Skip to main content PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES Search PC Gamer View Profile Movies & TV Gaming Industry PC Gaming Show Newsletter Signup Community Guidelines Affiliate Links Meet the team About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine Subscription Why subscribe? Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£35.99View Essential Hardware PC Gaming Show Dune: Awakening Recommended reading Rematch blew away my expectations—trailers don't do Sloclap's 5v5 football game justice 7 Rematch tips to help you hone your football skills Rematch: All the key details on the 5v5 football game from the masterminds behind Sifu Rematch passes 100K Steam concurrents in open beta as 'Rocket League but with feet' turns out to be a winning idea Soccer fans should be paying attention to Rematch, the 5v5 game coming this summer from the developer of martial arts hit Sifu Ball hogs and 'wannabe Messis' are already the heels of the Rematch community: 'Coach should run out onto the field and beat them with a stick' Rematch, the soccer game from the maker of Sifu and Absolver, is holding an open beta this weekend When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Rematch review A few kinks aside, Rematch is pitch perfect. Justin Wagner 23 June 2025 (Image: © Sloclap) Our Verdict A heart-pumping genre superlative that should not be missed despite some technical issues to sort out. PC Gamer's got your back Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware. Need to know What is it? A 5v5 competitive football game from the team behind Sifu Release date: Out now Expect to pay: $30/£21 Developer: Sloclap Publisher: Sloclap, Kepler Interactive Reviewed on: Windows 11, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, Intel Core i7 12700F, 16 GB RAM Steam Deck: Playable Link: Official site There's a lot going on in a 5v5 game of virtual football, but the thing I have to keep reminding myself to do is breathe. It's easy to forget when you're playing goalie a minute-and-a-half into overtime and three opponents are trading the ball in front of your net as they gear up for shot, but you'll need a lungful of air so you can rejoice or curse in a way the neighbors can hear when you make or don't make the big save. I've rarely thought of a sports game as immersive, but here I can practically feel the sonic boom of the crowd, the ball rocketing past a sliding tackle, and the turf whizzing by as I kick it up. That's because Rematch—aka Rocket League with feet instead of wheels—is as intense an arcade sports game as I've played in a long time, nailing that tightrope walk between depth and immediacy I associate with sports game greats like Super Mega Baseball and Daytona USA. It's an arcadey, stylized take on soccer that trims fat like foul play and penalty cards to home in on the core of dribbling, shooting, passing, and intercepts. The standout feature is that, unlike genre goliath FIFA (now EA Sports FC), each player controls a single team member in third person, dynamically trading roles like goalkeeper and striker as they move around the pitch. Related Articles Rematch blew away my expectations—trailers don't do Sloclap's 5v5 football game justice 7 Rematch tips to help you hone your football skills Rematch: All the key details on the 5v5 football game from the masterminds behind Sifu Developer Sloclap had already proved it could build a skill-expressive, weighty brawler with Sifu and Absolver, but despite the absence of fist fights, the studio's take on the biggest sport in the world doesn't feel like a left turn. Instead, it feels like a culmination of those games' successes. Sure, you're pushing a ball around, curving shots past a goalie, and lobbing overhead passes instead of kicking any teeth in, but every win in Rematch is a hard-fought wellspring of adrenaline on par with any blockbuster beat 'em up. (Image credit: Sloclap) Making the dream work You're not the main character. Competitive games tend to offer a decent trick of the light, though: Going 20-0 as a safelane carry in Dota or obliterating half the lobby in Fortnite will stoke even the merest of smoldering egos. Rematch stamps out such flights of fancy beneath a fresh pair of cleats. Shots will rarely go in the goal without some misdirection, ball hogs are always vulnerable to coordinated steals, and any one-sided stomps are called off with a swift mercy rule. It's a PvP game, sure, but I like to think of it as a contest of co-op; a stack of excellent, selfish players will rarely beat out a competent, organized team. Whenever I put a point on the board, it was a rush—but I could never take sole credit. In the heat of a game, this means constantly surveying the field for open teammates to lob a pass at and open opponents to mark or tackle. There's a smorgasbord of context-sensitive inputs to mind at any given moment; with the ball, you can send a grounded pass in any direction, lob it just the same, rainbow flick the ball over your own head, push it past defenders, lightly tap it over their heads, assume a defensive stance to dash from side to side, and so on. (Image credit: Sloclap) It feels as though the tactics and mind games are rich enough to last hundreds of hours. There's a similar menu of choices when playing goalie or roaming without the ball: Do I go for a quick steal or the slower, more powerful sliding tackle? Each teammate in earshot calling for a pass multiplies your options tenfold. What results is a delicious hotbed of head games where intuition is just as critical as aim and execution. A lot of games promise action that's "easy to learn, hard to master," but Rematch has the goods. Sure, you can take a blind shot past the goalie and hope they don't react in time… or you could bound the ball off the back wall, square it to the nearest teammate, or lightly tap the ball to delay your shot just enough to trip up the defense. It didn't take long to get a firm handle on Rematch's controls—there's no simulation aspect to wrangle and no player attributes to complicate things—but after spending about a week with it, it feels as though the tactics and mind games are rich enough to last hundreds of hours. Maybe there's a reason people are so taken with the real-life version of this. (Image credit: Sloclap) A Messi situation Rematch's action is tight as I could have hoped for, but the overall package could use some building out and spit shining. There's nothing to do outside of competitive multiplayer and solo practice, and given the game's acute emphasis on teamplay, the solo queue experience might frustrate anyone hoping to channel a football obsession in a more relaxed setting. Tournaments or some sort of relaxed mode would go a long way, and those things are apparently coming soon. There's also no way to instantly requeue with a matchmade team—to rematch, in other words—which prematurely ends those moments where you feel remarkably in tune with new teammates. The bigger issues could be chalked up to launch woes, but it still bears mentioning that bugs and server desync are all over this game, at least for now. While the most pressing issues have been dealt with (like a bug that caused the ball to turn into an immobile stone), I still find that sliding tackles occasionally sail through me or my target harmlessly, and that a goalie might catch the ball only for it to teleport into the net moments later. These problems are uncommon enough that I don't consider them a grave blemish, but they can still undercut the integrity of everything at crucial, match-defining moments. (Image credit: Sloclap) Its love of the sport is infectious. The overall presentation is fantastic, though. I love the way the skybox shuffles between stadiums and space stations, the thrill of weaving through a watertight defense, and the vindicating flood of 'Good job!' and 'We got this!' pings that follow a well-aimed goal. There's a timeless quality about Rematch. Where other sports videogames tailor their lineups to the latest rosters, laboriously recreate the broadcast spectacle, and plaster their boxes with licensed likenesses, Rematch is more enamored with the strategies and skillsets that make football tick than with football as a fixture of pop culture. Its love of the sport is infectious, with a nearly pick-up-and-play setup that could suck anyone into a 'one more game' loop, whether or not they care about UEFA politics or Man United's latest transfer news. It's hard to imagine not getting swept up in the hype, whether you watch the World Cup religiously or have never seen a game. The Verdict Read our review policy A heart-pumping genre superlative that should not be missed despite some technical issues to sort out. Justin Wagner Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now... You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. Rematch blew away my expectations—trailers don't do Sloclap's 5v5 football game justice 7 Rematch tips to help you hone your football skills Rematch: All the key details on the 5v5 football game from the masterminds behind Sifu Rematch passes 100K Steam concurrents in open beta as 'Rocket League but with feet' turns out to be a winning idea Soccer fans should be paying attention to Rematch, the 5v5 game coming this summer from the developer of martial arts hit Sifu Ball hogs and 'wannabe Messis' are already the heels of the Rematch community: 'Coach should run out onto the field and beat them with a stick' Latest in Sports 7 Rematch tips to help you hone your football skills Should you play Rematch with a mouse or a controller? It's a harder decision than you might think Rematch surpasses 1 million players in its first day of full release Rematch launched without crossplay because of 'unforeseen technical complexities' and Sloclap is sorry, but it's a hit on Steam anyway 10 years later, no one has replicated Rocket League's mojo How ranks work in Rematch: What you need to rank up in each league and division Latest in Reviews Turtle Beach Stealth 600 (Gen 3) review Gamakay TK75HE V2 review Gamakay x NaughShark NS68 review Das Keyboard DeltaForce 65 review Splitgate 2 review: A fine F2P time waster, but not a revolution Endgame Gear OP1w 4K review HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES LATEST GAME REVIEWS Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most Best 14-inch gaming laptop in 2025: The top compact gaming laptops I've held in these hands Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I've tested SanDisk Extreme Pro 2 TB external SSD review Turtle Beach Stealth 600 (Gen 3) review Gamakay TK75HE V2 review Raidou Remastered review: Not the best Atlus RPG on PC, but a fascinating artefact that's mostly fun to play Gamakay x NaughShark NS68 review PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. Contact Future's experts Terms and conditions Privacy policy Cookies policy Advertise with us Accessibility Statement Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. Please login or signup to comment Please wait...