Ok, let’s just get this out of the way up front: I know next to nothing about soccer (or football, as people already yelling at me would say). After a brief stint fumbling around on the pitch in elementary school, I made the wise decision to hang up my cleats for good at a young age. However, despite this lack of interest in the most popular sport in the world, the upcoming soccer videogame Rematch has stood out enough from its peers (EA and Konami’s yearly sims) to draw in someone whose first thought at hearing the word “football” is wistfully remembering the look on Mahomes’ face as he was repeatedly sacked into oblivion in the last Superbowl.
The reason I’m interested in this specific soccer game is simple: Sloclap is handling development. Between Absolver and Sifu, this Parisian studio has made some of the more mechanically fussy action games in recent memory, both attempting to find new ways to represent character movement. If you’re a certain type of person, Sifu likely barraged your brain with a particularly deadly dosage of “get good” chemicals, which, in my case, led me down the dark path of replaying every level until I could get through each without dying (this also has the hilarious unintended side effect of taking a game that’s message is “Revenge is so corrosive it literally destroys your life,” to “Revenge is corrosive, unless you spend too long memorizing boss attack patterns, and then it’s fine.”) It certainly wasn’t for everyone, and the justified criticisms towards its superficial depiction of Chinese culture underline Sloclap’s obsession with gameplay complexity and sleek aesthetics above all else, but both Sifu and Absolver took big gameplay risks that made them “love it or hate it” experiences in a way that stands out.
Rematch largely falls into the same camp, rethinking the fundamentals of how a soccer game should work with an intensive control scheme that allows for player creativity. The result is a unique experience with some real potential but with equally large hurdles to overcome, like how it’s an uphill battle to make a successful live-service multiplayer-only game in the year 2025. It’s aimed at a June 19th release date for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, giving it a few months’ head start on the next EA Sports FC, which is probably a good call.
To get into the weeds of what makes Rematch’s controls unique, instead of buttons being for specific actions like “shoot” or “pass,” each offers ways to interact with the ball that can be modified by other button presses. Yes, there is a button to kick the ball really hard that is mostly used for trying to score a goal—holding the left trigger brings up a shooter-style aiming reticule, and hitting RT tees it off. However, on top of being your main way of scoring, this strong kick is also a great way to make a deep pass. As you hold down the left trigger to aim a shot, you can also influence the spin on the ball with the right stick, requiring precise movements that are a bit reminiscent of the Skate series. With this, you can do things like curve the ball around a goalie, apply top spin to hit a tough pass between two defenders, or do what I did several times and accidentally shank your shot well clear of its intended destination.
Then there’s the Tap function, which allows you to hit the ball quickly, making it ideal for passing. After tapping or holding X, your character kicks the ball wherever the left stick is angled, giving you a lot of granularity but coming with the very real possibility that you will perform the worst pass anyone has ever seen. You can also Push the ball in front of you by pressing A, which lets you move quicker and leaves you less vulnerable to tackles and steals. These kinds of evasive moves are particularly important because Rematch doesn’t have red cards or a referee; this is lawless football where everyone slide tackles with reckless abandon.
And that’s just the baseline for the available actions because the bumpers and triggers modify each move. Holding RB while using a Tap or Push will cause the ball to go airborne; the former lets you set up nice arcing passes, and the latter gives you access to rewarding rainbow flicks to launch the ball over defenders. But wait, there’s more! If you hold LT, you go into a stance where you can hit A to perform fancy footwork that makes you temporarily invulnerable to steals.
At first, it may sound like standard soccer stuff, but where things get particularly interesting is how all these abilities combine to make the ball seem less like an orb glued to your characters’ feet and more like a physical object that can be dynamically manipulated. A great example is how you interact with the Rocket League-style holographic enclosure surrounding the field (which I assume is these stolid soccer players’ eternal prison). Not only do these surrounding walls mean the ball can’t go out of bounds because it will bounce off, but they also mean that you can set up tricky plays that involve using them to your advantage. You can angle the ball so it ricochets off the barrier, sneaking it to your teammate or yourself. I even saw several players score by bouncing the ball off the wall above the goal, setting themselves up for nasty bicycle kicks.
When you layer all these together, it becomes clear that while each action has a main function, like “passing” or “shooting,” they can all be used creatively. I saw a player calmly rainbow flick over the goalie for a clever score. Others used the Tap button (typically used to pass) to quickly nudge the ball after receiving a long-range pass made with a Shoot action.
While it seems unhinged to say Rematch is inspired by Rocket League, considering that the game is probably much more inspired by, you know, actual soccer and not the videogame where cars play footie, I think that comparison is being thrown around so much because both games having a loose and freeform feel that encourages emergent gameplay.
However, all that depth admittedly comes with some drawbacks, mainly that Rematch isn’t the easiest to pick up and play. Performing essential actions frequently requires pressing several buttons at once, meaning that you will almost certainly choke the first time you get the ball, pressing the wrong action-modifying trigger as you get slide tackled and your teammates look on in disapproval (yes, I am drawing from personal experience). This is made worse by the player base somehow already seeming toxic on day -68. Even if you mute voice chat to avoid teammates loudly complaining about their connection, their opponents, teammates, or whatever else, the d-pad communicates with your teammates via simple phrases, and of course, the “Good Job” bark has already been turned into a sarcastic jab when a team member turns the ball over. While there’s a decent tutorial, practice drills, and a rudimentary training mode to help onboard, at least in the beta, there isn’t any offline option against CPUs, meaning you’ll eventually have to hop into the fire and probably get flamed.
And a perhaps unfair criticism (that’s really more of a complaint about how actual soccer works) is that these online matches come with a lot of waiting around. The game is played in 4v4 or 5v5, with each player controlling one team member, meaning you’ll frequently be off-ball, which isn’t always very exciting. You can call for a pass, but I think the high rate of teammate-on-teammate hostility comes from the fact that a lot of the gameplay involves watching other people do stuff. While it may be a “No duh” realization, even with Rematch’s rewarding control scheme, this game will probably mostly only appeal to those already into soccer.
However, my biggest concern for the game is the seemingly dire live-service market it’s entering, which appears over-tapped for all but a tiny fraction of breakouts. Rematch will cost $30 and have a Battle Pass alongside a disconcerting number of in-game currencies. Add in the game’s reasonably high-skill floor and a potentially hostile player base, and it may be a tough sell.
That said, there is some good news for the game: a couple of years ago, Konami shot themselves in the foot by killing their well-liked Pro Evolution series for the maligned eFootball. Meanwhile, EA Sports FC 25 sits at a Mixed approval rating on Steam, so maybe this game will tap into the lingering discontentment with the biggest soccer series. Or maybe it will be shut down in a year; these days, it is truly anyone’s guess.
That said, while my time with Rematch was partially defined by rude teammates and struggling to internalize the complicated controls in the heat of the moment, there were also moments that broke through, like setting up a handful of perfect lobbing assists to teammates or outmaneuvering the goalie with a carefully placed corner shot. There may have been some frustrations, but it’s probably a good sign that the game has a soccer agnostic like me looking forward to rainbow flicking over defenders in this upcoming weekend’s beta.
Elijah Gonzalez is the assistant Games and TV Editor for Paste Magazine. In addition to playing and watching the latest on the small screen, he also loves film, creating large lists of media he’ll probably never actually get to, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.
