Rocket Arenalaunched recently to offer a new type of competitive shooter. While itmay not be free to play, it’s committed to offering a lot of bang for its buck. For a game about constantly shooting rockets, there’s a surprising amount of nuance to it.
The first thing to understand aboutRocket Arenais the game premise. Everyone runs, flies, and rocket jumps around an arena, and each character has a different signature rocket launcher. Each character also has their own special abilities, ranging from movement to defense and area denial. Players have infinite life, so the goal is to knock opponents out of the arena instead, almost likeSuper Smash Bros.
RELATED:Rocket Arena: How Many Stages Are in the Game?
An important nuance ofRocket Arenaoutside of regular combat is preparing a character’s loadout. This is done with Artifacts, which give characters boosts during battle. Each character has three separate artifact slots, and each artifact falls under one of those three categories. While it could seem intimidating because of the number of combinations at first, it’s really a simple system.Getting Artifacts inRocket Arenais fairly easy, if time consuming, and equipping them is a matter of common sense and experimentation. Here’s some info on how to do both:
Getting Artifacts
Artifacts are acquired naturally overtime as players complete matches. They are handed out in a set order, each one being gifted after the previous one is unlocked and after its progress meter is filled. It’s very similar towards earning new perks as a profile levels up in aCall of Dutygame. Theroadmap forRocket Arenaintroduces new stages and heroes, and presumably will eventually lead to new Artifacts acquired the same way.
Equipping Artifacts
Once obtained, an Artifact can be equipped to any hero the player has unlocked. That said, the Artifacts, as mentioned above, fall under one of three categories. Each hero can only have one Artifact of each category, for three Artifacts total.AllRocket Arenaheroescan equip Artifacts like this, but pairing up heroes with Artifacts effectively will take experimentation. For example, a speed boosting Artifact would work much better on the quick Izell than the slow moving Blastbeard.
With different Artifact and hero combinations to try, and many Artifacts to unlock, players will certainly have a reason to keep playingRocket Arena. Provided it keeps up the content and ensures the Artifacts are well balanced, there’s a real chanceRocket Arenacould be the next big multiplayer shooter. Hopefully the gameplay loops keep players roped in, and no Artifacts are released locked behind a paywall in the future.
Rocket Arenais available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
