Not long ago Rocket League celebrated its tenth year anniversary. They gifted items and put out special events for players — it was an intimate affair for a once popular game. For a game like this getting to that tenth year anniversary has been a miracle considering so many live service games have been unplugged even before they started to crawl. Rocket League remains in the top twenty most played games weekly across platforms. It might not have the strength of games like Fortnite or Call of Duty but with its simple concept Rocket League stays afloat. Now to this review, you’ve already heard about this game most likely, or have seen it on the front page of your console store while surfing for new games to try. And, if you haven’t played it by now, let me tell you in this review if it is even worth trying? Or if you stopped playing long ago, should you even come back to it?

Unlike popular belief, Rocket League is not like Football. The ball looks similar, and the aesthetics of the game tell our brain if it looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck. Unfortunately, in this case it is not. Rocket League is based on hockey. Yes, hockey. On its starting days the game fundamentally played more like a hockey game. On release, players would have the strategy of someone staying as goalie while everyone else chased the ball to try and score. Your corners are always safer, and middle space is a dangerous area to let the ball hang around. Nobody was flying in the sky, or at least it was rare. Players didn’t have a gameplan like pass plays, or demo plays. You hit the ball, chase the ball and maybe score.

It is a simple concept.

Now ten years after release, while the game still maintains some ideas of hockey, at least for the lower ranks of competitive, higher ranks or players with more mechanical awareness have transformed this game into a battle of land and air combat. The best players will navigate the field as 4×4 monsters in air and land where the ball stays magnetized to their cars.

How do you enjoy Rocket League? Not asking how to play Rocket League, cause that would be an entirely different review. I’m here to talk about the enjoyment of the game and not how to get you to Grand Champion. These are my best recommendations to enjoy this beautiful game:

First, you have to disable text and voice chat. Not negotiable. Disable these two features and you’ll have a 60% chance of enjoying the game. Even quick chats, get rid of those nasty default answers. The pro of this is that neither you can say something negative nor can you get upset by the opponent. Win win situation. The Rocket League community is corrosive, it slowly peels your nice, soft tissue till you have nothing but screams, and frustration. If there’s a group of players that need therapy, those are Rocket League players. Also remove camera shake, no one needs that. This is not a demolition derby with immersive sim.

Second, it comes down to what playlist you wish to play. It can make or break your experience. None of them are played the same. Yes, fundamentally mechanics and game awareness are similar across the game modes, but it isn’t all about mechanics, is it. Some gamemodes have different physics, or rules to how they play. This is also a team based game, so teammates are also important. My first recommendation is, never, and I repeat never play 1v1. If you want to enjoy yourself don’t put yourself on a game against an opponent that might just be there for the hunt of trolling you. (Unless you are the troll. Then, this can likely become your new home in a 2025 of expensive ownership.) 1v1 isn’t terrible, if you want to progress and learn, then, this is your gamemode. You get the most game time with the ball. Though if it isn’t in your scope to “get gud”, don’t click on this gamemode.

If you prefer to play with a team, there are plenty of options. First, the two classics, normal 2v2 or 3v3. The biggest difference between the two is game positioning and rotations. On 2v2, it’s a simple “you go, then I go”, though that can vary depending on teammates you get. Some love to chase the ball like kids after gifts on Christmas day, or you can get the total opposite. However, it is still enjoyable. 3v3 is even better because you have two other teammates to blame —er, to cover your mistakes. You are playing for enjoyment not for MMR. It is the least stressful version of the game, as the gamemode thrives more on predicting or anticipating where the play will happen rather than always being on the defensive when the other team has the ball. If you follow my first recommendation then you won’t need to worry about teammates thrashing you, you can’t see or hear what they say, so it is all sunshine and rainbows.

There are other crazier and outlandish ways to play with teammates if you get bored of normal gameplay. On Hoops the game changed the net to a basketball circle. Now instead of scoring, you have to dunk the ball on your opponent. This gamemode is Michael Jordan on Space Jam as it thrives on understanding of ball bounce, ball control and aerial control. You can score by shooting the ball across walls and bounces till it goes into the net, or you can drive it in with the control of your car. It all depends how you want to play. You also have one teammate to support your plays or create a play together. 

If basketball is not to your liking, there is also an obvious hockey game mode, though similar in concept to classic Rocket League here the rules change a little thanks to the swap of ball types, instead of the circular football, you get a puck. This switch, though a simple change, affects the physics of the game as the puck has properties that allow it to be bounced and pinched on the wall differently than the circular football.

On more crazier game modes, there is a hot potato style mode. The ball bounces in a field divided in two, one side your team, the other the opponents. Now if you touch the ball, this will change the color to your team’s. If the ball bounces on the side of the opponent while painted on your team’s color then it will cause the floor to break. Depending on the strength or charge of the ball will define how many tiles of the floor break away. Once a tile goes, the next time the ball falls in that area it will go through the floor and become a score point. This game mode is called Dropshot. It is chaotic and an adrenaline infusion. 

But if you wish for an even more chaotic game, there is another option called Rumble. This game mode is not for the faint of heart, as the game can switch on your favor or against in a blink of an eye. Rumble consists of scoring the ball in the net of your opponent, like in classical Rocket League, however you have the aid of various items. Imagine Mario Kart items given to you to help you modify the rules of the field. You can get a hook and be launched into the ball. You can get spikes on your car and stick the ball into your body to carry the ball away, or you could get a Frozone power to freeze the ball in its place. There are many other items, and each brings chaos to the game, if you play with friends this game mode can get a lot of laughs out of you all. It is certified to be a good time. This game mode at one point during my time on Rocket League became one of my favorites, it would be the only one that I played.

There is something for every taste and enjoyment. If you get bored of one, then switch it up for a different adventure. Though, a final mention about the game that I can give and this is a bit negative for the current state of the game, it still has to be mentioned. Overall, Rocket League can run smoothly and without many hiccups, however there can be times that the input and server lag can cost wins to players as sometimes you’ll think you touched the ball but the server dictated otherwise. The community calls this a ghost touch. They are a bit common, unfortunately and servers can lose ping strength to one player or everyone. Psyonix hasn’t improved the state of their servers and you can still run into those issues.

There are also problems with some smurfing in which higher rank players help other lower rank peeps get to a new rank, it can cost games to innocent bistanders as putting players that don’t deserve it in a new rank and thus bringing some disbalance and essentially breaking competitive integrity. Psyonix hasn’t done a single thing to prevent it, and this can discourage players to even continue playing. I know that I’ve had those thoughts.

My final remarks on the game have to do with in-game currencies. As a live service game it will be right on your face quite frequently. Though I can share that unlike other games, Rocket League doesn’t have a good track record in terms of adding good looking items, to be honest, that happens on rare occasions. It isn’t like in Fortnite where almost every collaboration feels like you need to buy it either cause you like the skins or the collab looks too cool to pass on.

Well, Rocket League most of the time doesn’t have that flair. However the game does fall into that issue of strange pricing. Cosmetics are costly and a lot of the time feel not worth it. Pricing of those skins can also feel expensive. The moment Rocket League lost the ability to trade items fractured an essential element that helped players not just by selling their items but also to share the wealth with those that might not have what they look for, or to share a meme with a group of friends and everyone have the same silly pigeon hat. Still to this day players wonder when will Trading make a comeback, but as one should know in the world of corporate, features that give free items between players is a must not have, and be deleted at all costs.

To add some personal remarks, would I recommend the game? I’ve been playing it since 2022. It wasn’t until this year when that love for it dissipated and I’ve slowly stopped playing it as frequently as I used to. In total I have around 5k hours on the game, a combination of my playtime from console and pc. From that playtime alone, yes, I recommend the game. It is an absolute thrill, and a good replacement for football. A little personal side story, I used to play football growing up and even on my time in college. It was one of my favorite sports to participate in, however when injuries became too frequent and threatened my overall health I had to stop. It was tough to leave behind the sport that I loved for so long. 

Then, Rocket League came into my life and sparked that love once again in a new shape.

You might not like football, or even be interested in the game, but even if you have some curiosity, and have a few friends that might want to give it a try. You should jump for a few games. The game has a lot to offer even with its brokenness. 

If in the near future Psyonix updates the game into Unreal Engine 5, and releases Rocket League 2.0, I promise you’ll read another review from yours truly as I’ll be back once again grinding this phenomenal video game. (Though don’t be fooled, we Rocket League players will never say in public other than “This game is terrible.”) But not five minutes later, we will come back to it. It is a hate/love relationship that will never seem to be extinguished. At least for me.

I hope this short segment gave you an insight into the world of Rocket League, that it made you wonder, what does it feel like to score a goal with a car?, or why do my teammates keep stealing boost?, or why is everyone quitting after the first score and with four minutes remaining in the game?, or will my teammates jump for the ball even if I’m in an optimal position to score? These questions and many more will come to you during your adventure with the game, and none of them will ever get an answer even if you get to Grand Champion. As you’ll discover, Rocket League players’ mentality is but a tricky and toxic relationship where the only thing that matters is to say the other players are worse than you.

But maybe if you do give it a shot, and the game becomes one of your favorites, then at some point you’ll be doing a double flip reset into a demo to clear the way for your shot and get to say goal at the end. Become the legend of the team. Until one of your teammates own goals in the next play and makes you lose. 

That in a nutshell is Rocket League. 

THIS IS ROCKET LEAGUE!

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