Rollerdrome from Roll7 and Private Division is an action packed, rollerskating masterpiece of a game. It blends two genres which have been separate for decades into one insanely good package. So what exactly is it about this game that makes it worth picking up? Skating right into it, let’s find out shall we?
In Rollerdrome, players will take on the role of Kara Hassan. An up and coming Rollerdrome competitor. Set in the near future, a vicious bloodsport has taken the world by storm. The titular Rollerdrome pits rollerbladers or rollerskaters against heavily armed enemies inside arenas. You yourself are armed too with the catch being that you can only generate ammunition for your weapons provided that you perform tricks.
Bloodsport
As Kara, players will rollerskate around in the arenas completing challenges and defeating opponents while pulling off tricks. Roll7 thankfully implemented a slow-down time mechanic into the game and this is where it truly excels. Being able to enter a “reflex” mode as it’s called allows you to set up shots, reposition Kara and fire your weapon at enemies. You can also use the reflex mode to dodge enemy fire and can even enter a “Super reflex” mode at times which severely amps up your fire rate and damage output.
Initially, you’ll only have access to dual-pistols but as you progress throughout the game, you will unlock new weapons to use. The shotgun, once unlocked, has a mechanic built into it where when aiming in reflex mode, you’re able to use a “Slug shot” which is far more accurate. The catch being that you need to fire at the exact moment an indicator lines up with your target. In action, this is fantastic.
Enemy types in the Rollerdrome are quite varied too with stronger guards that fire rockets at you as well as enemies that have riot shields which prevent them from taking damage unless stunned first. The bane of your existence in this game is definitely the snipers though since their laser sights are trained on you quite often. Thankfully, as soon as these lasers change colour, you can press the dodge button and evade their shots. When there’s 2 or more snipers in an arena though, this becomes quite an intense endeavour and it really adds to the action packed nature of the game.
Pulling off tricks with Kara is incredibly simple with the buttons and controls being mapped fantastically well in Rollerdrome. It might take some time to get used to everything but the game onboards you with an easy to understand tutorial and before you know it, you’ll be chaining together tricks and shots in no time.
Gameplay focused
Rollerdrome unfortunately does not have much of a story to it. It’s all about the gameplay here so if you expected some epic narrative about rising star Kara Hassan and the brutal bloodsport of the future, Rollerdrome, you’ll be disappointed. Players will progress throughout the game’s campaign by racking up points and completing challenges. Complete enough challenges and you’ll unlock the next set of arenas to compete in.
This however does feel like a bit of a shortcoming to Rollerdrome. Grinding out challenges might feel a tad annoying to some players and there are some challenges which are pretty difficult to pull off. For example, anything to do with collecting tokens and performing specific tricks will have you trying over and over and over because of the precision you will need to do these challenges. You’ll have to line yourself up perfectly for a jump or grind and when enemies are raining down missiles and bullets towards you, this becomes tedious. Thankfully, there is an assist mode where you can enable things like invincibility that makes the game a lot easier to manage at the cost of disabling scores being uploaded to the leaderboard
Rollerdrome looks visually appealing with a distinct art style that really pops thanks to the use of saturated colours that reminds us of a graphic novel or comic book. The effects as well as animations are spot on and Kara pulling off tricks while firing weapons never looks dull. The smoke and other effects such as mines, rockets and mechs exploding look fantastic too.
The soundtrack of Rollerdrome is one of the best parts of the game too since it complements the fast paced action packed gameplay perfectly. The beat of the music really gets you into the zone when pulling off tricks and defeating enemies and Roll7 have done a great job here with the OST.
Final Verdict
Overall, Rollerdrome is quite plain and simply one of the best action titles of this year and while there’s no real storyline to the game, the gameplay is downright amazing and ridiculously addictive. At the time of penning this review, the only gripe to be had with the game lies with the fact that Kara sometimes doesn’t launch high up enough and tricks don’t generate ammo consistently, so you resort to using easy tricks like grinding to do this.
The latter arenas are also incredibly brutal in terms of difficulty and this will annoy gamers that lack patience or skill. Rollerdrome is a great game and one that comes highly recommended by us, just be warned that things do get quite difficult later on. The assist mode exists to alleviate the pain caused by this though so if you don’t care about high scores, just enable a setting to make the game easier. Definitely grab this game if you can. You’ll have a blast.
Developer: Roll7
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5
Publishers: Private Division, Take-Two Interactive
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