Keep on rolling?
The year is 2030, and you are a competitor in a brutal new bloodsport – Rollerdrome. Combine stylish skate tricks with devastating slow-mo kills, picking your weapons with care to land the killing blow and make it to the end of the round… and maybe, with enough skill and hard work, to the end of the Championship.
Rollerdrome mixes the gameplay style of Tony Hawk with shooting mechanics and competitive gameplay in a unique way. I admit I’ve always been terrible at skateboarding games, but this is rollerblading and definitely easier to control for me. I found it very easy to pick up and play, while even moves like grinding became second nature.
You will have to fight off waves of enemies that are either directly attacking/shooting you or are further away sniping you. Luckily you can dodge quite easily, but the thing that makes Rollerdrome interesting is that instead of finding ammo packs, you’ll need to pull off tricks to replenish your bullets. It also makes you strategize when to shoot as you don’t want to run out of bullets mid-fight.
There are assist options to make things a lot easier if you wish, such as infinite ammo or even invincibility but these won’t allow you to post your scores on leaderboards, though they don’t disable trophies so that can make life a lot easier if you want to push towards the Platinum that way. Each match will come with a list of side-objectives to complete like pulling off headshots in slow-mo or taking out snipers in mid-air and so on. You can also upgrade your weapons and so on between matches in the locker room.
If there’s one thing that is frustrating, its that the game is single player only. There’s no competitive online or offline multiplayer to be found here. It feels like a missed opportunity although they I doubt, they could have implemented the slow-mo in online, so perhaps it makes sense not to have it.
The visuals are cel-shaded and when I first saw the trailer for the game, I was convinced it was part of the Borderlands universe, especially when I saw a shop sign that said “Hyperion”. But it works in its own world well, though I could definitely see a version of it popping up in Borderlands 4 in years to come. The framerate is smooth throughout and it uses the DualSense well with the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback.
The Verdict
Rollerdrome is addictive, easy to pick up mayhem from start to finish. It may not have competitive multiplayer, but its still a blast to play against AI as you go full John Wick on them with synth-music psyching you on to victory.