REMATCH

A Different Kind of Multiplayer Football

REMATCH reminded me of the duality present in team-based multiplayer games. When playing with good teammates it's some of the most fun I've had playing a game in awhile. When playing with bad teammates it's nearly unplayable. So, what do I mean by good and bad teammates? Well, despite football being the most popular sport on the globe, the fundamentals of the game have not translated well to much of REMATCH's player base. Two concepts: passing and spacing are very foreign concepts to many REMATCH players. The euphoric feeling after you've trudged through a couple games with a bunch of ball-hogging, pass-adverse teammates and then you come across someone who plays a back-pass to extend the defense is what I chase when I hit the rematch button.

That's the bittersweet aspect of this game. REMATCH absolutely sings mechanically when you have the right teammates. The ball flows from player to player with punchy passes and fun wall-deflections. A tasteful amount of dribbling is the icing on the cake too. When using the right flick to get out of a tricky situation it's so satisfying and in turn opens up passing options. Good teammates will anticipate this too and make the right runs. On the flip side, not so good teammates will ball hunt like crazy allowing the entire opposing defense to collapse on the ball, leaving you very few outs.

At the end of the day some things never change and multiplayer games both benefit and suffer from being multiplayer. I think REMATCH has done a good job incentivizing team-focused play and that's all you can really ask for from the developer.

Third-Person Football Gameplay

Despite how your teammates may implement passing and dribbling, I think the third-person football mechanics as a whole are well balanced. Passing and dribbling for instance are both strong options when used well while also being very punishable when abused or used predictably. Passing is all done with manual aiming and I love this choice. Despite not really playing FIFA for the past decade, I still had to rewire my brain not to assume that if I held the stick in the general direction of a teammate that it automatically target there. Having to be fairly precise in 360 degrees makes passing quite the skill and necessitates your teammates making logical and committed runs. Hitting a through pass in this game is tricky and for that reason is super satisfying for both parties when you pull it off.

Shooting, for the most part, seems well balanced and has a good feel to it. Having a walled-in arena opens up a lot of creative shot-making potential, making volleys king. Volleys are definitely strong and can feel unstoppable at times but still require decent passing and anticipation skills. Shooting is fundamentally different from passing as it has to be aimed with your reticle. Passing can be completed without looking, just aimed with the joystick. But at the end of the day, the game doesn't really care if you use passing for shooting or vice versa, they're just different tools in the toolkit that have different strengths and weaknesses.

This leads into defense which I think feels and plays really well except when it's down to stopping those volleys. The defensive stance is nice and tight feeling, methodical yet snappy. A well-timed standing tackle has a nice solid sound effect plus vibration that makes pick-pocketing the ball-handler very satisfying. The slide tackle I rarely used because it's a big commitment that takes you out of the play if you miss. But I've seen many players use it effectively too, especially in chase down scenarios. The one part of the defender's toolkit I flat out don't understand is the header. This may be my own fault, but I feel like I whiff with it more often than not. The pass button works most of the time when trying to clear but sometimes you just get smashed by a volley and you are left standing completely still, not reacting. And that's when I felt I should've used the header button... I don't know.

Last but not least is playing goalkeeper which actually isn't half bad. Again, it's dependent on your teammates, but goalkeeping is 100% a valuable position to have skill in. They can be an excellent facilitator on the offensive end, starting fast breaks effectively, and they can also slow the game down and creator a numbers advantage if they smartly push the ball up to midfield. On the defensive end, a goalie that can play an effective sweeper is very valuable as well, shutting down over-the-top balls before they can connect. Anticipating players shooting it off the wall can be very fun to time and shut down. You have to be aware of who's in your box, what angle the ball can be shot at and deflect to, all while still being prepared if the ball-handler shoots.

All in all, I think Sloclap really nailed playing all these different positions and the corresponding mechanics. They have a nice feel for creating a game that has tactility to it, where player actions feel impactful. The balance of everything might not be perfect, but I do believe Sloclap have made a game where great passing and spacing along with teammates anticipating each other absolutely destroys other strategies of play. This is what kept me coming back.

Game Modes, Progression, Etc...

REMATCH feels like a pretty barebones game. There's a tutorial, some pretty half-baked skill challenges, and then the multiplayer matches: 3 v 3, 4 v 4, 5 v 5, and ranked 5 v 5. I played 4 v 4 for most of my time with the game. I found it the most fun to play because everyone gets more touches and the pitch is a bit smaller while not feeling as iso-focused as 3 v 3. Unfortunately, there's ranked only for 5 v 5, so this meant there's pretty much no progression for me outside of acquiring some cosmetics through the season pass system.

As a whole the game feels very flexible and open to many game modes, but those modes simply don't exist right now. And I don't think they're coming anytime soon. Like I said, the game is very light on progression and not only that but multiplayer quality of life tools in general, so they have a lot to work on outside of new modes. This leads me to say that while the football mechanics feel very fleshed-out, the rest of the game feels very early-access.

Verdict

★★★1/2

Sloclap nailed the mission statement of "credible football, with an arcade twist." The football mechanics are fun, very tactile, and have a high skill ceiling. Smart team play is slick and rewarding to pull off while being what the game incentivizes. But the team-based multiplayer aspect for me can be a real drag; bad teammates can absolutely turn 30 minutes of gametime into an absolute dud. The systems and game modes surrounding the stellar gameplay need a bit more time to cook. In a year's time I can imagine REMATCH will be a much more fleshed out game.