Rematch is developer Sloclap’s (Sifu, Absolver) latest game. It’s a soccer game (or football for you Europeans)currently in early access. It’s a surprisingly authentic soccer game that takes some creative liberties, such as placing a barrier on the edges of the field so the ball can’t go out of bounds.
That makes Rematch stand out from other soccer games like FIFA as matches remain uninterrupted. Rematch remains skill-based. You still need to shoot, pass the ball at the right opportunity, and navigate complex plays. It’s not always easy, so let’s go over some essentials to improve your game.
Actually go through those tutorials!
I know that lots of players love to ignore tutorials in video games or blow them off, but they’re a crucial part of mastering the mechanics in Rematch. The game has no lock-on feature at all, which means you’ll have to be incredibly precise when passing to teammates or trying to score a goal. Tutorials are a great place to get the hang of that.
The practice menu has an extensive gallery of tutorials and workshops with categories ranging from movement, defense, passing, scoring, and goalkeeping. After every kick off in Rematch, you’ll switch up positions, and you could potentially be made the goalie, so don’t neglect these tutorials and keep your skills sharp.
Experiment with camera and field-of-view settings
You’ll want to minimize your blind spots. There are no indicators that an opponent is nearby like in an action game like God of War. In Rematch, spatial awareness is essential, so it can be advantageous to maximize the amount of the field you can see.
Go into the settings and crank up the Camera FOV setting all the way to 90. This sets the camera as far back as possible and lets you see teammates and opponents alike easier. You can also adjust the camera motion sensitivity so that you can keep track of the ball as it travels across the field. Feel free to make it as slow or fast as you want.
Take advantage of the walls
In Rematch, if you kick the ball away from the field, it’ll bounce off and land back into the field, keeping it in play at all times. You should use this to your advantage. An opponent is closing in on you? Shoot the ball towards the wall and use your burst run to catch up to it. After all, there are no out-of-bounds. You can kick it all the way across the field and hope that your teammate catches up to it.
There’s even a trick utilizing the walls to score goals. Since the wall encompasses the entire field, that includes the goal. You can kick the ball above the goal and have it bounce off the wall behind it. Since most goalies are expecting a direct strike, they’ll dive in the direction you think you’re kicking. However, since the ball is going above the goal and landing right in front of it again, goalies can easily get disoriented and wonder where the ball went. Use this window of opportunity to launch a follow-up kick and score a goal. Sure, it’s a bit of an underhanded tactic, but use whatever you have to to win, right?
Manage your stamina
No, this isn’t a Dark Souls game, but you’ll have to manage your stamina almost as if it were one. You have a meter at the bottom of the screen that’ll deplete whenever you run. However, it won’t drain if you just jog, so make sure to juggle between running and jogging to make full use of your stamina. If your stamina hits zero, you’ll be stuck moving at a slower pace until it recovers.
You can also perform slide tackles, which can really mess up opponents by taking the ball out of their control, but it uses up a heft bit of stamina. It also takes a bit to recover from the ground after slide tackling, so don’t go spamming it everywhere you go. If you fumble a slide tackle, you can be left behind the action and take precious seconds to get back into the fray.
You’ll also notice that there’s a much smaller, separate bar that’s right next to your stamina bar. That’s your burst speed bar, which gives you a temporary speed boost. Picking the most opportune time to use it can mean the difference between catching a ball and your opponent doing so.
Rematch is available now for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows PCs.