Cricket 2005 review
Summer's here and parks ring to the sound of leather on willow...
Cricket isn't the most popular sport in videogame terms. One can understand why, it's a little-played game in the USA and Japan and so tends not to attract the attention of the big players in the console world. However the biggest third party publisher, EA, does crank out the occasional cricket game.
Here in its latest iteration is EA Sports' Cricket 2005. Clearly it's a game that benefits from EA's clout when it comes to purchasing official licenses. The game features full licenses Cricket Australia, The English Cricket Board, NZ Cricket and the South African Cricket Team.
Full Toss
Clearly the usual might of EA Sports licensing and presentation is displayed here. There are 35 dynamically lit stadiums from around the world including Lords, Calcutta, Melbourne, Auckland, Cape Town, Barbados and Lahore. We've domestic and international competitions, the new Twenty20 tournament and all manner of season modes.
TV style presentation is the order of the day, with smooth slow motion replays from dramatic angles when wickets are taken or fours/sixes hit. There are TV-style graphics, statistics, overlays for LBW decisions, third-umpire camera replay and even the animated duck for a batsmen failing to score when his wicket is taken. And for that authentic TV-coverage feel we have commentary from Richie Benaud and Jim Maxwell. Thankfully we also have a 16:9 option for widescreen TVs.
Yorker
So it sounds magnificent doesn't it? Well the presentation isn't anywhere near as well realised as all those features would suggest. There's a definite pecking-order of resource uses and development time at EA. So the very best presentation will be lavished on Madden, slightly less on FIFA (bizarrely considering it's globally the bigger game) and right down at the bottom we have Cricket 2005.
So what we have are fairly detailed player models, but rather blurred and shoddy stadiums. The graphics are never sharp in the way GT4 is, for example. And there's a clear lack of polish when it comes to the commentary by Richie Benaud and Jim Maxwell. When commentary first began to appear in games, there was always a problem of stilted dialogue as phrases said with a different inflection were put together. This isn't much of a problem these days, with the likes of NFL2K5 featuring amazingly lifelike commentary. Here in Cricket 2005 the commentary doesn't gel at all and it really doesn't do the atmosphere any favours.
At the crease
While the presentation may leave something to desired, the actual gameplay is pretty good. Bowling is particularly well realised. Each bowler is capable of different actions and these are mapped to various face and shoulder buttons on the PS2 pad. To begin a bowling run-up you press the shot you require, then move the crosshair where you want the ball to bounce while the bowler is running up. Once the bowler is close to the crease a power bar will fill, you have to press the bowl button again to stop the power bar before it becomes a no-ball.
Alongside the power bar are two other indicators, one shows bowler fatigue, the other shows bowler special abilities. As the bowler makes several successful bowls, this second bar fills up. Once full, extra options become available such as a googly or a yorker. The bowling works well, adding movement by using the joypad while the run-up is made works well, as does varying the pace to catch out a batsman with a slow ball after several full-power shots. My only complaint of the bowling is that it should be a little tougher, perhaps with the aiming marker moving on it's own so you have to fight it a little.
Stumped
Batting is much harder than bowling in this game and it will really take some practice in the nets before you will feel remotely confident of your abilities. Choosing the correct shot is all important or you'll find yourself all-out for a surprisingly embarrassing low innings.
The four race buttons give the option for a front foot shot, back foot shot, attacking shot and offer no shot. It's the front foot shot you'll use the most, often defensively to block a full toss. However a careless wide bowl or one pitched very short is ideal for the attacking shot, where the batsman steps out of the crease to slog the ball.
For a full-on attack, the L1 button is used for an attempt at a six. This is a very tricky manoeuvre to pull off and often results in a sky-high ball that's easy pickings for the fielders. The joystick/d-pad is used in conjunction with these face buttons to control the direction of the shot, but it really is difficult to get to grips with - especially if you're not sure the correct shot to actually play for a given length of ball.
Sticky wicket
The difficulty in batting, and the practice required to gain any confidence, means that Cricket 2005 is quite ht defensive game at first. I found myself constantly defending shots that a more confident player might try to get runs of - and often was scoring like a test batsman in a Twenty20 game. Yet I don't want to complain too much about this, because it's a welcome change to find a game that really does require some practice to become proficient at. When you score two runs of a long shot, or make a boundary through the covers, it feels really well earned.
While the batting strategy is relatively simple, the execution - timing etc. is difficult. Bowling is the opposite, it's pretty easy to bowl, but harder to select the correct shots and work a strategy against a given batsman. Varying the pace often helps, as does offering the batsman the occasional choice morsel to whack, in the hope the fielders are up to the task of catching the sky-bound ball. It helps if you select auto-fielding in this regard as bowling and fielding at the same time is rather tricky.
Final over
So what we have in Cricket 2005 is a game that tries hard to offer some interesting and subtle gameplay, but falls down on presentation and some gameplay balancing. It's a good game, but not the best game of cricket around. If you're in the market for a cricket game this summer, it's worth waiting until the new Brian Lara game is released then comparing the too.
For a cricket mad gamer, then this is worth your time. For the gamer that is unwilling to struggle with the difficult batting then I'd suggest taking a look at the Brian Lara game before making your mind up.[/b]