I'd like to think that the person who came up with this idea was kind of a lazy kid. Daydreaming while playing a game of soccer one day thinking "I like to hit the ball but I'd really rather not run around". Rocket League is a game about car soccer. Jumping cars to be exact.
Really it's a pretty simple concept. 1-4 cars compete against each other trying to get a giant soccer ball into a net. There are no fouls, outs, off-sides, or other more complicated soccer rules.
The controls are somewhat intuitive but I didn't really get it until after I went through the tutorial. I think some moves like the double-jump and activating the ball cam are crucial to having any kind of success in this game. I'm also not sure that the ability to rocket around while airborne will ever come in handy.
Probably the most interesting thing from the development side of this game is how it came into the market. At first Rocket League was free to PlayStation Plus members. Now it's 20 dollars. By releasing the game for free they were able to get a ton of publicity on reddit's gaming channel. I'm not sure how reproducible of a strategy it is but for them at least it was a great way to launch a new IP. However, if too many companies were to adopt this plan it'd be the same problematic race to the bottom that happened in the mobile games market.
Also, it's interesting to me that on their website they list a title called "Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars" released in 2008. I guess they've been sitting on this idea for a while. I'm not sure what they contributed to Mass Effect 3 and X-Com: Enemy Unknown.
All in all it's a pretty good game. Well-polished, simple and easy to pick up and put down.
The Ability to Rocket around while airborne(know as aerials) is absolutely critical at higher levels of play. It's also a ton of fun.
ReplyDeleteRocket league is a Sequel to the SARPBC. And many of the long time players make up many of the current top players.