlock achievements and the customisation items.
Customisation is a big part of Rocket League and there are a huge number of cosmetic options now thanks to the inclusion of the three extra DLC packs available. The body of your car, its tires, jet trail and paint style are just the start of how you can personalise your car. For Xbox it includes the HALO Warthog and the Gears of War Armadillo as seen above, unlocked as after I completed a full season offline. You can even have a Sunset Overdrive inspired rocket trail made of Overcharge. The freedom to really personalise how your car looks is helped by how readily these items unlock.
Once you have practice offline, personalised your car how you like it is time to venture online and that is where Rocket League takes off. It takes seconds to find a match online with a matchmaking system that will search for available matches from Europe and the US, finding a match best suited to your skill level and regional location. You can choose the type of match just as you can in Season mode by selecting the team size. Going in solo will put in with other players very quickly and match turn around is fluid and fast. But the real power of Rocket League is in teaming up with friends online and that is for me the most fun you can have. It is rather joyous when in the thick of the action you make that vital save off the line, set up a friend to score or my own personal favourite, holding on to boost so your picks up enough speed to demolish an opponent resulting in a dust cloud spelling out BOOM!
The closeness of some matches can be nail-biting as you look to defend your lead or fight for that late winner as the match clock timer counts down the final seconds. There is a real satisfaction in having a fun match that winning or losing almost becomes unimportant. Luck really is as much a part of the gameplay as skill with some very fluke goals being scored from at times simply ridiculous angles as cars smash together sending the ball towards a goal with no chance of stopping it. This can lead to frustrating moments especially if you or one of your team scores an own goal or mistakenly sets up the opposing team score opportunity. Whilst playing solo you will encounter players who only want to score so will charge and boost around the pitch with no real thought to teamwork or strategy. The niggles are there as in any competitive mode requiring some amount of teamwork but the fun often outshines those problems and for every poor match I had I would then have three great ones.
Rocket League for Xbox One is a highly polished and potent version of the game that has retained all the gameplay that makes this game such a smash hit online experience. Whether just playing as a single player or teaming up with friends, Rocket League delivers a high-octane highly rewarding gameplay experience. Sadly for the £15.99 price tag that comes with the most included content for a version of the game yet, it does not have the same cross-platform feature that the PS4 and PC versions enjoy with concurrent plans to change this.
If you have already played Rocket League on other platforms you will easily get into the action instinctively. If you are playing for the first time you will soon be swept up in just what makes Rocket League a stand out online experience.
