I've been an on-and-off player of Rocket League for many years. Even looking at it now, Rocket League is almost 9 years old. It's crazy to think about. A lot has changed. There's some good, there's some bad, and there's a whole lot of in between.

I'm basing my recommendation solely off the gameplay itself. Rocket League is an incredibly fun game that hasn't changed a bit since it's initial release. They took what they learned from Super Sonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars by lowering the sense of speed and streamlining the arenas to be more traditional soccer fields. The result is a game purely focused on the players and kicking a ball around. In the same way that real soccer is both addicting to watch and play, Rocket League has taken that formula made it work with cars instead.

With that out of the way, there is a big asterisk I can't help but talk about. I unfortunately do believe Rocket League was a much better game during it's earlier stages. While the seasonal updates, new maps, and actual playable content has remained free it's everything around it that has completely changed for the worst. I remember back in the early days whenever they had a new vehicle, collaboration or not, it would be sold on Steam for roughly $1.99~$3.99 with all the bells and whistles bundled in. And it was great. Then they added lootcrates, not so great, but the drops were free to open. This did mean however that certain cars would be locked behind low percentage drops which ultimately sucked. However, this was mitigated by the fact that player trading existed. More items like wheels, toppers for your car, antennas, and other things were added which inflated the market. Then battle passes were introduced, and it goes on and on...

What has ultimately pissed off so many was the recent Epic acquisition. As a result, Mac and Linux support no longer seems to be a function for some strange reason. With Epic's model, Epic forced Psyonix to remove player trading entirely. Now these cars can only be obtained via rotation in the shop, random drops, and possibly the most annoying are blueprints. Blueprints come from drops, or are randomly awarded to you for completing a match. These blueprints, however, have to be constructed. And how do you construct them? With real money. You spend real money to buy the credits to unlock the blueprints. This wasn't so bad when that currency was actually tradeable between players, but even then it's pretty egregious. It can cost up to $10 or more to build something as simple as a livery that applies to all cars or even one wheel style. A far cry from when you could get a car, its matching wheels, a few toppers, antennas, and even its goal explosion for under $5.

The cars that are in the shop are ridiculously high priced too. Epic recently released it's Fortnite "Rocket Racing" mode and with it they tried to sell one single vehicle and its rarity styles for $40. The backlash was so massive Epic has to lower the price but we're still talking paying about $22.99 for a single vehicle. And the prices within Rocket League aren't much better. One car, depending on whatever it has, can be $10 or more as well.

It's not all bad though. Now car ownership is carried over between Fortnite and Rocket League. They plan to add more of the rims, liveries, and cars already in Rocket League to Fortnite for players who already own them. Which is nice. If you are a player of Fortnite and Rocket League, you can also purchase the Fortnite Crew subscription for $12, which grants you the battle pass for Fortnite, the Rocket Pass for Rocket League, 1000 v-bucks and the month's exclusive Fortnite skin. Bear in mind, separately, both these battle passes alone cost $10 each. So it's actually a pretty good deal all things considered. Even better; if you happen to have Founder's Status in Fortnite you can get v-bucks for free, meaning now your free v-bucks can be used to purchase cars for Rocket League.

Sometimes the system plays you, sometimes you play the system.

I know this is only the case for a few lucky ones, and it sucks, but it doesn't seem to be changing. If they are making tweaks to this system, which they honestly should, they need to push it out ASAP.

As it stands, Rocket League is still the same fun game it was when it released in 2015. There's just a mess of monetization that might make the game less enjoyable due to exclusivity, gambling mechanics, FOMO, among other things.

I've been an on-and-off player of Rocket League for many years. Even looking at it now, Rocket League is almost 9 years old. It's crazy to think about. A lot has changed. There's some good, there's some bad, and there's a whole lot of in between. I'm basing my recommendation solely off the gameplay itself. Rocket League is an incredibly fun game that hasn't changed a bit since it's initial release. They took what they learned from Super Sonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars by lowering the sense of speed and streamlining the arenas to be more traditional soccer fields. The result is a game purely focused on the players and kicking a ball around. In the same way that real soccer is both addicting to watch and play, Rocket League has taken that formula made it work with cars instead. With that out of the way, there is a big asterisk I can't help but talk about. I unfortunately do believe Rocket League was a much better game during it's earlier stages. While the seasonal updates, new maps, and actual playable content has remained free it's everything around it that has completely changed for the worst. I remember back in the early days whenever they had a new vehicle, collaboration or not, it would be sold on Steam for roughly $1.99~$3.99 with all the bells and whistles bundled in. And it was great. Then they added lootcrates, not so great, but the drops were free to open. This did mean however that certain cars would be locked behind low percentage drops which ultimately sucked. However, this was mitigated by the fact that player trading existed. More items like wheels, toppers for your car, antennas, and other things were added which inflated the market. Then battle passes were introduced, and it goes on and on... What has ultimately pissed off so many was the recent Epic acquisition. As a result, Mac and Linux support no longer seems to be a function for some strange reason. With Epic's model, Epic forced Psyonix to remove player trading entirely. Now these cars can only be obtained via rotation in the shop, random drops, and possibly the most annoying are blueprints. Blueprints come from drops, or are randomly awarded to you for completing a match. These blueprints, however, have to be constructed. And how do you construct them? With real money. You spend real money to buy the credits to unlock the blueprints. This wasn't so bad when that currency was actually tradeable between players, but even then it's pretty egregious. It can cost up to $10 or more to build something as simple as a livery that applies to all cars or even one wheel style. A far cry from when you could get a car, its matching wheels, a few toppers, antennas, and even its goal explosion for under $5. The cars that are in the shop are ridiculously high priced too. Epic recently released it's Fortnite "Rocket Racing" mode and with it they tried to sell [i]one single vehicle and its rarity styles for $40.[/i] The backlash was so massive Epic has to lower the price but we're still talking paying about $22.99 for a single vehicle. And the prices within Rocket League aren't much better. One car, depending on whatever it has, can be $10 or more as well. It's not all bad though. Now car ownership is carried over between Fortnite and Rocket League. They plan to add more of the rims, liveries, and cars already in Rocket League to Fortnite for players who already own them. Which is nice. If you are a player of Fortnite and Rocket League, you can also purchase the Fortnite Crew subscription for $12, which grants you the battle pass for Fortnite, the Rocket Pass for Rocket League, 1000 v-bucks and the month's exclusive Fortnite skin. Bear in mind, separately, both these battle passes alone cost $10 each. So it's actually a pretty good deal all things considered. Even better; if you happen to have Founder's Status in Fortnite you can get v-bucks for free, meaning now your free v-bucks can be used to purchase cars for Rocket League. Sometimes the system plays you, sometimes you play the system. I know this is only the case for a few lucky ones, and it sucks, but it doesn't seem to be changing. If they are making tweaks to this system, which they honestly should, they need to push it out ASAP. As it stands, Rocket League is still the same fun game it was when it released in 2015. There's just a mess of monetization that might make the game less enjoyable due to exclusivity, gambling mechanics, FOMO, among other things.