Roll7’sRollerdromeis a unique concept blending roller skating and third-person shooting, which is about as wild and fun as it sounds. When thinking about sports that transition well into video games, roller skating is hardly the first thing that springs to mind. Aside from a couple ofJet Set Radiogames in the early 2000s and Ubisoft’s recentRoller Champions, it is a sport that has not received much attention from video game developers. Shooting games, on the other hand, are probably the most common type on the market, soRollerdromeis smart to blend the two.
The game plays like a mixture ofTony Hawk’s Pro SkaterandMax Payne. Set in a dystopian future where the sport of “Rollerdrome” is one of the most popular forms of entertainment, Kara Hassan is tasked with winning the tournament by stacking up high scores and combining tricks with lethal kills. Kara uses various weapons to wreak havoc on her opponents, and she can also slow down time to really zero in on her adversaries. InRollerdrome, simply killing is not enough, it needs to look good too. However, it could use a few additional ways to play on top of that.
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Rollerdrome Needs More Game Modes
The game is split up into several tournament rounds, from preliminaries through to quarters and semis before the finals. Each stage has various different objectives that the player must strive to achieve on top of surviving and taking out opponents. This forces players to actually think about what they are going to do, rather than just mindlessly trying to wipe everyone out. It’s a concept that has a lot in common withTony Hawk’s Pro Skater, which used the same objective progression path. With a concept as unique as this one, there should definitely be more modes and different ways to play.
The most notable absence is the lack of any kind of multiplayer component. In a landscape increasingly dominated by battle royale-style games such asFortniteandMultiversus, this absence seems like an oversight, especially when the game seems tailor-made for multiplayer. This will hopefully be corrected further down the line with future updates or some DLC, though a lot of that depends on whetherRollerdrometransitions to a live-service model.
Another concern is thatRollerdrome’s stages are small, and they don’t offer much variety aside from aesthetic changes. The cel-shaded visuals thatRoll7utilizes are striking, and they complement the mechanics well, but the game would benefit from larger stages that would offer the player a little more freedom. Incorporating more modes of play with bigger playgrounds seems like a logical step for the game to take. Players could in theory be treated to “mission” stages where they have to eliminate certain targets, or forward-moving linear stages like an on-rails shooter with a start and endpoint.
Thanks toRollerdrome’s unusual concept, there are a lot of game modes its developer could add in that would really bolster what the game has to offer. Roll7 has created something unique, and that’s no easy feat in an industry where many concepts have already been done to death. With a few tweaks and additions that add options on how to play,Rollerdromecould find mainstream success.
Rollerdromeis available now for PC, PS4, and PS5.
