Rematch is the anti-FIFA. Yes, I know it’s called EA FC now, but the FIFA license has been sold to 2K so that will be the same now, too. And Rematch does follow some of the trappings that have stagnated the football genre for years: it’s a live-service multiplayer-only title (for now) that has battle passes and unlockable cosmetics. But from a gameplay perspective at least, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Rematch is the anti-FIFA.
This arcade football outing from the creators of Sifu is all about control and precision. There’s no aim assist on your pass🦩es and shots. There are no AI defenders to automatically block opponents’ shots as you jockey with your number 6. There are no baffling combinations of skill mo𝔍ves to gain an unfair speed boost to glitch past defenders, no skill required. Perhaps that latter point is .
This is a breath of fresh air, an unknown academy graduate making it to the first team and lifting his first trophy. Football video games have long grown stale, the only glints of light at the end of the heavily-monetised tunnel being indie gems like Despelote, refracting that guiding sunbeam like hidden diamonds. However, there’s plenty I don’t like in Rematch, too. Whether it’s the reliance on FOMO-ridden battle passes or those crunchy mechanics just feeling a little off, I’m left here hoping that the aforementioned academy graduate doesn’t spend mon🐻ths learning Spanish just to flounce off to Real 𝔉Madrid.
Bicycle Kick Winners And Missed Tap-Ins
Rematch’s controls feel odd at first. It’s probably a decade and a half of FIFA muscle memory, but pressing the right trigger to shoot instead of run baffled me for at least five hours. I made ample use of the apology button on the D-pad (more Rocket League comparisons later) in those earl๊y🦄 matches as I desperately tried to rewire my brain.
After a while, though, things start to make sense. X to pass. RT to shoot or play a long ball. Y to jump. B to tackle. B while running to wildly slide tackle and almost always miss. Once you get the basics down, Rematch starts to feel good. Its 3v3 mode acts as a tutorial area (although there is a ‘proper’ tutorial for the basic basics). You graduate to 4v4, all against other real players, before ending up in a bona fide 5-a-side match. By this point, your confidence is growing and you’ve got one hand on the Jules Rimet. However, it’s not so smoot𒉰h.
I love attacking. There’s a skill to passing in the right direction, applying the right amount of power, finding the perfect through ball. There’s the faintest hint of computer assistance snapping your crossfield ball to a teammate calling for it from across the pitch – that’s what Virgil van Dijk꧃ must have innately in his right boot. And the little skills, oh the little ℱskills. If you stop sprinting up the pitch for a moment and actually learn how to dodge a tackle, it’s wonderful. A small sidestep past a Roy Keane-esque slide tackle, a slight speed boost on your exit, an opening to exploit, and – oh, your shot has hit the corner flag.
Aiming is one of the hardest skills to get the hang of as an attacker. Your every urge is to keep your eyes on the ball, to watch for when it flashes with that volleꦡy indicator, to ensure you make clean contact and score a worldie. But if you’re looking at where the ball’s coming from, then you’ll kick it back in that direction. So you need to watch your teammate until they release the ball, then turn towards the goal, then try to time your shot when the ball comes into view. You can’t move your camera after shooting, so whichever direction you’re facing when you pull the trigger is the direction the ball will fly. My first hours were like Darwin Núñez Simulator, but it’s remarkably intuitive to consider your positioning a bit more in order to see both the ball and the goal.
The minimap is crucial for this. I oಞften find myself watching that more than the main screen.
All of th🐓ese mechanics feel abrasive to start with. It feels difficult. You can’t pass straight, you can’t beat an opponent. You never score. But slowly, as your fingers adjust to the stresses of the game, as your brain traces the pathways between input and output, attacking becomes incredibly satisfying.
Defense is the exact opposite. Even when your teammates decide to track back, defending is haphazard and awkward. Tackles that feel like they should be sure to win the bal🍎l somehow miss. Som𝓰etimes the lag is so noticeable that you actually win the ball, only for it to teleport to your opponent, now through on goal. Whereas shooting is a fine art, a skill to be practised, tackling is still just a spin on the roulette wheel to see if you’ll be Ibrahim Konate or Ragnar Klavan.
Goalkeeping is even worse. Pressing Y to dive offers a random chance of saving the ball, but you only get that opportunity a handful of times. Before you even press the dreaded button, you have to t༒ime it so that the striker is just drawing their leg back to shoot, you have to guess the direction they’ll shoot (the models’ heads don’t give it away at all, which would add a layer of skill to goalkeeping), and then you have to actually dive. There’s no way to control your dive, other than the direction, so the ball might go under your body, it might sail over you, or – worst of all – your goalkeeper might dive in the completely opposite direction to that which you pointed your joystick. Goalkeeping is thankless at the best ♔of times, but in Rematch it’s soul-destroying.
Note: I’v𓄧e had good games in goal. I’ve ✤had games where I’ve made 10 saves in one stint, fending off volleys and trick shots alike. But the very next match I turned from Alisson to Karius, and a ball trickles past me to put us behind. Goalkeeping feels more luck-based than any other position, and no amount of sweeping can change that.
Incongruent Battle Passes And Awful Teammates
Rematch really is very similar to Rocket League. Rocket League in its infancy. Before there was eti♔quette, an established system for working as a team without voice chat or bas𒐪ic communication. Rematch currently has none of those things that grow organically as a community forms and thrives.
Unfortunately, this means that many players don’t track back. Many players don’t pass, or constantly lose the ball from trying too many rainbow flicks. Some goalkeepers charge out to play striker, rendering the furthest player back a pseudo-keeper without any warning. It’s not hard to tell when quick chats get toxic either, even in the lower echelons of the ranked leaderboard. One slovenly dive in goal and you’ll quickไly hear a host of sarcastic “tekkers” in your ear.
Other players will always be a part of football, though. I’ve met similar players at IRL 5-a-side matches across the country, both on my side and my opponents’. Battle passes, on the other hand, aren’t a part of football in any arena except video gam🙈es. Sadly, Rematch falls into this live-service trap like a left back bamboozled by Mo Salah’s stepovers. I grant you that the cosmetics are cool. Rematch’s art direction is gorgeous, and I enjoy customising my player in myriad ways. The various, unlabelled gender presentations and skin tones are great. But you’re always aware that this game wants more of your money. Want the boss tiger tattoo? Pay up. Want this new celebration? You’ll have to buy the premium battle pass.
This isn’t an EA FC situation. None of these cosmetics will make you any better at the game – no,𒁏 not even the Ronaldinho skin. There are also no loot boxes, which I’m thankful for. But I wish Rematch had tried to innovate off the pitch as well as on it. This FOMO-laden profiteering shtick is archaic, especia൲lly so when the game has some fundamental flaws.
On top of my issue🧔s with defending, Rematch needs to take serious strides in a few directions if it wants to succeed. The servers need to improve, as lag is a serious issue that I don’t have in any other game. Post-game menus don’t work, so I can’t see how many passes I made or how I fared compared to my teammates in the arbitrary points scoring tally. On three occasions I’ve glitched out so badly at kick-off that everything bar the pitch disappears and I can’t interact with the match that is presumably continuing around me. And there’s 🐎an issue – that I think occurs if your team scores an own goal – where you should take the kick off, and your players line up to do so, but the ball is given to a random opponent, allowing them another attack.
Rematch has good bones. It’s full of energy, raw and unbridled. But it’s a rough diamond, and rougher than most. The game has serious issues that border on rendering the game completely unfun. But if p🍸layers stick around for long enough for developer Sloclap to polish those defects, to improve the servers and make goalkeeping feel responsive, then we might just have something here. At the moment, it’s a bit of a mess. Bu♋t it’s a mess that keeps you coming back, that forces you to play ‘one more match’ in case it’s the one where you finally net a hat trick of bicycle kicks. And it’s a game I’d prefer to play over EA FC any day.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Rematch
Reviewed on PC.
- Top Critic Avg: 74/100 Critics Rec: 57%
- Released
- June 19, 2025
- Developer(s)
- Sloclap
- Publisher(s)
- Sloclap, Kepler Interactive 🤡
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Fun, arcade-style matches
- Tactile attacking gameplay that rewards skill
- Beautiful art direction and customisation options
- Defending feels clunky and goalkeeping is worse
- Server issues, lag, and bugs
- Greedy teammates
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