Rematch is a 5v5, third-person soccer game developed by Sloclap, best known for releasing games like Absolver and Sifu. Notably, both Absolver and Sifu were very focused on martial arts and melee combat, so Rematch kinda feels like a strange left turn, but it works!
Since Rematch‘s Advanced Access launch, there have been complaints about the lack of crossplay, as well as the presence of various annoying bugs and glitches that have plagued the game since its beta tests. Sloclap has taken the time to address these issues one by one, so let’s get into it.
Crossplay in Rematch
First up, crossplay! Sloclap stated that crossplay is their highest priority for Rematch right now. As their first crossplay title, the team ran into unforeseen technical hurdles and was not able to get the feature sorted in time for launch. Sloclap apologized for not communicating this earlier, and stated that they were working on getting it online as soon as possible.
Addressing Existing Bugs and Performance Issues
Next up, the team also addressed the major concerns brought up by the player base, as listed below:
Lag & Performance
“We’re working on identifying the causes behind lag, stuttering, and frame drops affecting gameplay. Our team is currently implementing performance optimizations and settings adjustments to significantly improve stability. Likewise, we are continuously working on improving server stability to bring you a smoother gameplay experience across the board.”
Desynchronization
“Server and client desync has been impacting match quality. For instance, we are aware of issues where players would sometimes be unable to interact with the ball, with player characters and the ball seemingly moving across the pitch unpredictably. We have deployed two hot fixes during Early Access to bring corrections to important issues, and we’ll continuously work on enhancing client and server synchronization along the way.”
Bugs & Stability
“We’re actively resolving major game-breaking bugs such as crashes, freezes after goals, and menu lockouts. Regular patches and hotfixes will be delivered frequently over the coming weeks to iron out bugs, bring new features, and make Rematch the best it can be.”
Sloclap stated that the issues listed above are their highest priority.
Upcoming Features in Rematch
Finally, Sloclap also provided some information on what we can expect from the game going forward:
- Core gameplay: In the coming months, we’ll be looking into a variety of topics: improving the sliding tackle, tweaks to goalkeeper mechanics, to the dribbling system, to wall contacts… These are still to be confirmed, and naturally we will take into account community feedback in our roadmap. Our general objective is to keep adding depth and granularity to our mechanics, to make the game as interesting as possible in a competitive environment. As we move forward, we will deploy test servers so that we can try out new features and improvements in a live environment, in order to gather feedback from our community before deploying on the main game.
- Competitive features: Beyond improvements to core gameplay, we are currently designing a tournament system, a leaderboard system for players above Elite ranking, as well as a club creation system, to provide more variety in the competitive experience.
- Social components: Crossplay is the major one here, and our top priority, but other features are also being worked on, such as being able to spectate your squad’s game when you join a squad, allowing players to team up and rematch with teammates they enjoyed playing with, and more.
- Casual play features: Besides new quick play game modes, and a rotating game mode queue, we will be working on implementing AI-controlled bots so that players are able to train with and against AIs, in workshops or in dedicated game modes.
Personally, I’m really hoping Sloclap pushes out the AI modes sooner rather than later. My main gripe with Rematch right now is being forced into player matches right after the brief prologue/tutorial section. I would’ve liked a bit more time just experimenting with the mechanics before getting tossed into the deep end. I’m looking to get in a few more matches in once the game’s fully launched, so stay tuned for our official review.
Rematch is now available for PC and consoles.
