The well-known initiative EA Originals sees tight budget stocks getting funding from Electronic Arts, a well-known software house that has decided to invest in works that are not particularly expensive, but which can present themselves as small pearls to keep an eye on, especially if present in the service Origin Access Premiere. This is the case with Rocket Sand, a third person shooter outside the lines which came to life thanks to the aforementioned financing initiative, and which is finally available on PC, PlayStation 4 e Xbox One.
Along the lines of Overwatch, despite the title, however, casts on their own ideas and on further solutions not present in the shooter Blizzard, Final Strike Games has given birth to an undoubtedly surprising hero shooter, which although obviously not perfect can be a valid alternative to the market proposals. So let's see what Rocket Arena has been able to show us during the several hours of play that we have achieved in the past few days.
No blood in Rocket Arena
The battles of this exuberant shooter are set on the planet Crater, a place where the inhabitants decide to give life to absurd competitions, to the sound of rockets and endless flights. We are dealing with a total of well 10 characters, which are certainly not many, but they are at least well studied. Each has a movement skill, and endless possibilities to damage enemies. Balance to be reviewed separately, all of them are actually quite effective, even if specifically non-lethal. Strange to say, but Rocket Arena is a shooter where no one dies, where there are no lives but only objectives to be grabbed and points to be made. The iconic "kills" of the genre instead take place through a system certainly attributable to the Smash formula, according to which the shots are used only to throw away the opponents. Rockets upon rockets, dozens per second whizzing through small but meticulously manicured arenas, where random objects found on the ground can reformulate the unfolding of events.
The Rocket Arena system is fast-paced and fun, but only suitable for casual games due to the lack of ranked
By riddling enemies, and accumulating combos, you will get to the point where one last shot will be fatal and will knock your opponent out of the arena, giving life to the so-called Megaboom. This is a really crazy and fun game system, which thanks to the infinite mobility of each protagonist, it finds its dimension in this title. Even your shots can in fact make the character you control fly away, which is identified in a continuous dodging the opponents, and take aim based on the unpredictable movements that they could make at any moment. Truly a fun scheme, which leaves no way out for distractions and which allows you to improve with third-person aiming while not being extremely punitive, thanks to the a thousand second chances that are provided. Furthermore, the ranked matches are not yet available, which will soon be included with the arrival of the first season, and will be able to offer us further lifeblood for a title that does not see its problems rooted in the gameplay. The latter is in fact pleasant and fun, even if definitely to be expanded through the contents, but the problems lie in what revolves around the simple software.
Charming and dangerous
All the characters of Rocket Arena, even if nowhere near as seen in Overwatch, they shine with their own light and have characters and peculiarities. These certainly entice you to play, just as the approximate progression system inserted should do, which puts more advanced players in better conditions, without however providing a real excuse to level up and unlock new features. In addition to the character design, the entire graphic sector is promoted. Colorful, nice and charming, really a great job especially with regard to the settings.
Technically, the title is solid, with very few problems that rarely affect the games, and with hardware requests on PCs that are not particularly expensive. For the latter platform, you can get the software on Steam or Origin, and needless to say this second option is configured as a problem factory, just as happens for the titles present in the same Electronic Arts library. However, the game is also available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with the full potential of cross play already enabled starting from day one. These obviously give PC players an advantage, but since the shooting system is based on the third person, even those who cannot choose between mouse and keyboard or controller can have their say through the latter.
The hand of Electronic Arts
Despite being solid and fun, Rocket Arena is undermined by too high an entrance price, which has brought the work to the brink of failure
You pass the lack of content and some problems scattered here and there, Rocket Arena is certainly not a disaster, how much a pleasant title full of potential. However, to dominate in the online multiplayer market nowadays you cannot indulge in any smudging, and sadly it seems that the developer Final Strike Games has not only received concessions from Electronic Arts. The well-known publisher has in fact put an apparent hand in it, greatly limiting an experience that deserves to shine instead. Although it could be configured as a free to play game, in fact, Rocket Arena is available at a quite high price, not fully in line with the contents inserted, and certainly not suitable for dominating the niche as mentioned above, extremely competitive. It therefore remains difficult to envision a bright future for the product, which could probably only come after the economization system is revisited, and the few modes and maps will be expanded, along with the addition of a ranked game system. Perhaps it was this last absence that took the title towards the cliff of failure, considering that the same is still in the balance and is close to falling, as the servers are already almost empty, which often makes it impossible to play a game without having to wait for exaggerated waiting times.
