Test Roller Champions – A fun, honest and accessible free-to-play cooperative and competitive sports game?

First announced during the Ubisoft conference broadcast as part of E3 2019, Roller Champions will have taken its time before officially launching. A closed alpha in 2020, a beta in 2021, more than a year of complete radio silence and, hop, here it resurfaces by going gold to everyone’s surprise about a month before landing on PC and consoles. So, does Ubisoft Montreal’s free-to-play cooperative and competitive sports game live up to the expectations it has been raising for all this time? Answer in this test.

Test conditions: Test carried out with an Xbox One controller on a 1080p screen as well as a PC equipped with an Intel Core i5-9400F processor (2.9 GHz), an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card and a 16 GB RAM memory. The title ran in High configuration for about 6:30 hours, the time needed to complete around fifty games (rapid and ranked combined) and go around the content offered by the game at launch.

Welcome to Rolleeer Champiooooooooooons!

Before getting to the heart of the matter, let’s try to recall what exactly consists Roller Champions. Concretely, the roller sports game invites us to participate in 3v3 matches of seven minutes (ten maximum in the event of overtime due to a tie between the two teams or if the one losing has possession at the end of time regulations).

Within a closed arena similar to a velodrome, the objective is to score the most points by throwing a ball into a ring-shaped goal. For it to open, you must manage to cross doors similar to checkpoints without losing possession. A lap of the track earns one point, two gives three and three allows you to score five, the minimum number of points required to win the match.

Accessible by its concept, the title also seeks to be accessible in its arcade-oriented gameplay. And if everything was not yet perfect during the last beta, at launch, the different mechanics available are all well-oiled and the handling is dynamic and instantaneous. Maneuverability, shooting, pass, tackle, dodge, aerial dive, suction, uppercut, 360° kick… the game has a range of varied and very pleasant actions to use even if, of course, placing them as efficiently as possible requires thought and a good sense of timing, especially if one wishes to reach Elite rank in ranked mode.

Other qualities, the sensations of speed are present, the rhythm of the games is exhilarating, the right balance between attack and defense seemed to us to be there, the difference in gain of fans (the equivalent of XP) is not very important between victory and defeat so that everyone gets something out of it and we always take a lot of pleasure in criss-crossing the arena, including when riding with strangers.

Said like that, it can be strange given that we are dealing with an experience centered on cooperation and competition. However, with a minimum of judgment and observation, we really had the impression that chemistry was created quite easily with the other players through non-verbal communication. Admittedly, it doesn’t work every time and team play will always be more effective with friends, but, very honestly, whether it’s during a quick or ranked game, there really is that little something, that outstretched hand , which is there and encourages us to find our place on the field in an intuitive way. What more ?

Too limited launch content

Already singled out during the beta, the content offered by Roller Champions at launch is unfortunately not up to our expectations. So yes, it’s true, it’s very often the case for the genre of service games (or game as a service) and the developers already have plans in mind for the weeks and months to come (four seasons planned after the inaugural period) but we still expected more generosity and ambition from them.

In the end, all we are entitled to for the moment is: quick and ranked games played in only three different arenas (Acapulco, Mexico City and Chichén Itzá), personalized lounges for evenings with friends (match against AI possible but not recommended since it picks up non-stop), an uninteresting skatepark (small social hub that can only accommodate six people to relax or train), a few daily rewards and weekly challenges without much originality and … that’s all since no temporary game mode is yet accessible.

On the avatar personalization side, there, on the other hand, there is already more fun (helmet, outfit, glove, roller, goal animations, celebrations, etc.) provided you put your hand in your pocket. And yes, as a reminder, the Ubisoft sports game is free-to-play and, who says free-to-play, says microtransactions and battle pass, or rather Roller Pass in our case. If a free version is present with some cosmetic rewards in the key, it is without surprise the Premium version which will attract the attention of those who wish to survey the arena in style.

To do this, you must spend 500 Wheels (the virtual currency of the title), the equivalent of €4.99. And, good news, if you play enough, you can make your purchase profitable so you don’t have to go back to the microtransactions box later. Suffice to say that the economic model is honest for the genre. On the other hand, if you are interested in items from the store that are missing from the Roller Pass, you have no choice, you will have to heat up the bank card again (from €4.99 for 500 Wheels to €99.99 for 13,000 Wheels).

A cartoon realization with a rendering closer to karting than to F1

Let’s end this overview of Roller Champions by taking stock of its technical aspect. Overall, the cartoon-inspired realization imagined by the developers offers a pretty nice visual rendering. However, even if we are aware that this production is more modest than many other Ubisoft licenses in terms of budget and resources, the graphic and artistic legs would have deserved to be worked on more. Compared to a title like Fortnitethe Franco-Canadian production is painful to see.

Concerning the sound design, the sound effects are of good quality, the atmosphere in the arenas is there with the presence of an overexcited public, in particular at the beginning and in the last moments of a match, and the small pop playlist integrated into the main menu is easy on the ears. Unfortunately, we would have done without voice-overs and cringe comments as much as possible, both in French and in English.

Finally, note that the game also suffers from a lack of polish at launch. In addition to the various and varied bugs encountered (visuals, camera placement problems during replays, etc.), the most disturbing problems are those related to matchmaking, server stability and causing in-game crashes or when playing. quit the game. Nothing catastrophic or insurmountable to fix, but we’re crossing our fingers that updates will be deployed in the coming weeks so that the start of Season 1 goes off without a hitch or almost.