Rocket Arena was a third-person shooter online video game developed by Final Strike Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on July 14, 2020. The game received mixed to positive reviews, with praise for the gameplay, characters and visuals, while the lack of content received criticism. It was delisted from digital storefronts without prior warning on November 18, 2023.[2]
| Rocket Arena | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Final Strike Games |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 4[1] |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One |
| Release | July 14, 2020 |
| Genre(s) | Third-person shooter Hero shooter |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Gameplay
editRocket Arena is a 3v3 competitive multiplayer game played from a third-person perspective. At launch, the game features 10 maps and 10 playable characters, each of whom have different abilities. The player's main weapon is a rocket launcher, though there are items that the players can pick up in the arena. The game does not feature a health system and instead relies a system named Blast Meter. Whenever a player is hit by a rocket, their blast meter will fill up. A player with a full blast meter, when being hit by a rocket, will ricochet and fly out of the map, resulting in death. The player character is very mobile and has the ability to dodge other rockets, triple jump, and rocket jumping.
The game was released with 5 modes at launch: Knockout and Megarocket are variants to standard team deathmatch and Capture the Flag mode. Rocketball sees players attempting to blast a ball using rockets into another team's goal. In Treasure Hunt, a treasure chest will spawn in the middle of the map and once a player picks up the chest, their teammates need to defend them so that the chest would not be stolen by other players. The game also features a cooperative multiplayer mode named Rocketbot Attack in which three players fend off waves of bots controlled by artificial intelligence.[3]
Development
editRocket Arena is the debut title for Final Strike Games, whose core team previously worked at 343 Industries and contributed to the multiplayer of Halo 5: Guardians. Initially the game was designed to be first-person, but the team switched it to third-person after implementing the dodge moveset.[4] The game was showcased in May 2019 with it being a first-person shooter and had a closed beta from May 23 to May 29.[5] It was originally due to be published by Nexon, but the publisher and developer Final Strike Games agreed to mutually part ways in July 2019.[6] In June 2020, the game was announced to be coming out in July 2020. Electronic Arts published the game under its EA Originals program.[7] It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on July 14, 2020, with cross-platform play enabled. In September 2021, when Season 4 ended, some quality of life improvements were released. However, the game has stopped getting updates and new seasons.
On December 14, 2023, EA and Final Strike Games announced that Rocket Arena would be shutting down its servers on March 21, 2024, whilst also announcing in-game events leading up to that date. [8]
Reception
editRocket Arena received generally mixed reviews upon release according to review aggregator Metacritic.[9][10][11]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | PC: 73/100[12] PS4: 68/100[13] XONE: 71/100[14] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Game Informer | 7/10[17] |
| GameSpot | 6/10[18] |
| GamesRadar+ |   [19] |
| PC Gamer (US) | 78/100[16] |
| PCGamesN | 7/10[20] |
| Push Square |   [15] |
| USgamer | 3/5[21] |
References
edit- ^ Talens, Jino; Almeda, Ray. "Prepare for Blast Off! Rocket Arena Available Worldwide Today". ea.com. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
- ^ Cooper, Dalton (November 18, 2023). "EA Game Suddenly Delisted With No Prior Announcement". GameRant. Archived from the original on November 18, 2023. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
- ^ Chung, Stella (October 31, 2020). "Rocket Arena Preview: It's Back and More Smash Bros.-y Than Ever". IGN. Archived from the original on June 17, 2021. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
- ^ Sheridan, Connor (June 18, 2020). "Rocket Arena preview: "We wanted to build rockets with personality"". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on June 19, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ Livingston, Christopher (May 16, 2019). "Rocket Arena is a free to play 3v3 FPS where no one ever dies". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
- ^ "Rocket Arena Official Statement". Nexon. July 19, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-07-23.
- ^ Chung, Stella (June 19, 2020). "Rocket Arena Preview: It's Back and More Smash Bros.-y Than Ever". IGN. Archived from the original on June 17, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
- ^ Arts, Electronic (2023-12-13). "Rocket Arena Sunset Announcement". Electronic Arts Inc. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
- ^ "Rocket Arena for PC reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on June 19, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ "Rocket Arena for PlayStation 4 reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on June 20, 2021. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ "Rocket Arena for Xbox One reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on October 23, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ "Rocket Arena for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2021-06-19. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
- ^ "Rocket Arena for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2021-06-20. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
- ^ "Rocket Arena for Xbox One Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2020-10-23. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
- ^ "Mini Review: Rocket Arena - Competent Shooter May Be Fun for Free | Aces high". Push Square. 23 August 2021. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ Park, Morgan (23 August 2021). "Rocket Arena review". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ Tack, Daniel (23 August 2021). "Rocket Arena Review - Ballistic Banality". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ Barbosa, Alessandro (23 August 2021). "Rocket Arena Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ "Rocket Arena: "I'll Keep Riding This Rocket Wherever It Goes" | Aces high". GamesRadar. 23 August 2021. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ Boudreau, Ian (23 August 2021). "Rocket Arena review - keeping it simple". PCGamesN. Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
- ^ Cryer, Hirun (23 August 2021). "Rocket Arena Review: A Fleeting Blast From the Past". USgamer. Retrieved 23 August 2021.