Rocket League became one of the most successful indie titles of all times when it released back in 2015 and as ridiculous as the concept of playing football with RC cars sounds, it got a lot of people hooked.
FIFA on the other hand is a long running franchise of games based on real life soccer and is released year on year with new features and licensed team names, players, stadiums etc. Its another game that a lot of people are attached to.
After having played hair pulling, butt kicking and nerve racking matches of FIFA with friends and playing soccer in real life, I tried Rocket League last year, but due to internet problems I wasn’t able to play online and had to play with the AIs. This year though, I started playing online and what do you know, I didn’t even realize when 200 hours passed by, and unlike FIFA I didn’t ever feel like I had enough of this.
It’s not because Rocket League is a better game, we can’t compare these two as similar games like FIFA and PES, because putting the ball in the goal is where their similarity ends, but I thought that Rocket League did more justice to this beautiful sport than a game which imitates it.
Physics Newton Physics
The game is fully physics based with mostly real life collision and unlike FIFA where the in-game skill rating of a player/team influences the game, here everything is based on how you come in contact with walls, car and ball. No car has a specific skill point, and everything depends on your innate-skill (as a gamer), which I will be shedding light on later. As for the physics, you need to know a lot about how collisions will act. You can produce a spin on the ball (I’ve seen a Veteran do that), you can hit a bullet, you can scoop the ball above all players, you can use nitro to increase your jumping height etc. Nothing is left to the algorithms, which leaves little scope of error by the gaming system you are playing it on.
Ultimate Player
As I have mentioned above, it is your skill and not the car’s. In case of FIFA we play as players we are comfortable in controlling like Messi (Sharp Dribbling and speed), Ronaldo (Skills, heading and speed), Bale (Speed), but in this game all cars are equal and none of them have perks like more speed or more height in jump, everything is your judgement and skills. I have experienced both FIFA and Rocket League and I would say that missing a header in RL is much more intense in emotion as compared to FIFA, I mean I could literally see that I missed the shot or header by a hair’s breadth and that was actually a pretty intense feeling. And ball control in this game when properly done by good players beautiful to watch as well, all due to the skill of the player.
I’m not saying that FIFA doesn’t require skill, you can consider FIFA analogous to Assassins’s Creed and Rocket League being analogous to Dark Souls, and I’m serious. To master all the advanced skills in this game is no easy feat, quite similar to the boss battles in Dark Souls.
Sport Sense
While skills are a huge determining factor in victory or loss, it is only accountable for a part of the game when you are playing Singles or Doubles. Once you enter the Standard 3 v 3, you can’t just rush in towards the ball, you need have a perspective of where your players are and where the opponent is, you must also foresee many things like if the ball will be centering or will someone knock the ball off to some other direction and if the latter happens, which direction will it mostly be in. This is just an example, and you can only build this type of sense if you actually play football or through regular practice of the game, unlike FIFA where you choose a particular formation and the AI makes sure that a specific player is at the end of your pass, whereas in Rocket league you have to position yourself according to what you feel will be the better place, precisely how it happens in real football.
Teamwork
This may be the last on the list, but teamwork is a must for this game. Unlike FIFA where you play as a team, in Rocket League you play as a part of a team and that is another core aspect that you’ll have to develop. You’ll have to gain an understanding and trust the player on your team. You’ll have to understand the moments when you try to interfere in a team-mate’s role, otherwise you’ll just keep coming in their way and in Rocket League teamwork becomes an important aspect just like in real life soccer. Yes I know that in FIFA we can have a 2v2, but then again it is still a lot of AI mumbo jumbo, and Rocket LEague is where real team work is.
Note: The above can also be applicable to NBA 2K series, which is essentially the Hoops in Rocket League, but I’m a soccer player so I know more about soccer than Basketball and hence the article.
Football is a beautiful sport and is also one of the most popular ones, and Rocket League is up there capturing the actual essence of what we like to play or see in real life, but well these are my opinions, the opinion of a common person. What do you think about the discussion? Do you agree or do you disagree? Let us know in the comments below.
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