Arcade football experience Rematch suffered from a handful of server issues throughout its testing periods. Nothing too glaring at first, just the occasional desync and some passes and tricks that seemed like they should’ve worked but didn’t, but the better you get at the game, the more you begin to notice that server performance has been unreliable. So far, things aren’t looking much better for its full launch this week.
I thought developer Sloclap might have made some extra preparations to keep the servers stable after launch, but I’ve experienced problems in roughly 30 percent of my games – both on Steam and on Xbox. I’ve spoken with some others in different server locations – like NA East – and they’ve had some problems too, although not as rough as my EU West troubles, particularly on Steam.
This is actually a better ratio of lag to no lag than during the pre-launch tests, so there has been some improvement. The rubberbanding when passing and receiving the ball seems to be largely fixed unless I’m in a particularly bad match or server. I also seem to experience fewer problems if matchmaking with people in a party, and worse lag when joining the queue as a solo player. This is all qualitative and anecdotal data, though.
I’m not above blaming lag for my failures as a virtual football player – I’ve been through the FIFA rodeo enough times – but in Rematch something just feels off. When the game is smooth and working well, it plays beautifully, with Sloclap’s unique art direction and attention to player agency coming together to create a very fluid football simulator; I just get easily frustrated with poor server performance.
Much like anything else to do with latency and performance, these things are largely subjective. You might have had no issues so far, or you might be one of the unfortunate few like me. I’m happy for you, or sorry that happened, whichever.
Lag Just Isn’t It When Every Touch Matters
Rematch is a complex game with so many moving parts. Not only are you relying on potentially four other teammates – who hopefully aren’t lagging either – but every touch of the ball responds to minute movements in your sticks or mouse. It is deeply satisfying to pull off that perfectly-timed lob pass or neat trick to burst past a defender.
But when it’s lagging, all of this is completely ruined. I love jumping into solo games and practicing certain combos, and I’ve really been trying to work on my passing, but this all just comes screeching to a halt if I’m in a laggy game.
Much like FIFA, and by extension, games like Rocket League – and even other unrelated titles in different genres, like Rainbow Six Siege – server performance and personal latency are unbelievably important. I was never a good Rocket League player, so I never noticed if the servers were any good or not. In FIFA, however, the lag has been notoriously bad this year in Ultimate Team, and it reached a point where every game felt like you were moving your players on a football pitch covered in custard. The game has now been deleted from my Xbox library.
I think Rematch is going to be a massive success. It’s the best original football game we’ve had in years. But I can definitely see a lot of players being turned off by the poor server performance. Will it level out once there are fewer players queueing when a bit of the hype dies down in a few months?
Or is this just an example of another developer new to live-service titles just not making enough preparations for a busy launch? This is just the advanced access period and the game launched in the middle of the day (EU time) on a Monday. This is hardly the peak playerbase. We’re only just getting started.
Rematch
- Developer(s)
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Sloclap
- Publisher(s)
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Sloclap, Kepler Interactive
- Engine
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Unreal Engine 5
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
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Yes, planned
- Number of Players
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1-5 players (online)
- Steam Deck Compatibility
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Unknown
