Rocket Arena is a 3v3 arena hero shooter by EA for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, reminiscent of Smash Bros and offering exciting, competitive game modes. We present the game to you, show what makes it special, and whether we can expect a big hit.
As part of “Find Your Next Game“, we from MeinMMO were able to play Rocket Arena for a few hours at an exclusive demo event by EA in June. The game is developed by Final Strike Games for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. Crossplay is available right at launch. Part of the team previously worked at 343 Industries on titles like Gears of War, Call of Duty, and DOOM.
What is Rocket Arena? In Rocket Arena, you play PvP in 3v3 matches. The action takes place in third-person view. The colorful arenas and heroes give an “Overwatch-like” impression. The game mechanics are reminiscent of Smash Bros, as in Rocket Arena you should knock opponents out of the arena.
At launch on July 14, 10 unique heroes will be available for you to choose from. All are visually distinct and equipped with two unique abilities. These can be particularly powerful shots or abilities that increase your movement speed.
The core of the game consists of shooting your opponents with your rocket launchers. If you hit, their KO indicator fills up. When this indicator is full, the opponents are knocked out of the arena. You do not use your rocket launchers to kill, but to effectively throw opponents out of the playing field.
It takes a few seconds for the ejected opponent to return to the map and continue participating in the match. Knocking enemies out of the arena helps you achieve the objectives of the respective mode. This way, you have less resistance when throwing goals or collecting coins. In the KO mode, only the KOs count, meaning the knockouts from the arena.
What’s included
Various game modes: At launch, you can expect four PvP game modes and even a ranked mode. You play all of them in 3v3:
- Knockout (classic 3v3)
- Rocketball (score goals)
- Treasure Hunt (collect gold)
- Mega Rocket (capture zones)
Knockout: As a team, you must achieve the most knockouts within the given time or reach the target score beforehand. Knockouts are the condition where opponents are thrown out of the arena.
Rocketball will remind you of Rocket League. You should use your heroes and their abilities to hit the opponents’ goal with a ball.
Treasure Hunt is for coin collectors. In the center of the arena, a treasure chest spawns. While carrying it, you collect coins for your team. If you receive a knockout while carrying it, you lose the chest and another player can pick it up. After a certain time, during which the chest has been carried, it disappears, and hundreds of coins spawn on the map that you can collect by running through them with your heroes. The team wins that first collects the coin target or has the most coins at the end of the time.
In Mega Rocket, you need to capture a zone and hold it to collect points as a team. This game principle is probably also known from other games.
As a PvE mode, there is “RocketBot Attack“. Here you play with two other players against bots. The goal is to fend off waves of enemies repeatedly. This is the only PvE mode available at the launch of Rocket Arena.
10 maps for various game modes: For variety in matches, 10 different maps are available right at launch. These have various themes like the exotic jungle or the high-tech city.
All of them are technically different in structure and visually distinct.
On the maps, you will find items like magnets, trip mines, or accelerations that need to be tactically utilized.
Live Service: In the future, there will be regular seasons that expand the content. New champions will shake up the meta. New maps will be added where you can unleash your skills and new game modes that you will need to learn.
What makes Rocket Arena special?
Diverse weapon usage: With rockets, you can shoot opponents and keep yourselves in the air. Shoot underneath you or climb walls with rockets to stay in the game. The triple jump that heroes can perform also helps.
By shooting at opponents, you fill their KO indicator. The more filled it is, the further opponents will be knocked back by the impact of the rockets. Use this to your advantage in the winding parts of the various arenas.
The beginning is easy: The good thing about Rocket Arena is that every new player quickly learns how it works. Good players stand out by combining attacks, anticipating the movements of opponents, and shooting in the direction where an enemy is located when the rocket reaches the target.
Among the skills to master is also dodging rockets. The dodge ability has a cooldown of a few seconds. Good players use this in critical situations.
Child-friendly: Due to the colorful visuals, the nice-looking characters, and the easy-to-understand objectives of the matches, Rocket Arena also targets a younger audience. A plus point is also that you do not “kill” players from the opposing team but instead put them in a “KO status” and boot them out of the arena using your rocket launchers. Here, your skill in aiming and combining abilities and your weapon plays a crucial role.
10 unique heroes: All fighters are equipped with unique abilities that can be advantageous depending on the game mode. For example, Amphora has the ability to transform and is thus quick on her feet. This greatly facilitates coin collection. The pirate Blastbeard is a good goalie in Rocketball with his AOE damage. Izell can use her ability to turn the next normal attack into a homing attack.
By playing matches, you collect experience points for the respective hero and unlock rocket parts, totem parts, and special outfits for them.
At launch, there are 10 heroes. Over time, Rocket Arena plans to expand its hero roster even further. All heroes have 100 unlockable progress levels (which bring over 350 unlockable cosmetic items).
Customizable gameplay: To customize the gameplay, you can equip heroes with various artifacts. These provide bonuses such as:
- higher speed when moving on the ground,
- a chance to receive a random item when returning to the arena
- increased rocket jump strength
- more damage
- increased speed during megablast danger
- cooldown reduction of the special ability
Who is Rocket Arena interesting for?
You will enjoy Rocket Arena if you like the colorful graphics from Overwatch or Fortnite and do not insist on realism in a game.
Additionally, there is the competitive aspect. Do you enjoy competing with other players and functioning as part of a team? Then you will feel at home here.
Moreover, this is a game for “casual players”. If you do not necessarily want to game for three hours straight in the evening, Rocket Arena gives you a good outlet. A match lasted about 5 minutes on average during our demo session. Sometimes a game ended even earlier.
We also see parents with their children who want to try out skill games with tactics together.
Which games is Rocket Arena comparable to?
- With Super Smash Bros, because here you should kick opponents out of the playable area of the arena. One difference is that players return to the field in Rocket Arena after just a few seconds.
- With Fortnite, due to the child-friendly visuals. Rocket Arena is quite colorful. You will not find violent content such as blood in Rocket Arena.
- With Overwatch, due to the visuals and different game modes. Because Overwatch is also rather colorful and has unique characters, just like the roster of Rocket Arena. Additionally, both games provide a variety of game modes for diversity.
How much does Rocket Arena cost?
Rocket Arena is available in 2 versions:
- Standard version for €29.99
- Mythic Edition for €39.99
The Mythic Edition includes outfits for Jayto, Kayi, Blastbeard, and Izell. Additionally, a Pulsar Megablast trail, a Fragment return trail, and 1,000 rocket fuel.
With rocket fuel, you buy the Blast Pass, adjustments, outfits, megablast trails, and return trails. These are all purely cosmetic extras.
What do we like, what don’t we?
Does it have the potential to be a hit? Yes, but …
The great potential of Rocket Arena lies in its family friendliness and the low entry barriers. Everything is easy to understand, the controls are intuitive, and you can easily get into the champions and game modes. For groups of friends who want to compete with each other or together against other players, Rocket Arena is a good choice.
Rocket Arena could also score in the competitive area, as spectators can easily follow the matches.
The potential hit is hindered by the minimum purchase price of 30 euros. A free-to-play version like Fortnite might have been the better choice. There are plenty of shooters out there, like Fortnite or Paladins, that can be played for free as an alternative. Additionally, developers still need to prove how they will manage the live service. New maps, heroes, and modes are planned, but how long will that keep up the motivation? Live events with significant changes would be important.
Rocket Arena is a fun game that motivated me to start round after round. However, it still needs to convince players to purchase and provide long-term enjoyment.
Patrick Freese
Editor at MeinMMO
