Have you ever played a third-person shooter and thought "this is great, but I wish it had more wheels!" If the answer is yes, then Rollerdrome is categorically and undoubtedly the game for you.
The studio behind Rollerdrome, Roll7, is no stranger to coming up with novel ideas - their portfolio is full of games that are generally described with words like "bold" and "original", including OlliOlli World, Laser League, and NOT A HERO.
Their latest effort is no different, taking the core concept of combo-chasing extreme sports games like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Steep, and combining it with the wide and varied world of fast-paced third-person shooters.
Set in an alternate near-future amid a dark conspiracy surrounding the world's most popular sport, Rollerdrome sees you play as newcomer Kara Hassan, as she fights to survive and outshine her closest rival, Casper Ix. She does this as the new organisers of the sport strive to make it more popular, engaging, and ultimately more deadly than ever before, as she takes on the so-called "House Players" in front of a cheering crowd and TV cameras.
The core gameplay loop is something that Roll7 are really committed to in all of their games, and in Rollerdrome it's fairly simple - skate around an arena on a pair of rollerskates, and aim to eliminate all of the House Players before they eliminate you. Each level is easily replayable and carries challenges that can be done while completing it.
The story is told through four stages, the "opening stages", "quarter-finals", "semis", and the "finals". Narratively speaking, Kara advances through the stages as she succeeds in each set of levels, however from a gameplay perspective it's a little different.
Each stage is made up of a number of different levels, and in order to progress to the stage, you need to not only win each level but also complete a certain number of challenges from all of the levels in that stage. The challenges are varied, ranging from "collect all the combo tokens", to "perform this trick in this place" right through to "score this many points in the level".
Some of the challenges are flavored by naming certain famous fictional players of the sport and challenging you to beat their score, however fundamentally the challenges by and large follow the same framework. This is comforting since you tend to get a handle on what you're doing as the levels get harder, but it's also a little repetitive - the stage changes and the enemies improve but the challenges do feel like they've just been pulled from one level, tweaked slightly, and imposed onto the next.
The number of challenges you need to advance also feels pretty grindy (if you'll excuse the pun), they don't take long to achieve but they do take a lot of repeating the same levels since it's often not possible to get some of the more technical challenges completed while also chasing high scores or time limits. Luckily it is possible to complete a challenge and quit the level without finishing it - it still counts.
While in the arena you can jump, grind, grab, flip, and perform wallrides, as well as shoot, dodge, and aim at the enemies in there with you. In order to do this, you have three resources to manage - health, ammo, and "reflex time".
Health is dropped by enemies when you kill them, and ammo is granted by the "judges" for pulling off tricks, dodges, or basically anything you get given points for.
Reflex Time is a mechanic that lets you slow down time - either to take aim at an enemy, line up your next route, or just get your bearings. It depletes as you use it, but recharges over time. It's something that should be familiar to anyone who's played a lot of shooters, but honestly, it fits right into Rollerdrome and is balanced in a way that makes it viable to use regularly, but isn't something that can be always active.
I found that I was using reflex time to kill most (if not all) of the enemies in a level, and the net result was that I had a small window in which to pull off the kill before it ran out. If I didn't manage it, it'd do some tricks while it recharged and then circle back round or move on to a different enemy when reflex time came back up.
It's also worth noting that when using basic weapons, you'll notice an auto-aim lock-on to the House Players. The more advanced weapons don't do this, instead rewarding harder targeting with greater damage. The shotgun is a sort of hybrid of the two concepts - it auto-locks on, but if you pull the trigger at the right time you get bonus damage.
The guns are fun to use, and although certain guns shine in certain areas, it's entirely possible to complete an entire level using your favorite without ever really touching on the others. This really adds to Rollerdrome's core concept, which is one of fun and freedom - you can play it your own way, with the goal of just having fun doing it.
Visually the game is striking, with awesome comic-book style visuals that really fit the theme of the game excellently. The soundtrack is great too, it's fully original and merges "iconic era sounds and tones with curring edge production to provide a heart thumping backdrop to the carnage". On top of that, the levels are interesting, varied, and well designed - some are large and sprawling across multiple areas, while others are small and confined.
I'll be honest, the visuals look nowhere near as good in the gameplay footage as they do when you're actually playing. I don't know exactly why that is, but it's definitely a psychological effect - the comic-book style visuals are absolutely fantastic and my brain is just dumped with serotonin and dopamine every time I even open the game and reach the main menu. The soundtrack is just as fantastic, it really fits the aesthetic of the game and is unironically good-sounding music.
Although it has a really casual "pick up and play" feel to it, it also incorporates online leaderboards as well as an unlockable "Out for Blood" mode which really ramps up the difficulty. This lets it appeal to gamers who just want something to whittle away the hours, but also offers a more rewarding experience to anyone who finds themselves hooked and determined to master it.
Sadly there's no multiplayer mode to speak of, which I actually think is a real shame. The game would really suit split screen or party gameplay, whether it's couch co-op or a more competitive game mode.
Verdict: 4/5
At its core, Rollerdrome threatens high-speed, adrenaline-pumping gameplay as you chase combos and high scores with fluid movement and tricking mechanics. It has a deceptively high amount of content hidden inside, with each of the four stages potentially taking a few hours to clear - multiple playthroughs of each level are definitely required.
The visuals are stunning, and the gameplay itself is really entertaining and fun, however, I did find it got repetitive after a while. There's a risk that the gameplay gets stale for some people, although in the current age of gaming I don't think that's really the fault of Rollerdrome. It's designed with a certain set of people in mind, and those people are going to be more than happy repeating multiple sets of vaguely familiar challenges in new and interesting settings.
I have friends in mind who I can't wait to show this to when it comes out, and I think that's really a sign of just how much joy the game is capable of giving. Aside from the potential grind (which I'm choosing not to hold against it), the only thing that really lets it down is the lack of multiplayer - there are online leaderboards sure, but I wish in my heart of hearts that there was some element of multiplayer that I could enjoy on a Friday evening with a friend.
It's the child of two genres that you really wouldn't expect to work well together, and yet it does. It's effortlessly enjoyable, fantastically simple, and yet beautifully layered and complex.
Rollerdrome rolls onto Playstation 4, Playstation 5, and Microsoft Windows on 16th August 2022.
