What is Rocket League?
Rocket League is a fast paced, arcade inspired, multiplayer-centric title that can essentially be summed up as "football with cars". Here, two teams of players face off against each other in rounds of car-based football, basketball or hockey. With support for up to four players on one machine in split-screen, up to eight players online, and a full single player mode to boot, it's a great game for those after some light-hearted chaos.
How do you play Rocket League?
With a variety of modes on offer, Rocket League takes a fairly simple concept, and turns it into plenty of madcap fun. With matches ranging from 1 v 1 to 4 v 4 on offer, two teams of either human or computer-controlled players - or a mixture of the two - face off to see who can score the most goals in a short, five minute match. Pushing the ball/puck around with your car, the aim is simply to make your way past the opposing team and score - although there are a few little tricks you can take advantage of.
Driving over charge pads will let you stock up on boost power, which can be unleashed for a much needed burst of speed, while a jump button (and the ability to spin around mid-air) gives you the ability to land some pretty gnarly mid-air shots - combine the two moves for an airborne charge that sees you (and ideally the ball) rocket across the map. By making clever use of these tricks, as well as some strategic offence and defence, you should be able to give the opposing team a good run - or should we say drive - for their money.
How easy is Rocket League to pick up and play?
While it may take some time to master, Rocket League is a game designed to be easy to pick up and play - after all, all you really need to do is crash your car into the ball, and you're away. While it may be a bit different to a traditional sports game - the tackles here are a little bit more full on, the turning circles are a lot larger, and the ball doesn't stick to your wheels, as in something like FIFA - if anything, it's the chaos and mania that gives Rocket League its charm.
Once you get the hang of the controls, though, Rocket League is pretty straightforward, with very little in the way of rules to follow. While online matches against real life Rocket League players may be somewhat variable in terms of difficulty, with full support for four player split-screen multiplayer, you can always face off against a group of friends on the same sofa instead - or take a gang of split-screen friends with you to take on the world online! If you're looking to hone your skills against the computer, Rocket League does also have a substantial single player mode to get stuck into too, with a choice of four different difficulties to play against, letting you tailor the game to your ability.
With little in the way of reading outside of navigating the menus, you don't even have to be a confident reader to get to grips with Rocket League.
As a fairly silly game of car-centric sports, Rocket League is pretty much as tame as they come - there's no blood and guts, no bad language and no sex references whatsoever. The only real "violence" here is that when a car gets bumped one too many times, it'll explode - but with nothing in the way of actual human drivers ever shown, Rocket League is very tame.
As Rocket League does have a substantial online component, though, it's important to note our mature content rating only applies to the content in the game itself. Playing online, there is the chance that unsupervised youngsters may hear inappropriate language via the various console-specific chat channels, but this can always be restricted using parental controls.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Playstation 4
