Rocket League Initial Review (First Week)

So yeah, Rocket League is addicting.  I mean in the simplest terms everything I’ve been told about this game is correct.  You’re a rocket powered vehicle, you hit a huge metal explosive ball with parts of your car, and you try to angle it into the opponent’s goal in a giant soccer like rink.  The other team is obviously trying to do the same against you.  Simple…. Or is it?

The first thing I noticed was this game is pretty easy to pick up.  I mean right away any gamer should be able to steer a car, press jump, and hit a booster.  I could make some goals against other noobies (surprisingly defending is a lot harder haha).  But as you play you quickly learn there is a lot of neat advanced stuff going on, especially with better players.  There is a whole level of ariel play that separates good players from great ones.  Jumping, boosting in air, and controlling where your car will go is a thing of beauty and takes time to perfect.  Knowing how to defend, clear the ball, and where to position takes experience.  Add them together and you can quickly pick up the game, but can definitely spend a lot of time mastering.

Even once you get the basics and learn more about the game.  The action is fast, quick and fun.  Give up a goal?  On to the next.  Lose a match?  Few minutes later you are in a new one.  Time flies when playing this game, it’s been a while since I’ve played a game where all of a sudden it’s a lot later than I thought and I should be going to bed J.  With 5 minute games paused only slightly for sweet scoring recaps the games are relatively short but just long enough for a good fight.

One feature I’m also enjoying so far is the cars are pretty customizable in appearance.  You have a few out of the gate cars and upgrades and get “free” items unlocked after each match.  Almost every car can be painted 2 colors, each color with a different finish (like glossy, metallic), have decals (like flames), roof toppers, different tires, antenna toppers, and jet streams (the boost stream behind your car has tons of outrageous options like money or bubbles).  I really enjoy theming out my cars depending on my mood and I know my options to do so will only increase as I unlock more choices.  The best part is the cars are mostly preference and only have very slight differences in how they play, so you aren’t underpowered by choosing a car you like or feels good to you.

Lastly, this game has a tangible excitement feel to it you get from a real soccer match.  When minutes go by and it’s hard to score every scoring chance counts.  There can be a lot of drama to getting that score, and when a cheap one gets in or a dumb play costs you, you actually feel it.  I find my feet kicking under my desk when trying to “flip” my car correctly at the ball.  Or me actually leaning towards a shot or a block.  So far Rocket League is a pretty awesome game, I’m looking forward to getting better at it.

Here's a few of my rides I made this week:

Hot Rod

Iced Out

Here is my mish mash of tips and thoughts on early level PvP in Destiny

 

1.       The hold the point games don’t work like they do in other games.  You don’t get a ticking time amount of points just for holding them.  What you get is points when you kill an enemy player, the more flags you have when you get the kill the more points your team gets.  So while its important to cap and get points, its even more important to be careful and not die a lot.

2.       Brings me to my next point.  Stay with your team especially if you are new.  If the enemy is distracted targeting someone else or under fire from somewhere else you can get your shots off and not as easly get shot yourself.  Also if you are the guy getting shot at but you are with a team they are getting free shots.  Its valuable to try and stick with teammates.  Sometimes its ok to go run off by yourself but I’d say it’s a more advanced thing to do once you get much better at the game and even then caution is actually way more important than aggression.

3.       For main weapons as a starter I’d suggest using the fastest firing automatic weapon possible.  The damage is normalized for pvp based on fire rate and impact.  But as a beginner its much easier to hit and make some kills if you can squeeze the trigger and just let the bullets fly as many as possible.  Later once you are good something more powerful and precise is great.  But starting out you can’t afford to miss those shots on that type of gun.

4.       On maps that have vehicles get in and ride!  They can take a lot of punishment, kill pretty easily, and are pretty fun.  My best tip for them is if you are under strong enemy fire hit the boost button and just race on out of there fast.  Recharge your shields then head right back.  Best if you can catch someone out in the open areas.

5.       Crouching takes you off the radar, make sure to crouch, sneak and find good places to hide and watch the radar for your enemies!  This will help out a ton once you get good at looking up there.  Find the places where you are above them and they can’t see you well or you have a nice hallway to defend or others like that, terrain advantage and knowing where you can and can’t go are also very important but just require practicing and play time.  Don’t be afraid to run around on the map and look for these areas.

6.    Get bounties before you go!  Getting bounties from the tower for different things you can accomplish (such as play 5 games) will go a long way to helping you level up, get more skills and abilities, and enjoy your time spent PVPing.