Rocket League

The first time I played Rocket League in around 2016, I was both stunned by how cool it was, and how hard it was to actually progress. I kept playing it, because the gameplay was additive. It was a perfect balance of fun and hard progression , in addition that this game is unique.
As the game seemed to have more and more success , Psyonix didn't really bother creating more game modes. The latest always available game mode they added was the Drop Shot, in 2017, and they had previously added great and creative game modes like the Hoops, the Ice Hockey , and the Rumble, since then , the only game modes they added are just variations of the already present ones (The Spike game mode which is really just Rumble with only the Spike power), or pretty cool ones that they removed or are not present 24/7.
That really is sad to see, even tho , most people play the "classic" modes (In 1v1 , 2v2 , or 3v3), it really is refreshing to the game having a new way of playing that really good base of gameplay that is Rocket League.
And that's not even considering all the issues that is common to big money magnet games , that is Loot boxes (Hidden in the Blueprint trading system), the (sometimes) really toxic community, and the lack of good servers (That doesn't drop packets and makes the game unplayable)

Rocket League is still gonna be one of my favorite games due to it's Gameplay, but everything else make me angry to it, that's why I rate it so low, and I completely stopped playing it.

as much as i still cannot wrap my head around how to be competently good at it, the concept alone and how it's executed is worth heaps of praise; immediately recognizable, intriguing, and electric

The ultimate example of the 'simplest idea executed to perfection'. It's car soccer, but perfect.

Improvement is addicting and fun, and due to the insanely high skill-ceiling, it's practically never ending. It's not just a mindless grind of mechanical skill, either. As you move up the ranks, strategy and game-sense become more and more important. Defensive and offensive rotations, being able to read your teammates and the opposing team to predict their next moves, setting up plays, etc. all require split-second decisions where the wrong one can cost you a goal or the entire game.

It has all the emotions you'd come to expect of a hyper-competitive game. You'll likely get frustrated with your teammates and frustrated with yourself, but you'll also have moments of extreme joy, an incredible sense of accomplishment after completing a play that maybe once seemed impossible or winning a hard-fought game, and even laughter. All of that wrapped up into an addicting bite-sized 5-10 minute game makes it easy to hop on or play 'just one more match'.

I don't think this game will really hook you until you get far enough into the ranks and are comfortable enough with the controls to get past the point where simply hitting the ball with your car seems like a win, at least it didn't for me. Until that point, it's more laughable than anything, and you'll still probably have a few hours of fun, but if you don't push through that stage it probably won't really ever 'click' for you. Most people that get turned off from this game never make it past that point, but if you really want to give this game a fair shot, or even have the slightest inclination you may enjoy the competitive aspect, I implore you to keep going. I'd recommend at least trying to get to the gold ranks before giving up on it. If it hasn't hooked you by then, then maybe this just isn't the game for you.

Some of the negative aspects of this game people will mention are the toxic community and the weak extra content and battle passes. It's true, the community sucks, and if you're getting worn down by toxic teammates or opponents, just turn off game-chat or turn the chat to 'teammates only'. As far as the extra content, it shouldn't be the reason you keep coming back. The battle passes and cosmetic system are weak, and are where Epic will try to make their money, but you can just ignore it if you don't like it. I never got into the extra game modes, some do, but if you aren't hooked by the core gameplay loop and standard variants, the extra content won't be enough for you to stick around.

If you have even the smallest competitive bone in your body, I can almost guarantee this will scratch that itch, and you'll be back for more.

There was a time when Rocket League was a fun venture into the unknown - a realm of infinite possibilities where you, the player, dictate how you'll consume the game and how much you'd be willing to push yourself to be the best, while the matchmaking did you the favor of placing you amongst players that matched your skill level. That was a long time ago. And since the Rocket League released in 2015, it's seen its fair share of ups and downs. The ups? The above mentioned fair-at-the-time matchmaking system, along with its stellar soundtrack, the absence of "battle passes" and whatnot - all of that foundation proved trustworthy to new and skilled players alike. Did I mention it was a paid game back then?

The downs? In recent years, Rocket League got absolutely sloppy. Nothing new to offer for customization, the putrid idea of "battle passes," the endless supply of blueprints in your inventory that need real money to manifest into your personal rocket car, the newly added songs that slowly peel away from the established atmosphere, the ridiculously bad teammates that don't even remotely match your skills as you (thanks to the atrociously bad matchmaking system) battle against opponents that seem as if they just came of some pro-tournament, and no matter if they had won or lost the tourney, you're at their mercy to do as they please as your "teammate" ties your one hand on the back and relies on you the carry the team to victory against suspicious odds and would hold the loss against you if you don't deliver. The negatives, in recent times, outweigh the positives so much, you feel as if they were never there to begin with. Don't even get me talking about the god-awful server issues I get more and more to play with and how it puts an even greater pressure on me to succeed even a little bit. Oh, did I mention it's free to play now?

The thing I hate the most about Rocket League is the demolitions! I can't stress this enough how it hinders any fun you had and how it feels like a punishment when you endure it and how empty it feels when you demolition someone as revenge. To put that into perspective, it's like playing real-life basketball and sometime from behind someone swipes with force the legs right from under you and it won't get called for being a harsh foul even though it was seen by everyone. It's not fun, it's demoralizing and it ruins any chance of competitive gameplay because people abuse that mechanic.

I'm close on 1000hrs of in-game time and not once did I feel like I improved significantly even though upon boot, the training tools are the very first thing on my mind when I press the play button for Rocket League. I always feel like one hundred steps behind anyone else on the server and that's precisely my problem with multiplayer in general. If you aren't there on the first day and you arrive way too late, you don't get to be good at all, no matter the time spent in practice sessions that last longer than the matches themselves. You don't get to redeem yourself at all for the lost time. That's the truth.

In the end, Rocket League stands tall as a once-fun-now-depressing mash of good gameplay ideas and ridiculously unbalanced system across the board ranging from impossible-to-apply-without-money cosmetics to impossible-to-have-fun-without-being-there-at-infancy ranked matches and variables.

Let me just pour my soul out one more time just to feel good in the morning for once: I absolutely, from the bottom of my heart, hate this game. Teammates are constantly toxic, the opponents are sent from God himself to torment you and the good-looking wheels and too far between to make any time with Rocket League worthy of enduring the pain.

Calculated.

Fundamentally simple to play but with an impossibly high skill ceiling. Pulling off a play that was just on the edge of your ability is such a great feeling whether you have 1 or 1,000 logged hours. If you willfully ignore all the nonsense and jump right into training modes or online matches every time you start it up, there is a beautifully pure and mechanically tight competitive game in here.

Some of the most fun I've had from a casual game in the last decade or two. Great fun if you can grab a few friends to play along with