REMATCH

The beautiful game gets some extra kick

- Daniella Lucas

Every now and then a game comes along that seems unassuming at first but totally blows away all of your expectations and reveals itself to be something special. Rematch is one of those games. Yes, it's football, but it's far closer to the likes of Rocket League and Overwatch than it is to FIFA, and is all about action and teamplay.

Trailers really don't do this game justice. Watching people run around a pitch, even when extremely stylish, can't capture just how good this feels to play. A skilled, action-based team game, Rematch is the closest I've come to feeling like I'm actually playing a game of football thanks to how reactive and tight the gameplay is.

Instead of playing as a whole team like in FIFA and other football games, you control just one player in a team of 3-5 people to immerse yourself in the action. You need to run and react to every pass and tackle, and really work hard to aim your shots and score a goal. Even if you're not a fan of football the fast-paced drama of it all will win you over. Rematch captures that feel of bodily control and reaction, much like the combat of creator Sloclap's previous game Sifu did, but this time you get to test it out with others on a football pitch.

I recently got to visit Sloclap in Paris and talk to creative director Pierre Tarno about the game and see how the studio goes about capturing what it really feels like to play football. “We want you to feel like an amazing athlete,” Tarno tells me. “We want players to feel the high-stakes pressure of football. We were trying to get to that core essence of at least part of what makes football so much fun and a beautiful sport,” he continues. “It does feel like the game version of playing five-a-side. Way more than