People are taking this free-to-play hockey game very seriously

Slapshot is similar to a game called Hockey?, in that rather than triggering an animation to shoot as in the 2K and EA NHL games, you manually control your stick at every step, flicking your mouse to swing it harder and whack the puck. (And, obviously, because it's also hockey.)

Slapshot is littler easier to get the hang of than Hockey?, because it's in third-person, though it doesn't offer quite the same fine puck control. It's more like sliding around the rink as a Fisher-Price toy. You can push the puck with your body or attempt to stickhandle and shoot by moving the mouse left or right to spin around.

As Slapshot is free-to-play on Steam, it seemed like a place burnt out Rocket League players might coalesce, and I wasn't disappointed—spamming some Rocket League quickchat lines got an immediate response—but the awkward shooting and skating (the Fisher-Price toys just glide around like the puck itself) didn't deaden anyone's competitive spirit.

While I was chasing the puck and spinning around wildly, hoping to get any kind of shot off, some of my opponents were deftly stickhandling, moving from forehand to backhand, shooting lasers down the ice. Meanwhile, some of my teammates were imploring me to rotate—that is, replace teammates when they vacate a defensive position to go after the puck—and to stop puck chasing. One teammate quit because I bumped into him after he chastised me, but I was just trying to simulate a bit of on-ice teammate drama. As the NHL postseason approaches, I guess hockey fans aren't in the mood to goof off. No one's going to beat Tampa Bay with a flippant attitude.

Above: I'm bad, but thanks to Julez my plus-minus got a bump.

As my frustrated teammates knew, Slapshot, and hockey, are all about teamwork—being in the right place at the right time, taking hits to make the play, hitting passes, all that color commentator stuff. Bunching up like kids doesn't work. 

Slapshot's presentation leaves something to be desired, and controlling the stick is uncomfortable in a way that's hard to describe—like trying to get to a specific number on a volume slider, but every time you move your mouse it accelerates to 11. But it's fun, and free, and players are taking its depth and teamwork seriously. As the developers work through their roadmap, I could see Slapshot becoming an occasional game in my party's rotation, at least whenever the friends need a break from CS:GO.

You can pick up Slapshot on Steam. For $10 you can unlock the 'full version,' which lets you customize the look of your character.

Tyler Wilde
Editor-in-Chief, US

Tyler grew up in Silicon Valley during the '80s and '90s, playing games like Zork and Arkanoid on early PCs. He was later captivated by Myst, SimCity, Civilization, Command & Conquer, all the shooters they call "boomer shooters" now, and PS1 classic Bushido Blade (that's right: he had Bleem!). Tyler joined PC Gamer in 2011, and today he's focused on the site's news coverage. His hobbies include amateur boxing and adding to his 1,200-plus hours in Rocket League.

Latest in Sports
Tony Hawk doing a kickflip or whatever the hell it is in the cover art for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
Tony Hawk apparently intervened to get Bam Margera into Pro Skater 3+4: 'No, you're gonna do it'
A goalkeeper in a plague mask wields an axe
Silent Hill gets a soccer league in FEAR FA 98, and you can play the demo now
Roman Reigns in the ring in WWE 2k25
WWE 2K25: Every superstar on the roster
Tony Hawk doing a kickflip or whatever the hell it is in the cover art for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake is real, and it's coming in July with new skaters, parks, music, and more
Image for
Sure seems like the new Call of Duty map is teasing a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater game
Football players flying through the air
PC Gamer's simulated Super Bowl 2025 predicts Eagles victory, player getting hit so hard he flies out of the stadium and into the parking lot
Latest in News
Starfield's companion robot giving a thumbs-up
Former Bethesda dev who quit Starfield to go solo says it's 'much less stressful as an indie' without daily meetings or 'office politics': it's 'very refreshing to just care about the game'
Schedule I drug deal going down
Forget REPO, Monster Hunter Wilds and Assassin's Creed Shadows, Steam's current global top seller is an early access game about managing a drug empire
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 characters with their bodies replaced by skeletons, thanks to the KCD2 Skeleton mod.
Here's that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 mod that turns everyone into skeletons you asked for
A crew of prospectors in Wildgate, featuring a robot, a rabbit man, and a small aquatic creature in a combination mech/aquarium.
Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime's new company is putting Sea of Thieves-style shenanigans in space with a new crew-based shooter
Naoe looking at the wrist blade in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Ubisoft says don't compare Assassin's Creed Shadows' success to Valhalla: The latter launched in Covid's 'perfect storm' and feedback on platforms 'less affected by review bombing' is stellar
Tarn Adams, who cofounded Bay 12 Games with his brother Zach, talks about their single-player simulation game "Dwarf Fortress" during an interview at their home office in Poulsbo, Washington, west of Seattle, on December 9, 2022. - A cult favorite among indie game fans, "Dwarf Fortress" has been available for purchase on the Steam online store since December 6, a first for this title that has been distributed for free since its debut in 2006. The real-time management game, set in a medieval-fantasy world and involving overseeing a group of dwarves seeking to build a mighty fortress, has climbed to the fourth best-selling weekly title on Steam. (Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP) (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)
Dwarf Fortress' creator is so tired of hearing about AI: 'Press a button and it writes a really sh*tty, wrong essay about something—and they still take your job'