I am someone who really respects the job that game reviewers do. I think that Opencritic and Metacritic are legitimately useful tools, and in many cases, my own takes on a game end up being roughly in line with the consensus review score. I know it’s a rarity to hear this view these days, but I think that a lot of people who constantly complain about reviewers tend to either be way too obsessed with culture war shit, or they just have a very hard time accepting when someone has a different opinion from themselves.
But once in a great while, I do come across a game where the reviews baffle me. A few times a year, I think that reviewers just missed one way or another on something. I’ve had a few disagreements with critics this year (Blue Prince probably being the most notable), but I can usually understand why they have differing opinions.
But for the first time this year, I feel genuinely confused.
I have had my eyes on Rematch for a while now. This is a soccer game created by the developers of Sifu, a pretty shocking genre shift for a developer to make. This sounds absolutely stupid to say, but Rematch is essentially like Rocket League, except with real soccer. Yes, Rocket League is supposed to be like soccer with cars, and now Rematch is like Rocket League with humans. What a world.
Before I jumped in, I saw that Opencritic had the game at a 74. I was kind of surprised to see this given how talented this developer is, but I also knew that this was a huge change of direction for that developer, so it also didn’t totally surprise me. That score wasn’t low enough for me to not give the game a look though, as I was interested in it, and it is on Xbox Game Pass.
After three riveting hours (with the last 90 minutes literally being “one more game”), I was immediately sold. I’m just as sold after another few weeks of playing it. I think Rematch is special. This is the most fun with a multiplayer game that I have had since I jumped into Overwatch back in 2016. Since Overwatch, there’s only been a few multiplayer games that I’ve spent more than a few weeks with (Apex Legends, Halo Infinite and Helldivers 2), and this has now joined those ranks. This one might become one of the very few multiplayer games that I actually keep in my rotation for an extended period of time. I think several of the critiques of the game are a bit misguided, or just not that huge of a deal overall. I think many reviewers also gave out scores that don’t match the praise that they give to the core gameplay. I’m going to use this post to explain why these reviewers are WRONG and DUMB and why you should completely ignore these BUFFOONS and play Rematch. (Warning: I’m fired up about this one)
“It’s Brutal Playing With Bad Teammates.”
One somewhat prevalent complaint I’ve seen early on with Rematch is that it can be very difficult to play with randoms. Much like real soccer, Rematch is a game all about teamwork. You need someone to be committed to being in goal. Otherwise, you will get exploited. You don’t have unlimited stamina, so passing is also vital. Even in 3 vs. 3 matches, where it’s somewhat possible to play hero ball and do everything by yourself, it is still very difficult. The best strategies in the game involve using your teammates. Getting the defenders to commit to you and then passing the ball to your teammate who is in space is the best way to play the game. I have encountered several people in my time with the game who don’t stay in goal or barely ever pass the ball.
Spacing is also vital. If you have multiple attackers on the same side of the field, it makes life significantly easier for the defenders. I’ve had teammates who don’t understand this concept at all and kept staying on the same side of the field as me. I also think that in 3 v 3 in particular, playing a little “sweeper keeper” is a really great strategy. This basically means a goalie who is willing to leave the box in order to initiate attacks and to be aggressive defensively. Whoever was the last person to be in the “box” is automatically assigned as the goalie. They can use their hands, but they also have unlimited stamina, This makes goalies pretty dangerous on the attack, as they don’t have to manage their stamina like normal players. So when I’m in the net, I like to try and take the ball out of the box and try and get at least one defender to commit a little bit before I pass the ball off. This allows my attackers to have way more space to roam on the other side of the field.
In most games, this has been great, but it one game, one of my teammates kept freaking out every time I left the box, and he would retreat back to take on the goalie role, effectively killing my strategy.
So, I get it. Randoms can absolutely be annoying. But also, I am someone who played Overwatch for a year when it first came out, and I had zero real-life friends who played it as well. Overwatch is a shooter that demands real teamwork and coordination if you don’t want to constantly get wrecked. Despite having no friends to play it with, I found people. I used my mic, and when I met cool people who were down to work together, I sent party invites, and friends were made.
I understand that 10 years later, people are more anti-social than ever. There are not many people on the mics when I solo queue Rematch. But there are some people. I encounter people with mics who actually pass the ball and play defense all of the time. I have plenty of friends who play Rematch this time around, but if I didn’t, I would try and party up with these people. You actually have some agency to find new people out there and even *gasp* make friends. You can do it, I believe in you. Yes, it’s frustrating to play with bad people, but dinging the game for that is silly. That’s a pure skill issue.
“There Aren’t Enough Modes.”
Another big criticism that many reviews have pointed out is that Rematch is missing some modes that it could use. You can play the game as 3 v 3, 4 v 4, or 5 v 5, but the game only has ranked matches with 5 v 5.
I’m not sure why Sloclap went this route. Perhaps they were afraid of separating their player base out too much, as they weren’t sure how many people would be jumping in right away. Obviously, less ranked modes probably makes for quicker matchmaking since everyone is one pool. I also wonder if this decision was in part to encourage people to play 5 v 5. I initially started the game with 3 v 3, and I was having so much fun with it that I didn’t even want to try 5 v 5. Obviously, with 5 v 5, you have to really be able to coordinate with your teammates in order to have success, and you don’t touch the ball quite as much.
Then, I finally played 5 v 5 because it’s the only ranked mode there is, and that is when I realized that 5 v 5 is truly the best way to play the game. It is the mode that actually feels like a real soccer game in almost every way. So, weirdly, the lack of modes actually enhanced the game for me.
But also, the game just launched. Considering that almost every review I’ve read says that they love the gameplay and it isn’t quite like anything else on the market, I think that’s more than enough to make up for a lack of modes at this point. We all know that eventually, more ranked modes will come. There is almost no way they won’t. The same goes for crossplay, which will surely come, but isn’t here yet.
Yes, I understand the reviewer dilemma of needing to review the game “as it is”, but these reviewers also won’t go back and update their scores in a few months when we do have more modes. Many multiplayer games with imperfect launches go on to have very irrelevant looking review scores in the years that follow. Helldivers 2 is a great example of this last year. That game sits at an 83 on Opencritic, despite winning “Best Multiplayer Game” at The Game Awards and having almost unanimous praise. The reason for that is that the launch was pretty shaky, with tons of server issues. It was very tough to get in and actually play the game in the first week or so when it came out.
This is, of course, very bad. It was good that reviewers called this out so that people were aware before spending money on the game. I can even understand the scores being affected by this because that launch could be quite frustrating. However, we all knew this wasn’t going to be some permanent bug with the game. The game was merely a victim of its own massive success at launch. Sure enough, I never had any server issues outside of my first few days with it. Despite this, the review scores indicate that Helldivers 2 is a very good but not elite multiplayer game, which doesn’t really properly showcase how reviewers actually felt about the game. If we are going to review multiplayer games as they are and not take a long-term approach with them, then we should have occasional check-ins where scores get adjusted as time passes. That doesn’t appear like it is going to happen for a variety of reasons, so in the absence of that, I think that multiplayer games should be analyzed more so for how good the “bones” are. If the core gameplay is good, everything else will follow except in very rare cases (see: Halo Infinite).
But once again, since we don’t have this, I don’t think reviewers should be looking at these games the way they do. I understand that this will probably be the most controversial point that I make here, but given that reviewers aren’t doing things in the best way possible, I think my approach makes more sense.
“The Cosmetics are Lacking.”
As I read and watched various Rematch reviews, I was stunned at how many reviews brought up the cosmetic options in the game and seemed to actually decrease their scores at least slightly because of it. Simply, almost everything you can unlock is pretty boring, and even the stuff you have to pay for is pretty unexceptional.
I can agree with these takes… but also… who gives a fuck?
Maybe I’m about to show my age here, but BACK IN MY DAY, we didn’t give a damn about cosmetic options. That’s because we didn’t fucking have them!
I’m not going to say that it isn’t neat when you unlock a cosmetic that makes your character look cooler, and you are able to equip it. That’s great. But unless you are playing Infinity Nikki, almost no multiplayer game out there is gaining a player base because of the strength of its cosmetics. No one tells me that a multiplayer shooter is great because you can really bedazzle your gun or have cool hairstyles. Those features might be how the game survives and makes money, but it isn’t why people play it in the first place. If the gameplay is bad, no one fucking cares about any of that!
OK, sorry, I just needed to get a little spiciness out. But this general point speaks to one that I feel like I see too often in video game critiques. I think too many reviewers score their games more like they are watching a figure skating routine over as an actual art. I do not believe that every game starts at a 10, and then each flaw decreases that score by a certain number of decimal points. We have all loved games that had serious flaws because the strengths of that video game were so good that they just overpowered everything else about it. I could spend a long time torching last year’s Rise of the Ronin for its flaws, as it screwed up in a lot of ways. It still received an excellent score from me because the combat was simply sublime. Considering that combat is the most important part of that game, it swallowed up a lot of those flaws for me. The point is, I guess it’d be nice if the game had better cosmetics, but to me, it’s a ridiculous thing for that to overpower any element of the strong gameplay in any critique.
Rematch Is Not Perfect
Just because I think that Rematch is awesome doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize some of the flaws in the game. I definitely wish that there were a few more ranked modes, as I said. Crossplay would be very nice. There is also a bit of jank on occasion. There can be weird moments where due to lag or something else that a goal registers when on my screen, it doesn’t look like it scored. The same can happen with the occasional contested ball and in some other moments. With the lack of scoring in soccer games, even one glitch like this can be game altering. Obviously, I don’t think Rematch should have perfect scores. I’m not even necessarily saying it should be in the 9s or anything, but the current 74 just doesn’t really encapsulate the reviews I’m reading. One of the last reviews I watched was the review from Kinda Funny Games, where the main reviewer said that Rematch was the most fun he has had with a video game this year, but he still gave it an 8. I just don’t think that makes sense.
I actually agree with that Kinda Funny Games reviewer on how much fun this game is. Outside of one other game, I’d say Rematch is the most fun I’ve had with a game this year. The mix of arcade sensibilities with grounded physics is such a unique and fun combination. The game is fast-paced, yet playing it feels like actual soccer a lot. There’s great mixes of individual skill and teamwork. It is easy to pick up and play, but it doesn’t feel like it has Rocket League levels of a learning curve to master either. I had a lot of fun with the game from the second I picked it up, and I’ve had even more fun as I have started to get a little better. I’ve also been able to get better by just playing the game. I haven’t needed to actually practice to get better, which is how I prefer for things to be.
I think Rematch is special. And frankly, a lot of reviewers seem to think so, too. It’s a shame the scores it has gotten don’t fully reflect that.
Big Nerd Gaming 
Leave a comment