Rematch day one review: A promising debut for the new football game

You take control of just one player in a series of short, competitive and small-side matches, with other online gamers filling out the rest of the squad.

You take turns in goal, gradually master your skills, and try not to be too embarrassed when a crunching slide tackle leaves you on the floor.

There are no fouls, no referees, and the ball never goes out of play, making for frantic fun reminiscent of childhood street football and nights spent in five-a-side cages.

Personally, this writer is really impressed with the game. And since it's launched straight on Xbox Game Pass, here's hoping that a decent amount of people give it a chance.

Rematch proves that switching to more of an action game perspective can really work for a football game. The controls will take a little bit of getting used to, but the game really captures that feeling of playing a small-sided football match in real life.

Because you're only controlling your one player, who has the exact same stats as everyone else, it's all very skill-based.

So, if the ball's coming into you, you do start to panic a little bit. Is there a crunching tackle coming in from behind me? Am I gonna be able to get this shot off in a way that doesn't annoy the rest of the team?

You start to see people's personalities come through, too, even though they're complete strangers.

There's the guy who's gonna try and dribble past everyone. There's the guy who's gonna shoot from everywhere. And there's the guy (me) who has the best of intentions but cannot back it up with any skill.

Rematch is very much is in its early stages of existence right now, with the current state of the game being openly called 'season zero'.

With that in mind, I do have a couple of qualms to mention! I do slightly wish there was commentary on it, or some more exciting music, to amp up the vibes on the pitch. (That being said, I love the mechanic where you can apologise to the other players for your mistakes.)

I do slightly wish there was a way to unlock skins or something similar that would let you represent your real-life team, because I do miss that connection to the real world, but I understand that would be an expensive licensing situation.

Also, crossplay hasn't been added yet, which would really enhance the social aspect of the game. It should be coming later.

But overall, I'm very impressed. It wouldn't feel fair to put a star rating on a game that's only just finding its feet and putting its boots on, but there's enough here to get excited about.

The greatest compliment I can give Rematch is that I want to keep playing it, and I want to see how it grows in the seasons to come. This is a promising debut, and hopefully it'll lead to a long and impressive career. Bring it on!

Rematch is out now on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox Game Pass.

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