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I was a little surprised when Sloclap, the maker of fighting games Absolver and Sifu, announced in 2024 that its next project was a multiplayer soccer game called Rematch. It’s not what I’d call an obvious fit, but it does look to be shaping up to be a very good game, and this weekend you’ll be able to get a taste of what it’s like in an open beta set to start on April 18.
Rematch takes a different approach to soccer than most other videogame translations: It’s a multiplayer-exclusive game in which each person controls a single player on the field. That makes teamwork and coordination essential, because even when you don’t have the ball you have to maintain position and keep up with the flow of play to ensure you’re ready to take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself. It’s also a very streamlined take on the sport, with no offsides or fouls, which aims to keep the action flowing.
“You are always engaged,” Sloclap said when Rematch was first announced. “You cannot drop the pad for even half a second because you’ll always have to reposition yourself to serve the action and be where you should be.”
I was a little dubious about the whole thing, but Sloclap may be onto something here. “Every now and then a game comes along that seems unassuming at first but totally blows away all of your expectations and reveals itself to be something special,” Daneilla Lucas wrote in a recent hands-on preview. “Rematch is one of those games.”
Rematch will cost $30 at launch, a bold move that may put off some players accustomed to free-to-play multiplayer. This open beta could put some price-based concerns to rest: It’s not the complete package but it is free, and you can put the boots to the game to your heart’s content and see if it lives up to its early billing.
To get into the Rematch beta, head around to Steam and hit the “request access” button. Sloclap said access to everyone who signs up will be granted gradually, “as long as the servers hold,” and everyone should be in by Friday evening or early Saturday at the latest. The duration of the beta has also been extended: It was originally only meant to run for a day but will instead run until 8 am UTC on April 21.
Rematch is set to go fully live on June 19.
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Kurt Indovina
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