Skater's Cricket Revolution review

[Skater]

It's Friday afternoon and I have nothing to do. On logging on to PlanetCricket I come across the news that Cricket Revolution has been released. Against my better judgement, I shell out the ?14.99 to play this new title.

My first problem was even installing it. Steam is the developer's choice of distributor. Bad move. Steam is the most intensely annoying, buggy waste of space that has ever disgraced my laptop. When you download it, you need to wait for the program to update before you can use it - yet several times it refused to go beyond 35%. Hours later, it took a reboot of my system to kick it on. Then I just had to wait the hour for Cricket Revolution to be installed. I'm afraid I just don't like having to have a program like Steam, that I will never use again other than to launch CR, clogging up space.

Then when I do eventually get into the game and start up an exhibition match as England against Zimbabwe, I find that when the demo worked fine on the highest settings, it is nowhere near good enough for the full game, with choppy animations and an almost non-existant frame rate the order of the day. Even as I scaled down the settings, it is still as if I'm playing in slow motion. Not good.

While I got a good grasp of the controls in the demo, hitting sixes and knocking over stumps in the nets, I can't get the ball off the square with the bat in the real thing. This was on the Easy difficulty. Easy? Who can call this 'easy'? Getting a team total into double figures is an achievement.

Then, when I'm bowling, it does get a little better, but not by much. There are satisfying moments when yorkers beat the bat, but these moments are rare. Too rare. Often it feels as if the batsman knows what I'm going to send down to him before I've even started my run up, and after a while this can become tedious and tiresome. The 'Predictable' element, when my chosen delivery is easy to pick by the batter, is poorly implemented, coming up too often and ruining the surprise of what happens when the ball is bowled.

The graphics are functional, nothing more, but they are certainly good enough to live with. What I query, though, is how can graphics that are this functional still drag and chop on my mid-range laptop?

The two best parts of this game are the animations and the sound. Animation wise, they feel natural and realistic. It just feels like cricket, and the developers deserve praise for that. The sounds of bat on ball are the best I've ever heard in a cricket game. Some have bemoaned the lack of commentary, but why is this such a problem? Commentary on cricket games has always been a buggy, repetitive, tedious mess - there's no need for it.

Mindstorm deserve credit for having a go at creating a competitor in the cricket games market. But Cricket Revolution should be filed with so many of its fellows - so much potential, but so little of realised. By all means, develop this and make it better. But if anyone reading this is trying to decide whether to buy this game or not - don't. Sorry. But it will save you money.

Ratings

Graphics - 5/10 - functional, nothing to look at
Compatability - 4/10 - choppy and almost unplayable on mid-range laptop
Gameplay - 4/10 - too difficult even on Easy difficulty
Sound - 7/10 - crowds not too excitable, but bat-ball sounds fantastic
Animations - 7/10 - best in any cricket game, easily
Replayability - 5/10 - difficulty and choppiness will put you off coming back
OVERALL - 5/10 - acceptable first attempt but needs major work.

 

[Tacrolimus]

Naaah! Some valid points e.g. I'm not a Steam fan, there is a lot of choppiness, I do feel Easy isn't too easy and the AI batsmen and their ability to hammer you need attention - but overall an invalid review - in my view.

 

[Spinksy]

Naaah! Some valid points e.g. I'm not a Steam fan, there is a lot of choppiness, I do feel Easy isn't too easy and the AI batsmen and their ability to hammer you need attention - but overall an invalid review - in my view.

Invalid how? All valid points from where I sit.

 

[Tacrolimus]

I did say Overall?

 

[Hitterman]

Not impressed with your review and the ratings. Gameplay deserves at least 8 imo.

 

[MattW]

Not impressed with your review and the ratings. Gameplay deserves at least 8 imo.

Yes, the review sucks because it doesn't agree with your opinion.

 

[Hitterman]

Yes, the review sucks because it doesn't agree with your opinion.

Somehow it is true. I am too much addicted to this game .

I can understand that everyone has his own point of view.

 

[St0ney]

I think review is spot on.

 

[India51A]

IMO I think the review hits the nail right on the head. It's a pity because the game has so much potential. Some people are saying that they don't want to be experts at the game in 10 minutes, like other games. Well neither do I, but I would like to score more than 5 all out on Easy, and that after several hours of play in nets and Exhibition Mode.

 

[Hitterman]

I played CR in the Hard level while testing the BETA version. At first I wasn't able to touch the ball for 2-3 overs but after some practice, I scored 55/9 (10 overs)

 

[deepuparayil]

Problem with your review is, you precisely pointed out each of the -ve aspects of the game and didn't give any attention to the numreous positives in this game.Anyway good attempt. It's definitely better than other games around now according to my opinion.

 

[Fatal Shot]

I stopped reading after he said he couldn't make runs on easy...

Clearly he was expecting a arcady game, where your number 11 can come in and hit a six off his first ball. This game requires actual patience and skill to pierce the field and you also have to take calculated risks.

Fatal Shot added 3 Minutes and 29 Seconds later...

I stopped reading after he said he couldn't make runs on easy...

Clearly he was expecting a arcady game, where your number 11 can come in and hit a six off his first ball. This game requires actual patience and skill to pierce the field and you also have to take calculated risks.

Fatal Shot added 2 Minutes and 46 Seconds later...

I stopped reading after he said he couldn't make runs on easy...

Clearly he was expecting a arcady game, where your number 11 can come in and hit a six off his first ball. This game requires actual patience and skill to pierce the field and you also have to take calculated risks.

 

[Hitterman]

You stopped reading three times?

The T.V Saas-Bahu serial Climax seen

 

[MattW]

Clearly he was expecting a arcady game, where your number 11 can come in and hit a six off his first ball. This game requires actual patience and skill to pierce the field and you also have to take calculated risks.

There's a gap between a slog fest and something that is challenging but easy. Requiring perfect timing and being difficult are not the same thing.

There's a reason these games have difficulty levels, so you can start at easy and get a hang of the controls before moving on to harder levels, if it is expected that everyone is able to pick up the game and go up the learning curve as quickly as a difficult easy mode suggests, then there is no point having anything but hard mode.

It may not be realistic for a number 11 to hit a six first ball, but it is realistic that an opener shouldn't have to struggle to get a single. If you are good enough at the game for that not to be a factor for you, good, I'm glad you can time it so well, but not everyone can, and the difficulty that you like can be frustration for someone else.

Difficulty needs to be realistic, something I keep saying. No bowler is bad enough that they can't even get the ball on the side of the pitch they want, and no team's batsmen are so poor that the whole team gets out for 5.

Yes, practice practice practice, but you need a gradual step into the game. That's the point of easy, I think it is perfectly reasonable to say CR misses on this factor. Though I'll play for much longer before I pass judgement.

 

[Tacrolimus]

The biggest problems for me on Easy - accepting it will take a while to get runs and I am getting better at it - is the fielding AI when you are batting versus the fielding AI when you are bowling.

That definitely needs a tweak.

Granted easy in this game is not 'easy' as in other games and certainly is likely to put people off.