Take every popular shooter you know and turn all the weapons and ammunition into rockets, that’s Rocket Arena. A team/hero shooter that’s all about rockets. You may have experience with rocket launchers from other games, and you may have played rockets-only game modes in other shooter games, but we're pretty sure you haven't played a game that's ALL rockets.
Now there's no shortage of team shooters to play, from Overwatch, to Apex Legends, to Paladins, and more. Rocket Arena does carve a niche for itself with its creative approach, but how does it fare as a premium title in a cutthroat industry that also has many free titles?
Like we mentioned above, Rocket Arena is a team shooter, much like Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch. Similarly, you also choose a hero, or in this case, a competitor, each with their own unique abilities. This includes the very rockets they fire as a basic attack. There were a total of 10 characters available to play from during launch, and we went ahead and tried all of them. There's enough variety here to satisfy everyone, from the very vanilla Jayto, who fires missiles, to Kayi who uses a rocket launching crossbow, or Blastbeard who's basically a pirate that fires cannons at people, or even Izell, who’s like a huntress who throws rocket spears at her prey. The characters don’t really stand out as such though, they’re not very memorable and don’t stand out the way characters from TF2 or Overwatch have stood the test of time.
Coming to gameplay, In addition to the usual shooter mechanics, you know, WASD to move, left-click to shoot, all the expected 'rocket' mechanics such as rocket jumping have carried over to Rocket Arena as well. Heck, you can even rocket climb in this game, and scale walls! You don't take damage from your own rockets, so it makes what is usually a difficult mechanic to pull off, fairly accessible and forgiving to new players. The game also uses a triple jump system, instead of the usual double jumps, in combination with rocket jumping. Expect to spend a lot of time airborne.
Despite the overwhelming presence of rockets and explosions, nobody dies. There's no chunks of meat flying around from all the explosions. This is because nobody actually dies in Rocket Arena, they just get knocked out of the arena, to be floated back in by a drone or something. The way this works is, everyone has a meter at the bottom of their screens. Everytime you take a hit, that meter fills up. Similarly, if you don't take a hit for a while it starts emptying. Now if this meter fills up, you're basically primed for a final hit that will knock you out of the park, literally. It's basically like playing Super Smash bros in the first-person with rockets. We get that it’s a PG-13 game and all that, but it’s a bit of a bummer. The game really lacks oomph, which is ironic considering it’s all about rockets.
Another thing to note is that as your meter fills up, you're more prone to getting knocked around, and someone who's a good shot can basically keep you locked in the sky as you fly further away to eventually be blasted off. Each character's rockets have a different feel to them, with varying impacts and speeds, getting used to that will be key to succeeding at the game.
Upon starting the game, you’re greeted with a tutorial which teaches you the basic mechanics of the game, this includes rocket jumping and rocket climbing too. After that, you’re thrown into an AI game where you need to knock the robots out. After that, you unlock being able to play against other players. There are three game modes as of writing this review, with Arena 3v3, Knockout 3v3, and a co-op vs AI mode, which is basically 3 humans vs 3 bots.
While in-game, you also have access to artifacts, which you equip before the game, which offer different kinds of buffs to your competitor. Additionally, within the game itself you have Mario Kart-style mystery boxes which can be used to different effects, be it damaging enemies or buffing yourself.
Overall, the game is pretty polished and can be fun. The rocket mechanics, and the unique play styles each of the competitors offer can keep you invested in the game for a good amount of time. Developer Final Strike games have also promised plenty of future content in the days to come which players can look forward to. Unfortunately, there is a bit of a hiccup. Since the game costs a premium to play, and well, considering all the competition it has, there are very few players playing the game. We’ve spent ages just waiting in matchmaking to find a game, only to play 3 vs 1 in an unfair matchup. If the game’s unable to acquire a decent playerbase, we’re afraid the rocket’s going to fizzle out soon.
The overall aesthetic of the game is pretty cartoony, and very similar to many Nintendo games. The character designs are unique, and look pretty good, however, like we mentioned earlier, none of them really stand out or come across as memorable. Cosmetics for competitors right now look like different colour reskins for the most part, save one or two skins for each. Actually, speaking of cosmetics, this game has an in-game cash shop. For a game you’re already paying upfront just to play, the fact that there’s a rather pricey in-game cash shop as well screams EA. Oh hey, would you look at who the publisher is?
Audio is also decent, nothing too stellar, character VAs are decent and some of them are actually pretty good, such as Topnotch, who is supposed to be this veteran soldier or something from Fort Rocket. The accompanying music is also very Nintendo, and adventure-y, sometimes doesn’t feel like it fits, but it’s alright we guess.
Rocket Arena is a fun game with interesting gameplay that has plenty of potential. It’s pretty polished and balanced right from the get go, with interesting characters, each with their own unique play style. The developers have definitely put work into the game, and it shows. The way we see it, there are a few things getting in the way of Rocket Arena taking off. The first is the premium price in an industry that already offers polished free-to-play team shooters. The fact that there’s a cash-shop in the game despite that is already a big no-no. Second is the lack of players, which could probably be alleviated by quite a lot by addressing the first thing we mentioned. The other minor things like the lack of exploding bodies can be addressed later once these things are taken care off.
MOAR!
Developer: Final Strike Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
Played on: Microsoft Windows
Price: INR 1,999 (Origin)