The game is quite popular, but its name is still foreign to many. Rocket League (RL) is the second game of its kind (it’s actually a sequel to a much longer named game: Super Sonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars aka, SSARPBC). The game is simple to describe; it's soccer, but with cars. As a player, you control the car and use it to hit the ball into the opponent’s goal.
Cars have the ability to jump and to even fly for a limited amount of time. Rocket League is a completely unique game since it is learned the exact same way any sport is learned. Learning to play Rocket League is totally comparable to learning how to play actual soccer. While you can't really break any rules in Rocket League, there are plenty of other things to learn that make you a better player.
The charm of Rocket League
Most sports video games are dumbed-down and require only a moderate skill level to master it. For instance, in any NFL Madden game, the game will, more or less, execute the same offensive play, in the same way, every time.
Whereas in Rocket League, you can make a shot at the goal in any number of ways every time. Since the game is played in a 3-D environment, the ball can be hit above, behind, in front, to the sides, or even below you at any time in a game. The skill required to read a hit from an opponent in a split second before they make the hit is one of the many challenges the game throws into your face almost every game. The point is; Rocket League is an ever-evolving game that people have been playing with ever since its release. New methods of scoring have been "discovered" in ways that the development team never thought were even possible.
To give you a visual of what I'm talking about, here is a montage of goals by an exceptionally skilled RL player who goes by the name of Kronovi.
The skill level ceiling
One of the best things about Rocket League is the amount of varying skill levels out there. In fact, I'd say there is no limit to how good a player can be at Rocket League. Everyone has the potential to be the very best out there, but getting there takes a lot of time and patience. RL may be like many other actual physical sports as far as learning certain types of techniques go, but since it's a video game, it requires little to no physical movement. In fact, one could argue that it's more of a mental game than it is a physical one. If an RL player with the highest skill level were to play against a decent player who was good at thinking ahead quickly, it'd be hard to predict who would win.
The game truly is brain over brawn and having the ability to read an opponent is far more important than being able to do cool stunts.
What keeps me, and others, in?
The developer of Rocket League is an independent company called Psyonix. This game was their dream to make. SSARPBC became a cult classic when it came out, but not many knew about its existence. So, Psyonix went to work on a sequel to make the game better to reach a broader audience. They were successful and the game's broken a couple records too. The Psyonix team cherishes this game and its ability to survive in a super-saturated market of Video Games and they are also giving hope for the underdogs of the gaming industry. Since then, a lot of independently made games have gotten the chance they deserved because of Psyonix's success story.
The team has been regularly updating the game. The developers actually listen and respond to fans' suggestions and issues with the game and they make changes accordingly. What really keeps me in is the fact that this game is like no other. There wasn't ever a game like RL before its time, and there probably won't be many to follow after it eventually goes away. This game is truly unique, so enjoy it while you can.