Sloclap, the developers of the critically acclaimed action game Sifu, just announced its next title at The Game Awards 2024: Rematch. We had a chance to see Rematch in action ahead of its announcement, and it’s safe to say that this isn’t the follow-up to Sifu that I was expecting. Instead, Rematch is a 5v5 multiplayer-only soccer game.
That might come as a shock at first, but upon seeing Rematch in action, I understood that some of Sloclap’s action game roots still show through here. Finding the middle ground between Rocket League and EA Sports FC, this is a flashy sports game where players control their soccer players from a third-person perspective and don’t have to worry about penalties as they bash into other players, bounce the soccer ball off walls, and more.
I’m all for sports games that don’t fall into the typical simulation game conventions. As such, I could see myself heading onto the pitch with some friends when Rematch enters beta next year.
A third-person soccer game
Soccer games like EA Sports FC 25 typically play from a top-down view, follow league rules, and let players control different members of their team as they pass the ball between them. Rematch works differently, putting players in control of a single athlete from a third-person perspective the whole time they are on the pitch. Matches see two teams of five players face off in a frenetic soccer match where the game’s flow is never broken.
My early look at Rematch made it clear that the game isn’t going for realism. While its handcrafted animations are impressive and mimic the look and feel of real-life soccer players, Rematch sports a vibrant cel-shaded art style. While it follows the basic rules and tenets of soccer, players can perform special Volley Actions like bicycle kicks to blast the ball forward without worrying about penalties, corner kicks, or kicking the ball out of bounds.
This is where Rocket League’s influence on Rematch rears its head. This is a soccer game about getting the ball in the opponent’s goal by any means necessary, even if that requires constantly bouncing the ball off the wall or aggressively stealing it from another player. Creative director Pierre Tarno tells Digital Trends that friendly team play is required to do well. “Though there are dribble mechanics, almost always when you have the ball, the best option you have is to pass it to one of your other teammates because if an opponent gets close, you’re going to get tackled.”
Embracing multiplayer
Sloclap plans on making Rematch a paid title rather than free-to-play. That said, Sloclap is confidently pitching Rematch as a multiplayer experience. While this may seem like whiplash coming off Sifu, it harks back to Absolver. That was Sloclap’s first multiplayer game, an action title where players could get in fistfights with others online. As Tarno discussed Rematch, it became apparent that Sloclop has a clear vision for how it wants to run Rematch as an online game and is actively dealing with the challenges of designing such a title.
“It’s very technically complex to have a 60 [frames -per-second] online game with t10 players on the field,” Tarno explained. “The ball, you see it very distinctly, so every time there’s something that goes wrong in the network that’s not synchronized, you perceive it all the more. A lot of effort goes into server tick rates, synchronization, and making sure that, until a certain level of ping, things always feel fair and everybody sees an action that is coherent and the same for everyone.”
Tarno says players can expect Rematch to have 60 frames-per-second gameplay, features like custom lobbies, and seasons of post-launch support. Those post-launch seasons come at a cadence similarto real-world soccer seasons and add new modes, arenas, cosmetics, and more to the game. It’s definitely not what I would’ve ever expected Sloclap to make after Sifu, but I think Rematch has a very good chance of resonating with soccer fans worldwide once they can finally get their hands on it.
Rematch will enter beta on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S next summer.