Review: Ashes Cricket

Published by Steve Litchfield at 7:40 UTC, January 20th 2012

 

Aside from the expected framework (England, Australian teams with proper player names, options to play in matches of 5, 20, 30 ('Test') or 50 overs), the core of any sports game comes down to the interface, the graphical realism and the immersibility. And on two of these three counts, at least, Ashes Cricket does very well. 

When bowling, for example, you get to pick a spot for the ball to land, a line for it to take thereafter (picked from a fast-animating set of dotted lines, so it's hard to be precise - on purpose) and then you set the bowling speed based on stopping a left-of-screen power bar. This all works like a dream, so if you want to bowl a fast yorker on leg stump then this is quite achievable.

Ashes Cricket does well for realism too, with nice bowler, batsman and wicket keeper animations. We're not talking TV-quality graphics, but they're fairly believable. There are two or three different bowler styles modelled here, so a spinner runs up and bowls with a different action to a fast bowler, plus there's awareness of left handed bowlers and batsmen as well. The various player names licensed here are all shown with the correct handedness, a nice touch.

 

The realism extends to a wider view too, with an appropriately lit (so night games are here as well) stadium and small animated cricketers moving around. After bowling, you get to see where the ball is hit to, even down to it being chased down and returned to the wicket keeper. Yes, everything's a bit low resolution on the Symbian nHD screens, but you get the idea of what's happening and there's at least an air of TV-style authenticity.  

 

Batting is handled in two ways, depending on how fiddly you want things to be. There's an 'auto' mode (the default), where the batsman moves under computer control and you simply tap on an 'OK' button to indicate timing - this works well in terms of scoring but everything feels somewhat out of your control. The manual system, shown below, has you positioning your batsman as the bowler comes up and then tapping the appropriate icons to indicate shot type - in conjunction with the timing of your taps, a variety of different shots then get played. You'll need a lot of practice, but the end result is a better sense of facing the bowler down and making shot decisions.

 

Sound effects are few and far between though, with just the odd crowd cheer when a four or six is hit. A little extra ambience (music, chatter, incidental sounds) would have been nice, I think. After all, a big stadium is a noisy place to be, yet for 99% of the time Ashes Cricket is totally silent...

 

It's at this point we come to immersibility. When playing, how immersed did I get in the sport? Could I suspend disbelief and simply enjoy the game as if it were a real cricket match? Sadly, the answer is a big 'no' here. Despite the clever interface and good core graphics, there are numerous little details which just aren't 'right' and I can only think that the last 10% of development, play/beta testing, just wasn't done properly.

For example, after playing for an hour, I'd yet to see any wickets fall. This despite me firing in fast yorkers at batsmen, despite balls lobbing up in the air near fielders, despite (as a batsman) deliberately stepping away from a straight ball and not playing a shot. Fielders would appear not to be capable of catching, and AI bowlers of delivering anything but a good length ball that will bounce over wicket height every time. Eventually, I managed to stage a runout, but the whole riskiness of being at the wicket (or rather lack of risk) didn't ring true to me.

Other examples: there are no slip fielders - ever. And however fast you are and however short you drop the ball (as a bowler), the batsman still comes onto the 'front foot'. Seeing an AI batsman 'sweep' a fast yorker or bouncer just ruins any realism for me. When opting to bowl a left arm spinner, the animation for a fast bowler was used, i.e. they appeared to bowl identically.

There are other examples - I'd like to see different animations for off spinners and round arm spinners - but at some point I have to admit that I'm getting a little picky - this is just a game on a phone, after all. But I still think that a few hundred hours of play testing by real world cricket fans would have picked up most of the above and made this a much better title.

 

There are 'tutorial' modes for batting and bowling which are well done, even if (as above, for example) I'd have a hard time working out what the heck an 'Advanced Half Crease Hook' was... and I'm normally considered quite knowledgeable about the game! Textual Help screens also give you the basics, in case you need a refresher:

 

In addition to straight matches, there's a set of (gradually unlocked) 'Scenarios', where you get to play just a few balls at the end of a game and make all the difference. A nice idea, though starting off with only 4 balls to go seems a little extreme - I've heard of quick and casual games, but these scenarios play out in under a minute!

 

The scorecard and interstitial screens are nicely done throughout, with authentic graphics, including this modern 'Hawk eye' view of your bowled over so far (showing in this case that I was right in that even the most 'pitched up' ball still bounces over the stumps - hardly worth having these then!)

 

There's a great cricket game lurking here that's waiting to be unleashed. Honest. But there's so much fine detail that needs adding in terms of gameplay, from better batting AI and shot types to more bowler animations, to a wider range of ball lengths - and the possibility of a fielder one day actually catching something.

Until then, Ashes Cricket is gone from my smartphone. Wake me when version 2 is out, I'll be back in the pavilion bar downing a few 'cold ones'...

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 20 Jan 2012

 

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