Rematch Review – Gamereactor

I see a gap in the market that needs to be filled, one that cries out for attention. Football Heroes League tried to cash in a few weeks ago, but it went completely wrong and was a very obvious (but poor) attempt to steal the limelight from a real game – Rematch. Now it’s Rematch’s turn to show how it’s done and how arcade football should be played in 2025.

I wrote in the Football Heroes League review that there is a lack of games in this genre. EA Sports FC is currently far from the option I want when choosing to play digital football these days, as it is weighed down by microtransactions and sluggish servers. I want quick, fast-paced, action-packed, and entertaining football where realism is secondary. Rocket League has all that, with the small (but major) difference that players are replaced with rocket-powered cars. “Give me a Rocket League on foot” is something I often say, and Sloclap seems to have heard my prayers.

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Sloclap, the studio that delivered the kung fu spectacle Sifu a few years ago, is following up with a football game. The style we saw in Sifu is actually repeated in Rematch, where we see the same stylish cel-shaded graphics and similar character designs. Sifu excelled in several areas, and one of them has been carried over into the development of Rematch, namely the way you move and interact with your surroundings. Instead of kicking glass bottles and knocking out teeth, it’s footballs that get beaten up, but with the same smoothness.

In Rematch, you play either three against three, four against four, or five against five. These are matches without rules, so there is no offside, no free kicks, and no yellow or red cards. Before taking on real opponents, you get to play through a short prologue that shows you the most important game mechanics. Even though it’s a football game, just like EA Sports FC 25, for example, it’s not played in the same way at all; the similarities with Rocket League are greater. You control one player, your player, and the others are controlled by other players, which really puts your ability to cooperate to the test.

Another similarity with Rocket League is the way you aim when shooting. There is certainly more focus on gravity and physics, but in Rematch, you can’t just fire a shot and expect the ball to fly into the top corner as if it were a homing missile. No, Rematch is played from a third-person perspective where you have a free camera to control and a crosshair that you aim with both when passing and when shooting. Rematch doesn’t serve everything up to you on a plate; it requires you to spend time getting to grips with the controls in order to succeed. You have to learn how to receive the ball, dribble effectively by pushing the ball in different directions, and also perform tricks at the right time. Nothing is done for you; it’s up to you to make things happen and do them the right way – a refreshing thing to see in a football game these days.

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Five-minute matches are the norm. If the game gets out of hand and one team scores too many goals, the match is ended early by the “mercy rule”. Players rotate after each kick-off, with one player having the honour of standing in goal while the others are outfield players. One problem I’ve constantly encountered when playing Rematch is that everyone wants to get up and kick the same ball at the same time. The goal is left wide open and more or less always results in conceding a goal. People are generally not very good at Rematch yet, but it gets better the more you play and as your ranking rises.

Parallels with Rocket League? Yes, there are many. The chat system during matches is basically the same and works smoothly for asking for a pass or asking someone to shoot, as well as for apologising when you make a mistake and accidentally let in a goal. Another is the stamina meter that shows how long you can rush – although in Rematch it refills automatically instead of you having to pick up boosters scattered across the pitch. A third similarity is the heavy focus on the ability to customise your player with everything from big hairstyles and moustaches to sleek shoes and patterns on your clothes. In Rematch, we also see the same setup with a season pass where you unlock more cosmetic items, just like in Rocket League. The biggest difference between Rocket League and Rematch (apart from cars versus humans) is that one is a free game and the other costs £21.

Yes, Rematch costs money. Many will have access to it through Game Pass, where it is available on day one, but the rest of you will have to pay for access. It feels a bit wrong, actually, even if it’s cheap compared to the growing number of £70 games. Rematch is actually a fantastic game when you manage to match with the right players who actually know how to play football. I see myself playing this for a long time to come – but I’m a little unsure how many people want to shell out £21 to get their hands on a game that is full of microtransactions and a season pass that you have to pay even more for. Rematch feels more like an F2P title – especially considering its similarities to Rocket League.

The main thing is that everyone plays on the same terms (another similarity with Rocket League) and the microtransactions only unlock the ability to change the look of the game. Having shoes with a glitch animation behind them when you run fast doesn’t make you shoot more accurately or run faster. It’s just cosmetic and has no effect on how well the football is played. But I’m a little afraid that Sloclap is shooting themselves in the foot with their pricing of the game. But that remains to be seen.

Apart from that rather significant downside, Rematch is a very good game. It’s the game I’ve wanted for so many years, and I’m overjoyed that it’s finally here. It’s both fun to watch and fun to play, and I hope Sloclap succeeds in the seemingly impossible task of convincing players to pay for something that, in many ways, looks like a free-to-play title.