2.5/5 ★ – UpwardBoss's review of REMATCH.

NOTE: this is the first installment in a new "Brief Review" series I am doing, as, frankly, my writing process has evolved to the point where my full reviews/critiques take far, far longer to write than they used to. While my reviews a few years ago were often only around 500 words, now they can be over 4,000. On the one hand, this means that the work I put out is significantly higher quality, and work that I am considerably more proud of, but on the other, it means that reviews often take weeks or even months to write (by the way, YES THE SHADOWS CRITIQUE IS COMING, I AM WORKING ON IT, IT WILL BE OUT SOON I PROMISE). What this means is that I'm reviewing far, far fewer games per year than I used to, and there are so many games that come out that I'd like to talk about, but never have the time to because my quality standard has improved to the point where I don't feel happy putting a review out unless it's to the quality of, say, my FFVII Rebirth review. As such, I'm going to start doing "Brief Reviews". These will be shorter, more casual, to-the-point affairs that will hopefully clock in at around 1000 words at most. To be clear, I WILL still be doing full-length reviews/critiques (expect Death Stranding 2: On The Beach to be next up after the AC Shadows critique), but I will also be putting out these new Brief Reviews because frankly... I want to talk about some video games. So let's do that. When Rematch was revealed at The Game Awards 2024, I was surprised. This was coming from Sloclap, a studio most known for 2022's excellent Sifu, and Rematch is... very different. Going from a single-player action game to a multiplayer live-service 5v5 football game is a big swing (one that was likely financially motivated given the enduring popularity of The World's Game and the recurring revenue opportunities a live service can provide). Despite this, I was looking forward to it. I'm a big football fan, and the third-person perspective and more arcadey approach to the sport made for a nice change as opposed to say, EA Sports FC or eFootball. In April, I got to play Rematch early as part of a PC-only beta, and I walked away with my expectations tempered. The core gameplay formula was extremely fun, but the game also suffered immensely from bugs and server problems, and with a release date already set for June 16th, I was doubtful that these problems could be fixed in less than two months. Was my skepticism justified? Unfortunately, yes. Rematch has an excellent core gameplay formula, providing a promising base to build upon for the future, but the progression systems are barebones at best, there's a significant lack of content, and the technical state is frankly atrocious, resulting in a game that I unfortunately cannot recommend right now. Let's start off by talking about that core gameplay formula because it's by far Rematch's greatest strength. At its core, Rematch is a 5v5 (with optional 4v4 and 3v3 modes, but 5v5 is the main one) multiplayer football game where you each control one player. However, the stadiums you play in are enclosed, meaning you can bounce balls off the wall, and the game places significantly more emphasis on unrealistic acrobatic volleys, resulting in a game that feels significantly more arcadey than other football games. Which, frankly, is a refreshing change. The core gameplay of Rematch is very fun, and I definitely said "one more match" to myself more than a few times before that "one more match" was actually the final match of the day. The problem is that it's very static and unchanging. There *is* variety in the form of the aforementioned 3 different modes, and they do feel a fair bit different from each other, but not enough to prevent monotony from setting in quickly. All there is beyond the core game is a tutorial, a few training minigames, a free practice mode, and a custom match option, none of which are particularly compelling. Frankly, I don't really know how you resolve this, as there's only so much you can do given the core mechanics being a real-life sport, but something like an offline career mode would've helped immensely (worth noting that Rematch features no offline modes at all apart from the tutorials, minigames, and free practice mentioned above. This is absolutely an online game first and foremost). What certainly doesn't help this is the near-total lack of progression systems beyond a Battle Pass. Like every live-service in the world, Rematch features a Battle Pass, and it's just as boring and filled with meaningless "rewards" as all of the other implementations of this god-forsaken progression system. I'm so, so utterly sick of Battle Passes. Please stop with them. They suck. It's also divided into three sub-passes for some reason, which means that you can't progress past level 30 until the next phase of the pass opens in a few weeks. At least you can't buy your way through it like most Battle Passes? *Sigh*, the bar is on the floor. Beyond a Battle Pass, there is almost nothing else here in terms of progression. There's a level system but it's meaningless beyond reaching level 5 to unlock ranked mode (more on that in a bit), you can buy cosmetic items with in-game currency (which does include different looks for the stadium, but that will only be applied if you're the home captain), and there's a cash shop (sigh) where you can buy those items with real money, or a $10 Ronaldinho skin which can *only* be bought with real money. Beyond that... there's nothing. You can't upgrade your character at all, there are no bonus modes to unlock (beyond ranked), there's... nothing. As such, I'm a bit concerned about how compelling the game will remain for the months and years that Sloclap evidently want us to play it for. I suspect the lack of character upgrades is for the purpose of parity in the game's ranked mode, but that ranked mode is essentially useless for another, very important reason. This game is completely and utterly broken right now. The majority of my matches have been utterly ruined by various bugs or server problems. Here we go. Goals have been counted that didn't cross the goal line, the goalkeeper's been able to play the ball inside his own goal *without* the goal counting, sometimes goalkeeper animations will stop working entirely and the ball will go past them, I got credited for a goal that I, in reality, assisted on, animations can be delayed on replays, the ball will glitch out and won't be playable, the ball will be visible in one spot for one player and a different spot for everyone else (in this instance, the one player has the real location, and it's essentially an easy goal), and sometimes the player who scored a goal has the ball again on kickoffs. Apart from all that the game's fine. It's hard to tell how many of these are *bugs*, per se, and how many are server problems, but it frankly doesn't matter. The game is hardly even playable, and these problems utterly ruin what should've been a good game. As a result of all of these problems, the ranked mode (which is entirely 5v5, by the way) is essentially useless, as games can be won or lost based on circumstances entirely beyond your team's control. I didn't even finish my placement matches because of this. There's no point in a ranked mode if you can't be confident that it's an accurate reflection of your skill level. The game has obvious aspirations to be an esport, but that's even more ridiculous given the technical state. At least the game runs at a steady 60 FPS on Xbox Series X. That's something. The bar is on the floor, but that's something...? So... that's Rematch. A fun game that I cannot recommend. It's a real shame, as I said on the Freezing Gamers podcast after playing the beta that it needed a delay, but it didn't get one. In addition, the near-complete lack of progression systems makes me very concerned for its longevity. Part of me wonders whether Sloclap are working on more than one game, as this is so far off the high quality bar that they established with Sifu that it's hard to believe that the same team worked on it. It is worth noting that Rematch is included with Xbox Game Pass, so if you really want to try it, that's the best place to do it if you're a Game Pass subscriber. $30 though? Nah, man. The amount of content included is very thin even for that budget price, and the game is so totally busted that I can't imagine players will stick with it for particularly long. I hope they turn this around, and I hope the game's obvious esports aspirations come to fruition. As it is though, I cannot recommend Rematch. 5/10.