Brawlers Absolver and Sifu put Sloclap on the map thanks to their memorable looks, slick action and crunchy animations. So naturally the next project for the French studio is [checks notes] a 5v5 arcade soccer game. Uh, sure!
Rematch, which is slated to arrive next summer, perhaps makes more sense for Sloclap than first meets the eye. The studio says the title falls within its remit of making challenging action games with a stylized look.
Each human player controls one character, including the goalkeeper, though you may find yourself quickly transitioning from a striker role to defense. Given the third-person perspective, it may feel more aligned with Rocket League or the career mode in the FIFA/EA Sports FC series rather than the full-pitch view you see in most of the latter’s modes.
Rematch is skill-based, so you won’t be packing your team with players filled with high stats à la FC Ultimate Team. How you perform is down to your own abilities, not how many points you’ve plowed into your player’s shooting and dribbling attributes.
Sloclap designed the game for fast-flowing action. There are no fouls or offsides here. The ball doesn’t go out of play as there’s a Rocket League-style boundary wall. You even can use that to your advantage by bouncing the ball off the barrier to set up a teammate for a shot at goal.
Soccer is about “being in the right place at the right time and executing to perfection,” according to Pierre Tarno, creative director and executive producer at Sloclap. The studio is hoping to capture that in Rematch. Along with the importance of positioning, the game is said to place an onus on “deep tactics.”
Goalkeepers don’t need to be kicking their heels while waiting for the opposition to take a shot at their goal. They can push up outside of their penalty area and play as a Manuel Neuer-style sweeper keeper to close down counter attacks if they’re willing to take a risk.
When your team has possession, but you don’t have the ball, you can call for a pass. The player who has it will see a line to the teammate who made the request, which should help with spatial awareness (there seems to be a minimap too).
Sloclap built the game around three core tenets: helping players feel like athletes, the pressure of high-stakes matches and the joy of being part of a team. “It’s about the joy of playing football with friends,” Tarno said, and as much about setting up a teammate to bag a goal — perhaps with a perfectly executed volley — as it is to score yourself. And when you lose a game, the idea is that you’ll dust off and queue up with your friends for another one. Hence the name Rematch.
Along with competitive modes and quick play options, you can expect private games with customizable rules. There’s a seasonal content system that will gradually introduce more features, events, environments and ways to customize your character.
Don’t expect to see the likes of Liverpool or Real Madrid in Rematch, at least not right away. The game is set in the future, so there isn’t much in the way of licensing, but Sloclap isn’t ruling out such agreements down the line.
Rematch will be a premium game rather than a free-to-play title. It’s coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC next summer. Sloclap plans to run beta tests this spring.
