[Rocket Arena] - No, not the Quake mod, but still pretty good! (FREE WEEKEND)

Big Dookie

Rocket Arena is a multiplayer, hero-based, third person shoot-oh fuck I've already lost you haven't I? Okay hang on a sec, just give me one more sentence to see if I can sell you here...

Rocket Arena is basically Overwatch x Super Smash Bros, and all guns are rocket launchers.

If that piques your interest and you're willing to invest another 5-10 minutes, take a gander at the video below for a relatively detailed breakdown of what the game is about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjJsqep11Zo

For the old geezers like me, you may be wondering, "Does this have anything to do with the original Rocket Arena mod for Quake? Short answer is, no, not at all. That said, don't let that disappoint you, because this version of the game has a lot going for it.

Here are a few things you can do in Rocket Arena:

• Rocket Jump
• Use rockets to climb walls
• Triple-Jump (fuck your lame double-jump!)
• Play as a fat pirate who shoots cannonball rockets
• Blast players out of the arena, SSB-style
• Use a character that dips below the ground, a la Splatoon
• Play with everyone across PC, PS4, and XBox

And some things you won't see in Rocket Arena:

• Health Meters
• ADS
• Micro-transactions (mostly)
• Hit-scan weapons
• A Battle Royale mode
• Good music and voice acting

That last one is maybe a bit subjective, but it's the one area for me at least where the game has been pretty weak so far. Always room for improvement I guess!

The base game is $30, or you can buy the Mythic Edition for $40, which includes a bunch of extra skins and enough in-game currency to purchase the Battle Pass in a couple of weeks. Note, you can earn enough currency with the Battle Pass that you only need to pay for it once, and it can then theoretically pay for itself in perpetuity after that. Other than the Battle-Pass, you earn enough currency just playing the game that it doesn't seem like you ever have to put any more money into it than the base cost to level everything up and buy whatever you want. So I'd say the initial price tag feels worth getting to avoid the typical micro-transaction trap most of these kind of games tag on.

So, has anyone else tried this out yet? If there's enough interest, I'll maybe put together a quick Google spreadsheet of players or something, but we'll see how that goes. Hope to see you all out there!

EDIT - Season 1 Launch Trailer:

https://youtu.be/Vyr5FRLt8CU

Also, yes, the game is on sale for $5 right now. Maybe it’ll be entirely free to play soon, who knows?

Bizazedo

It really bothers me that it's named Rocket Arena. All I can think of is the old Quake mod.

Yes, I'm old, shut up.

I've been eyeing this game and a friend is a proponent of it, but haven't dug in yet.

Fencingsax

The game looks like it could be pretty cool. I wonder how responsive it is.

For some reason, her saying third person FPS grinds my gears.

Big Dookie

Fencingsax wrote: »

The game looks like it could be pretty cool. I wonder how responsive it is.

For some reason, her saying third person FPS grinds my gears.

I might replace that video if I can find something better. I will say, IIRC, this started out as an FPS and remained that way through at least part of the beta before switching over to the third person POV, so maybe there was some crossover in her mind there. Or it was just a total brain-fart on her end. Either way though, it is a pretty fun game for sure, I could see it having legs if they can keep the player base large and engaged enough.

PMAvers

Bizazedo wrote: »

It really bothers me that it's named Rocket Arena. All I can think of is the old Quake mod.

Yes, I'm old, shut up.

Trust me, you aren’t the only one.

Big Dookie

If anyone is curious how this game actually plays and wants to see it in action (from a very bad player with terrible reflexes), I'll be streaming for probably the next hour or so. No camera or commentary or anything, just straight gameplay.

https://www.twitch.tv/bigdook/

ED!

That. . . actually looks really fun. I just saw the Steam numbers and figured it was dead on arrival. Crossplay is a great thing though.

Big Dookie

So this game must be struggling pretty badly. The devs have come out and said anyone who plays the game prior to the launch of season 1 (July 28) will get 3000 Rocket Fuel for free, which is the in-game currency. 3000 is worth about $30.

Additionally, there are several sales on the game right now. You can actually straight up buy it on Origin for $5. And presumably if you play it today, you’ll still get the 3000 Rocket Fuel too.

Nice to see them trying to aggressively make the game more accessible, but oof. That hurts for people like me that bought the game at launch. If you were on the fence though, now looks like as good a time as ever.

In reality, I wouldn’t be surprised if these moves are part of them paving the way to shift the game to a F2P model. Even though I prefer a paid model myself, it seems you just can’t be competitive these days with a multiplayer game like this otherwise.

Bizazedo

It just moves too slow for me . A friend is also struggling with the speed of it. I dunno if the slow speed is due to them trying to make it accessible, but it moves slow....and the actual gameplay made the friend call it a third person shooter trying to be Smash Brothers....but slower.

Big Dookie

For anyone curious who’d like to try it out, the game is free this weekend on both Steam and XBox. If you’ve been on the fence, it’s a good chance to play a few hours and see what it’s all about.