Remember as a kid (or maybe a little older) when you played that game pretending the floor is lava? Rocket League developers Psyonix clearly do, and have created a new game mode with a similar concept.
The new mode, called Dropshot, is basically a mix of Floor-Is-Lava and volleyball. It’s a little complicated to figure out at first, but after only one or two games, we had people in our demo making amazing saves and great shots. What’s most important about Dropshot is that it manages to feel unique and fresh, while still maintaining that Rocket League feel.
A game of Dropshot starts just like Rocket League proper; two teams line up on sides of a playing field, gearing up for a faceoff. Once the game starts, the ball in the center of the arena gets tossed in the air, and the match is off.
The goal of the game is to score your ball through your opponent’s floor. When players hit the ball, it will change colors to that player’s team. If you keep your team’s color on the ball, and have it hit down on your opponent’s side of the arena, the tiles on the ground will light up and be marked as damaged.
To score, players will have to get the ball to bounce on the same tiles again, causing them to “fall away.” To score a point, the ball must fall into the hole created on the arena floor. While the tiles do visibly fall away, and the ball does sink into the floor, cars aren’t impacted when driving around. Don’t worry about having to avoid holes in the ground, even though you may find yourself doing it at first out of habit.
The ball doesn’t just change color, depending on what team has hit it last. It can also power up by getting hit a number of times in a row or by getting hit by a fast-moving car. The more powered up the ball gets, the wider the diameter of damage it deals, causing more tiles to light up or fall away.
To make matches more competitive, and so one team can’t run away with every game, the field doesn’t completely reset after every goal. The team that scored will have a new half of the field to pick away at, while the team that was scored on gets to continue its progress.
If a game goes into overtime, the arena stays at whatever state it was at when the game ended, making them insanely intense. A few times, our game ended in overtime with both sides riddled with holes. The round was going to end fast, but it was anyone’s game and often a fluke shot could be the winner.
The best part about Dropshot: It’s a free update coming to all Rocket League players on March 22. Along with the new game mode, there will also be the conclusion of Season 3 and the beginning of Season 4, six new Achievements/Trophies and a new “eSports” button added to the main menu to quickly take you out to a competitive match.
So what do you think? Are you excited to try Dropshot for yourself? What other crazy game modes do you want for Rocket League? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
