Where Soccer Meets Supersonic Thrills!
By : Noah Lund
Rocket League is a video game that is based around cars playing soccer in an indoor soccer stadium. It is one of the most unique video games that has recently come out. Why it is so entertaining to play is because you get to control your own car and you get to choose how and what you play. You also get to play against other people. There is an option to play 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3s. The 2v2 and 3v3 game modes are played with either random people from across the world or you can play with your friends. Another reason why it is an outstanding game is because you can play with your friends anytime you want.
Now to get more into the actual gameplay. The ball is placed in the middle of the field and the cars start behind the ball in specific spots. The lengths of the matches are 5 minutes long, but everytime one team scores the clock stops. When a team scores it shows a replay of how the person controlling the car scored. A really interesting feature in the game is that the cars have a rocket boost that they can use to make them go faster. The cars spawn in the game with 33 boosts, and the way that they get more is by driving over boost pads that are all over the floor. Some boost pads have 12 and some have 100. There are also other mechanics in the game like ariels, flip resets, wave dashing, and many more. Those mechanics are mainly used by higher skilled players, but once you master them they make the game so much better. The most exciting feature of the entire game is definitely the ability to change the appearance of your cars. What I mean by that is that there are a variety of different types of cars that you can use. Other ways you can change the appearance of your car is by wearing a decal on your car. A decal is a design that is put on your car to make it look sick. You can also change the wheels and boost of your car. You can get different kinds of all those features by either buying the Rocket Pass or buying them in the item shop. The Rocket Pass is basically a bunch of rewards you get every time you level up.
I hope this makes you want to go check out this fascinating and unique game Rocket League.
A Game that Loses its Spark.
By : Lane Coleman
To start it off, Rocket League is a video game where you can unlock different types of cars and you basically drive into or jump into a big ball with your custom car in order to score on your opponent’s goal. You can play 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, and 3 vs 3. You can play these with friends in a private lobby or get into a queue with random people. The objective of this game is to drive your car into the ball and score more goals than your opponent. You can play in different arenas which are randomly selected each game. Now onto the reasons why Rocket League is a Boring Game.
The first reason I think Rocket League is a boring game is because there’s never any change. Whether it be new cars or different maps it never changes. Rocket League has practically been the same game since its release date in 2015. It has been the same thing over and over, the only thing that has evolved is the players. The players got so good they had to add a competitive league. This could be beneficial in some ways but could also hurt the game. It’s good because it can separate the serious and competitive players from the new players or the casuals. However it ruins the game because the more casual players would get bored of the game because of what I mentioned before, the little changes. This would leave competitive players in a situation where it’s only the top 2% even competing and winning all the time. The stale gameplay and low percentage of competition leaves this game in a drought with no new players.
However, that’s not all. Rocket League is a very hard game to master. In this day and age, games have to have something special about it. The idea of cars smashing into each other and running into a giant ball was fresh and new in 2015. Now in 2024, the game taking so long to master and tying back to the non frequent updates, it leaves players in a sticky situation where you either grind your way to mediocre play or give up and play a new updated game. Rocket League is at its lowest point regarding player count since 2019. Not only for the reasons stated above but because of other games getting popular and a way better competitive platform from those games.
Overall, Rocket League gets boring after a while because the gameplay doesn’t change much. Once you have played a few matches it starts to feel repetitive, with the same basic mechanics over and over again. The game relies a lot on fast reflexes and technical skills, which can be frustrating for players who aren’t as good at it. There is not much variety in terms of strategies or team setups making it feel like the same thing each time. The game also doesn’t have a story or any progression so it can feel shallow after a while. In the end, the excitement fades, leaving players, like myself, feeling bored and looking for something new.
