In fine form

For a gaming audience starved of cricket videogames, Big Ant Studio’s Cricket 22 is mana from heaven even if it doesn’t officially have any Indian players or leagues

Cricket 22
Rating: 4/5
Developer: Big Ant Studios
Publisher: Nacon
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, XBO, XBS 
Price: PC: Rs 2,999; Consoles: Rs 3,999

It’s been a while since EA Sports Cricket got abandoned and we do miss it. Fortunately, Big Ant Studios has been releasing a steady stream of cricket games since Don Bradman Cricket 14. Over the years, the games have only gotten better. The latest, Cricket 22, is the first cricket game on next-gen consoles.

Let’s get some things out of the way first. Cricket 22 doesn’t have a huge roster of international players or any Indian players. This is probably because it costs a lot of money. It also doesn’t have official leagues for the same reason. I am also pretty sure the red tape dealing with CCI and BCCI may be a major obstacle for a company as small as Big Ant Studios. India is the biggest market for cricket games and without a roster of Indian players, the game will never do well enough in India. That said, as far as cricket games go, this is the best we have at the moment, unless EA decides to relaunch its franchise. 

Cricket 22 is a fantastic game to play. It has a well-realised control system.  You can perform catches while fielding, bowl bouncers and hit the right ball for a six. I enjoyed playing this game both, as a batter and bowler. The developers have taken time to make sure the timing element in batting plays a crucial element in success. Similarly, the After Touch in bowling lets you adjust the final outcome of where the ball lands. It is possibly the best set of controls you can expect in a game with so many technical aspects in both bowling and batting. Though, batting is way easier than bowling as it mostly involves finding the gap and hitting the ball on time.

Despite this detailed control system, the fun aspect is missing in the regular game mode and not because there is anything wrong with the game. Cricket 22 is primarily still an Ashes game, which means it is a Test match. The actual game can be long and get boring for someone who doesn’t enjoy Test Cricket. I found myself playing an inning and simulating the rest of the game because it got tedious at times. If you play an entire game, you are looking at 3-4 hours for just one game if you play cautiously. Play like you are playing IPL and your players will get out very fast. Then during your turn to bowl, the game will again get slow because the AI plays cautiously like it is in it for the long run. This can get frustrating because sometimes you just want to have a couple of overs and be done with the game.

The Career mode and Competition mode offer relief here. The Career mode is story-driven, similar to the current crop of football games. You start by choosing your gender and then design your character’s appearance. Then you go on to play in a club and continue from there. Here, fortunately, most of the matches are in the T20 league which means they are relatively shorter than the Test matches. You can also choose to play only parts your character is playing while skipping through the rest of the game. The Career mode is refreshing and the shorter matches make it ideal for playing. The Career mode also focuses on the skill aspect of the player and lets your character practice for better stats.

Competition mode lets you select T20, One-Day or test and you can select a league but these are all fictional leagues with fictional players. Hopefully, in the next iteration of the game, Big Ant can work out some deals with IPL and BCCL. You can also create your match style and set up a friendly competition from that. Making this a great game for small competitions between friends both online and local.

Early on I had mentioned that this is the first Cricket game on next-gen consoles. While you would assume this meant the game looks amazing, in reality, it looks like it belongs on the PS3. Graphically, Cricket 22 is not the best-looking game, the graphics especially with the players look very outdated. You can notice this very clearly in the player creator mode in Career. While playing the game the camera is mostly far away and while it doesn’t look as beautiful as say FIFA. It doesn’t look ugly either. What the game is…is functional. The graphics work well for the game but they are not polished. This is true even on the next-gen consoles.

The game has a fair amount of bugs as well. My game hung a couple of times and this was sometimes at crucial moments where I had sunk in a chunk of time. Updates should take care of this over time but for now, the game is buggy. As the only Cricket game out there, this one has a significant advantage. Not to mention it is fun to play especially in the Career mode, Competition and Multiplayer. If you are hoping for a roster of all the famous cricket players this game is not for you. However, if you are looking for a cricket game to play with friends or just a good sports title, this does not disappoint.

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