Tennis World Tour 2 came out in September 2020 and was developed by Big Ant studios for a number of platforms including the Nintendo Switch platform. Curious to note that same developer made AO Tennis 2 as far as my research goes. In my previous review of AO Tennis 2 I promised to have a look at this game and find out if there be any considerable improvements. So lets see.
In this review I am going to use a number of both screenshots and few second video footage to help you have an idea of my thoughts. Now both games came out the same year just a few months separate but there are some differences. First Impressions are very fair enough showing improvements with the new UI menu and a not so good soundtrack but we will get to that.
The focus here is going to be mainly gameplay and visual presentation as these are the core aspects of any game to me. I hardly talk about online modes and other features because I do not really like to for example custom making things within video games e.g games were you customize a protagonist, I can do it but its not really my taste. Online experience I find it more of an option than a core aspect of a game for example in some parts of the world people don't have unlimited internet as it comes as an added cost so they resort to offline gaming. So I leave the other stuff for you to explore if you haven't played the game yet.
Firstly we shall focus on gameplay but before we get there the first impressions are a good looking menu, user friendly and a more attractive aesthetic giving you an allure for a more broader experience and variety. While this is not a direct attempt to compare this game with AO tennis 2 I cant help but use the recent releases to project the direction in which Tennis games are headed.
Adding further to the good menu presentation is the nice looking customizations that are embedded in a solid looking UI. It looks like I am entering a true sports world and I cant wait to delve into it.
Gameplay:
This is what's important for any sports simulation game is how far can we say it replicates the sport/s we love. Lets do it in simple breakdowns:
If you look at Nadal here doing the slice shot you can see his hand movement how realistic it is compared to any Tennis game prior. Its a clear attempt to capture that hand to wrist movement in animation. Another good thing is how easier it felt for me to aim the short to the desired destination.
Look at the depicted body posture towards the incoming ball. The positioning is much realistic it is a stance that's human and gratifies the gameplay feel because as you approach the ball you feel your player whether or not they are ready and what possible positioning you may need to take after returning the ball. In other words It puts you in the flow of the game.
There is that added fatigue gauge (green bar below the player) which is good and helps minimize that inhuman tireless back and forth that you may get not only from your player animation but the AI too as this led to a long unrealistic rally. But in this case there is a good improvement as you can see from above.
Again posture is realistic helping to make the gameplay more engaging.
Looking at the above this is one true definition of a serve posture you get from a Tennis game animation. For all Tennis games I have played I haven't seen one that surpasses this one when it comes to serving. There is that sway and moment before you hit the ball that's so real and satisfying. I like this.
I cant help but mention the Legendary Federer back hand above, I was using Nadal and I got a taste of it.
Still on Gameplay I have one major problem or area of concern from my perspective and that is the difficulty settings balance. Tennis games seem to miss the difference between easy and normal. I understand that when you take time to master a game you will eventually but for first time players or people unfamiliar with the games they will find the induction hard. When you raise the difficulty the game becomes fast and you get those slight unrealistic movements again from the AI to compensate for the difficulty setting I presume.
Overall the gameplay has indeed improved to match real life player movement and general performance but still there is room for refinement especially the difficulty setting for me.
Graphics and overall presentation:
This is the area I kind of get upset with almost if not every Tennis video game. The visuals are not bad but they need to really improve. I do not like comparing studios and various sports games but it helps to see what the hardware is capable of. So if you look around with the likes of NBA, FIFA,F1 etc you can see that much needs to be done to squeeze out that desired fidelity look and refine it. I don't know what goes behind the scenes nor the budgets etc. but my wish is perhaps thorough work needs to be done on player body scans to get that authentic look. The crowd has improved drastically from AO but I still think Tennis is more of a niche sport unlike for example football where you have thousands of players and huge stadiums and crowds i.e so much to consider. So I think how about the developers leverage from the much smaller facets that need to be given attention to.
The last aspect I wish to touch on is I did not find the music or game soundtrack attractive, in fact it was more of a step back if we are to compare it to AO. While I am not really a music person music makes the universe and is part of an identity of a game, it helps define it and shape it.
To conclude Its a fine game and a general improvement from mainly a gameplay perspective but more work needs to be done. Just by looking and playing the game you can see it has so much potential that still needs to be exploited. That's all for now.
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