Review | Cricket Revolution
Format: PC | Genre: Sport | Publisher: Mamba Games | Developer: Mindstorm Studios | Release date: 30/10/09 | RRP: TBC
By Chris Evans
Cricket’s a confusing game at the best of times and utterly mind boggling at the worst, and games based on the sport seem follow the same rule.
It’s not just the rules and nature of the sport, either, but a seeming impossibility to transfer them over to a videogame. Codemasters’ Ashes Cricket 2009 wasn’t the easiest title to get to grips with, but compared to Cricket Revolution it was a joy to behold.
The main trouble with Cricket Revolution lies in the batting and bowling systems, neither of which are at all effective or easy to use. You have a massive 34 different shots you can play when batting, divided between five shot types. They all involve some combination of the arrow keys and the control, shift and alt buttons. But it’s frankly impossible to remember each and every combination, or even just the handful you would need to know to be able to stroke the ball around the field smoothly.
It would be much simpler if your shot selection was determined by where you aimed your strike and what stance you took. Shot aiming is nothing short of ridiculous – when batting in the nets the ball never seemed to be struck in the direction I was intending. Frankly, the shot placement graphic doesn’t make one iota of sense, bizarrely forcing you to place your shot as a square cut in order for it to travel to mid-on. It’s either totally broken, or doesn’t work as you would intuitively think it would.
The developers do deserve praise for the sheer amount of shot types implemented in the game. For die-hard cricket fans this will be most agreeable after the comparatively simple batting system used in Ashes Cricket. While there may be a lot of shots to get to grips with, it is pleasing to see well-developed training area that covers both batting and bowling. It teaches you the basics of each discipline and allows you to spend some time in the nets practicing your technique – invaluable when you have so many batting mechanics to learn.
//Bowling like Harmison
Bowling is one area you’ll want to spend plenty of time practicing. If you thought batting was a challenge, bowling is ten times that. You’ve to aim where you want to ball to pitch using the WASD keys, but the targeting reticule doesn’t move smoothly with your key presses; rather, it flies around the pitch with little regard for where you want to place the ball. You may want to bowl a yorker, but you’re just as likely to send down a ball reminiscent of Harmison’s at the start of the 2006/2007 Ashes series, if that means anything to you.
Controlling the pace and swing of the ball works in a much better fashion. By holding the space bar after targeting the ball, you control how much – and in what direction- the ball will swing. From there you press space and hold it to determine the pace of the ball. Bowlers also have special deliveries such as the Doosra for spinners and cutters for swing bowlers – they may not sound like much, but they add to the depth of the mechanics. It’s far from perfect, but it would add up to a very impressive system if it weren’t for the problems with placing the ball.
But the heart of the game is meant to lie in multiplayer, with various options both online and via LAN, and a stat tracking system linked between the game and the website, where you can see how people are performing against each other and rise through the ranks to play against better opponents. With the game still awating final release, there’s understandably no community yet – but we may revisit this component in the future, as it’s clear that there’s potential for developing a strong and active player base.
But while Cricket Revolution has potential, there are currently so many broken or ill-thought-out mechanics littering the bowling and batting systems. With ongoing improvements, this could well become a decent game, especially if the online functionality takes off. Sadly, at the moment, there are too many problems for it to be recommendable.
3/10
It’s going to be different from other cricket games in the market. The developers are pitching it as a competitive multiplayer game, and I believe there must be a (somewhat) steep learning curve for any game to be competitive.
This is exactly what cricket gamers want, and it is evident here: http://www.planetcricket.net/forums/cricket-revolution/review-cricket-revolution-resolution-59647.html
its best ever cricket game i played! though learning curve is high but after that it rocks!!
it should be 9 by 10.there is no cricket game which can compete this!
Rubbish review i`m sorry to say. Just look at this comment :
“But it’s frankly impossible to remember each and every combination, or even just the handful you would need to know to be able to stroke the ball around the field smoothly.”
i won`t be surprised if the reviewer deducted marks for this.
Yeah players movements aren`t the best but other things easily make up for it. For a cricket game, the harder it is, the better it will be. Which Cricket Revolution certainly is!
Rubbish review this game is better than brian lara 07 good shot placement great game i mus say it should be 9.98/10
Usman: I’m curious – do you think games *shouldn’t* be marked down for having an unintuitive control scheme?
I know a lot of people who played the demo and some who were even beta testers for the game. No one faced even a slight problem regarding the controls scheme.Infact people were amazed at the variety of shots available in the player`s arsenal.
No doubt bad controls should get negative marks but if the author only has a problem memorizing them when most people don`t, well the game isn`t at fault then ehh? :)
Ok so this review guy thinks he knows cricket better then other people out there? to reviewer, get a life dude, go understand the game first and then write the review…..
This game is the best ever cricket game heaps better then shit games like ea cricket, ashes and a lot better then brain lara cricket…..easily the best cricket game ever and remember it is coming from technologically backward country like pakistan, so i give full marks to its development team…..and to all guys, do not decide to play or not play this game based on this shit ass review…..
^man this reviewer is PWND :D…
I think his problem is that the game is made by pakistaniZ….and hey if u hav any problem memorizing the control than u better start writing them somewhere so that u can remember them :P
Chris was carefully selected due to his passion for cricket and its translation into videogames. Though I know basically nothing about the sport, I have absolutely no reason do doubt his expertise in this case.
Of course, people aren’t always going to agree with each other’s opinions, and I understand that due to a fairly large beta session a fair amount of players have had the chance to go hands-on with an unfinished build of the game. This means disagreement’s going to be rife before release.
If you’ve enjoyed the game, and plan to buy it on release regardless of reviews, then that’s great. I’m sure Chris would be glad you’ve managed to find more enjoyment in the game than he did. But it’s just one opinion. An informed opinion, perhaps, but opinion nevertheless.
“I think his problem is that the game is made by pakistaniZ”
What utter nonsense. Don’t be so absurd.
ASHES or other cricket is like BURNOUT and this is like GRAN TURISMO..
the game is like simulator and gives a real cricket experience which isnt given by anyone before.
though learning curve is high but game is really nice once u learn the combos u rocks similar to street fighter…
this game is the best cricket game ever!
and i think the man who reviewed has gone NUTS!
@SMJ – I am deeply offended that you would even imply that the nationality of the developers would in any way affect how I would perceive the game. I didn’t know where the developers were from until after I finished the review and gave my judgement on it.
Other people – The amount of shots available is one of the best things about the game, it really shows how much research the developers have put into the game. At the end of the day though, it has been implemented in an extremely poor fashion.
Good shot placement? The arrows on the guide in the bottom left do not correspond to where you actually want to place the shot, it makes no sense, this was after playing the tutorial and reading the online manual.
@Lewis – if a reviewer’s opening statement states that “Cricket’s a confusing game at the best of times and utterly mind boggling at the worst”, I highly doubt there lies any passion or understanding of the sport within a reviewer who would open with such a statement.
Cricket is quite straight forward to those who are passionate about it. For example, I do not follow Rugby and when I see it on TV it is exactly to me what Cricket is to Chris based on the statement above.
Having tried the demo, the controls are very very easy to master. The shot placement key that seems to be the bitter bit, is in-fact brilliant once you figure it out (or make an effort to do so).
IMO you should pick your reviewers more carefully in the future and also pay a little bit of attention to the fact why people are getting worked up enough to rate this review as ‘rubbish’.
Bringing nationality into this discussion is completely unwarranted and disappointing. I am sure this wasn’t to do with with Chris’s view of the game.
FYI, the shot placement guide is actually a dial that simply rotates your typical direction for that particular shot. So if you play a straight drive and rotate the dial (arrows) clockwise it will angle in that direction. The arrows *do* correspond once you understand how it works.
Can you explain why you think that bowling is “Not effective or easy to use” ?
And you don’t really have to remember the shots. If you press the down key, the batsmen will play down the ground. Was that so hard?
The reviewer says that its hard to place the ball. Like in real life. Its not so easy dude , all it does is adds a bit more realism to the game. Also it may become easier as you practice. Thats the beauty of the game.
@Samuel – I would have the arrows pointing to square leg and it would regular be struck to fine leg, I would have to place the arrows further around than I should have had to to place the ball in the right place.
@Talha – When you have the bowling target reticule floating around the pitch madly at the slightest touch of the controls then you know something is really going wrong with it.
mr evans, go and play ashes and brain lara, this aint for u bro…it is complex stuff…..
[Comment removed by staff] I’ll let nonsense like that slide once, but a second time and it becomes unacceptable. Even if you weren’t the one who said it the first time, we’ve been through it, it’s utter nonsense, and I’ll not have those sorts of unfounded accusations levelled at Resolution’s writers.
[...] up is my review of Cricket Revolution on Resolution which resulted in some outrageous comments. I can accept people disagreeing with what I wrote, but [...]
I can`t understand why people bring up the nationality issue. The author has nowhere hinted that he is against Pakistan or Pakistanis.
Difference of opinion isn`t a bad thing but levelling unfounded allegations is.
Dunno why some dumb people bring this up :@
[...] up is my review of Cricket Revolution on Resolution which resulted in some outrageous comments. I can accept people disagreeing with what I wrote, but [...]
[...] up is my review of Cricket Revolution on Resolution which resulted in some outrageous comments. I can accept people disagreeing with what I wrote, but [...]
I’m assuming that nothing drastic has changed between the demo and your review copy.
The placement thingy is a modifier — you’re choosing a direction relative to the usual direction of whichever shot you end up playing.
The fact that you couldn’t immediately memorise every shot doesn’t mean that it’s ‘impossible’. They’re organised in such a way that shot choice can be relatively intuitive even without a complete control map in your head, and I can almost guarantee that those who persevere will find it all falling into place relatively quickly. Just go with the flow for a while, look at how the shot controls are structured (it’s a pretty logical system), make a few mistakes along the way and learn by doing. (Losing can be great fun when you know you’re learning along the way.)
And the bowling target moves depending on your key presses, but retains momentum rather than stopping when you release the key. It’s like an air-hockey puck or something. It’s not random or confusing at all, it’s just challenging, and requires the kind of skill that will develop as you play and get used to it. Whether it works ‘well’ is of course subjective (based on my experience with the demo, I would offer a tentative ‘yes’) but surely you can see why this kind of system makes for a more interesting game than ‘choose exactly where you want to bowl the ball with no challenge at all, and a 100% success rate/success rate dependent on a dice roll’.
With these and some of your other complaints, this review reads like a Championshiup Manager review written by me (i.e. someone who has no idea about soccer), or a Quake III review complaining that you played for an hour and died a lot, and aiming is too hard when people move so fast, and wtf is up with strafe-jumping anyway, or a racing sim review saying ‘man, I saw a corner coming and I pressed left, but somehow I still crashed into the wall. 2/10′. The whole point of this game is to offer deep, challenging gameplay, yet your complaints seem to basically come down to ‘this is too hard for me/I couldn’t immediately grasp it therefore it’s rubbish’.
I know I’m coming across as a bit whiny, and perhaps a bit aggressive (if the latter, sorry; this isn’t intended as a personal attack, but it’s impossible to criticise a review in this way without also criticising the reviewer), but it’s such a pity to see a game like this given such short shrift by someone who pretty clearly doesn’t ‘get’ it, and judging by the tone and content of the review was never likely to.
Well of course bringing nationality issue here was absurd. But again the reviewer giving this game “3″ out of 10 falls somewhere in the same level of absurdness.
This game comes from a small independent studio with nowhere near resources that Ubisoft or EA have got under their wings. Even then they have managed to pull off such a great piece of game.
Has the reviewer really played any of the EA titles in the same genre – just for sake of comparison?
For the sake of a nice spread of opinions, we are looking into the possibility of having someone write a second review of Cricket Revolution. I’ll keep everyone posted via the site.
@Matt – thanks for actually writing a sensible comment :) Regarding the batting I found it a horribly unintuitive way of setting up a control scheme which loses the game marks in my book.
With the bowling I see where you are coming from, but from a critical standpoint it doesn’t work at all well. It would be much better if you could target the ball without the ‘airhockey’ style effect and have the accuracy etc. effected by the skill of the bowler and the swing/speed meter which works really quite well.
This is really a bad review. The game deserve more than 7. Thats a crazy review.
Nice. I,for sure, will be looking forward to it :)
The best game ever….. Much better than EA cricket.
One of the best cricketing game ever released so far..Absoloutely fantasic to watch trailers and all that..This will be the start of a New generation of games in cricket. Anyway i hope bowling action need to be improved in to some extent and thats a small change to be done …all the best Developers…Fantastic…
What, so because it’s only made by a small studio reviewers should bump it up a few marks? The problems with this game are highlighted by the supposedly “promotional video” released by the game-makers. You can find it on YouTube. Promotions are meant to advertise the best of a game and make even a mediocre game look good. So what do we see? The official promotional video contains several clips of players leaving balls on middle stump and promptly being bowled or trapped LBW as a consequence. Another clip shows a batsman standing a metre outside leg, charging down the wicket and missing the ball by about two feet. If that’s the best promotional video they can manage, what on earth are they thinking?
YEah me too but not by someone from this magazine or site :P……
The opening lines of the review tells us a great deal about the level of expertise this reviewer has :)
The game is not perfect, agreed. But then again, which cricket game has ever been perfect? Or even close? EA has been making crappy cricket games for years, same goes for Codemasters. Those games didn’t even have some basic shots that are an integral part of batting. At least this game tries to include everything.
I liked the demo a lot. The control scheme, once you get used to it, is pretty OK.
I’m not saying this game deserves a 8 or 9. But its by NO MEANS a 3/10 game.
This game is far better than EA and codemasters. At beginning it hard but when u used to of playing it, you can play it better. Hardness in a game is prequiest of any game. If the game is made easy it would be no fun playing it as in case of EA and codemasters. But though is shouldn’t be so difficult that no one want to try it.
There is a learnig aspect in the game which is fun of the game. It feels good when you play a shot of a bowl for 6, but couldnt get the shot again for the similar ball again. this make you feel that u you are not good at it and have to learn more.
As similar in the real cricket life….. Isnt it ??
Great Game Ever:its better than Ashes,Brianlara,and EA
its Game play is Good just like Real
keep it up all of makers
gameplay:10/10
graphics:7/10
@ Azfar u r absolutely rite bro…thanks for the precious comment.
its good game.i like it,rating 9 out of 10
i would rate it 7.5/10.
A real nice game.
@ HMOS Dont be jeleous of my intellect :-)
When someone starts a review with this;
“Cricket’s a confusing game at the best of times and utterly mind boggling at the worst, and games based on the sport seem follow the same rule.”
How on earth are we suppose to take him seriously? The moment I read it, I assumed that the author was some baseball playing American. I mean come on! Why would a cricket fan say something like that?
Even an farmer in some remote Indian village understands the sport of cricket pretty well. My mom (a housewife) who has never touched a cricket ball or picked up a cricket bat in her life, doesn’t find the sport confusing. She loves watching it and understands every aspect of it. In fact its the only sport she understands well (because she is a fan). A fan of any sport will never say something like that about the sport s/he loves.
The only people who say such things about the game of cricket are those who don’t like it or are not very familiar with it (hence confusing).
Even when I am introducing cricket to someone for first time, I will use the word “complicated” instead of “confusing” (as compared to simple games like football). Have you ever heard a pilot of a big passenger jet saying that he finds so many controls and information screens of the cockpit as “confusing”? Will you want such a pilot flying your ride? You get the picture?
So how can such a person judge a video game which is based on a sport that he finds confusing and utterly mind boggling?
And the rest of the review only reflects that core problem. If someone finds the original sport confusing at best, then he sure won’t appreciate any video game that tries to recreate the sport. Only a bad tuned down arcade version of that sport may appeal to him.
Its just basic common sense. You don’t even have to know cricket to understand why this author is not the best person to judge this game or any video game based on cricket for that matter. Regardless of how good or bad that video game is.
I agree with the Reviewer, The game is really crappy at times. the batting controls are horrible. the visual radar is worthless to understand, you at least need to know where u are going to place your shot. Though the bowling controls are pretty good and graphics are more realistic. Overall i would say not a bad job at all. but could improve on batting controls.
Guys commenting on crappy games by EA for Cricket, Don’t forget, anyhow you played those for years till developers like “mindstorm” build these new games.
I have a cricket enthusiast (real-life and video games). Not a single cricket title exists on ANY platform that I haven’t played, and I have to say that “THIS” is one of the best cricket games ever made. Simply because this is ACTUALLY a CRICKET game. Not just a slog-fest game of what usually seems like BASEBALL.
A lot of depth in the gameplay mechanics which is what I appreciate the most. Great job Mindstorm, I am very impressed.
Lewis if it weren’t for racism then there would have atleast been one good thing written about the game infact your favourite reviewer started to hate his favourite game because of this videogame with the opening statements. By they way I live in a country where its cricket everywhere and I’m not really a great fan of cricket but I’ve been a beta tester for this game and I found the controls easy and more interesting than any other cricket games. I think the reviewer is a bit more dumb for what he wrote about the controls.
Wow, lots of umm unwarranted opinions being chucked around in this here comment section. Well here’s my two cents. Having played Brian Lara cricket and EA Sports Cricket games for PS and PC respectively, I can safely say that this game neither deserves a 3 nor does it deserve a 10. For one thing, as should be obvious to anyone and is agreed upon (i think) by everyone is that graphically this game is a bit behind the times. Another thing that is annoying (IMHO) is the sound. The crowd sounds are a bit too repetitive and grate you after a while.
You can say that it was made with a low budget. That’s perfectly alright. But the people who made this game are not looking for charity, they made a commercial game and they’re competing on an International level, its up to them to get up to the mark.
On the other hand, the game is as fun as any other cricket game i’ve played (Stick Cricket included). It may not be very intuitive for some but I at least found the controls to be reasonable. The practice mode was not comprehensive i found but it did teach you enough to be able to hit a shot in the direction you want to.
LAN mode was great, no hitches there. Bowling is fun with enough variety in there to prevent it from being monotonous. There is the option of customising the field positions or using presets. You can create custom teams and play tournaments, etc.
Enough depth to last you longer than a couple of matches.
If I had to rate it 3, I would rate it 3/5, which also translates to 6/10, which also translates to 60/100. Which should be enough to tell you that its not amazing, but its worth a go. Furthermore if you were not a fan of cricket, the sensible thing would be to give it a pass.
Cheers everyone!
PS: BTW, hope you haven’t published the new review guys, my two cents would be seemingly useless if so.
This is what a proper review is suppose to look like:
http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/440193.html
No, I agree with the review, this game absolutely stinks. The batting is terrible and frustrating, the bowling is awful, the presentation is pathetic and the Hi-NRG song on the menu made me turn the sound off straight away. Avoid like the plague
Yep, I have to totally agree with you there Peter. I gave the game more than ebough time to prove itself to me, but I am continually appalled by the batting and bowling complexities. Now before some goose jumps on and says I don’t understand cricket, I have been playing and watching it for over 40 years now, and played just about every cricket game out there, so believe I am a fair judge of the game. Lucky for me I only paid about $30.00 for it, so can uninstall it and move on with life.
What – All of them – all of these, and the one’s I’ve forgotten …
Cricket! by Cases computer simulations, Cricket! by Hewsoft, Cricket by Mastertronic 99p, Cricket by Sledgesoft, Cricket Captain (with red dongle for the Amiga) by Knightsoft, Tim Love’s Cricket, Test Match Cricket (CCS again) Ian Botham’s Cricket, Graham Gooch cricket (Audiogenic), Alan Border Cricket, Calypso Cricket, Howzat, ‘Owzat, 6 ‘n’ Out, The Test Simulator (BBC software), Backyard Cricket (Oz Soft) Graham Gooch Cricket (Amiga and Atari ST -again by Audiogenic but a completely different game) Text Cricket, Pen and Paper cricket, Cricket Simulator (Amiga). Battle for the Ashes, International Cricket, GVU Cricket sim, Willow and Wicket, World cricket 2000,ICC1, ICC2, ICC Ashes edition, ICC 2000, ICC2002, ICC2005 (Ashes edition) , ICC 2006, ICC3, ICC 2008, ICC 2009, Michael Vaughans Cricket, Cricket Coach (the Tresco edition) Cricket coach 2007, Cricket coach 2009, EA cricket ‘96. EA cricket ‘97 (EA’s last decent cricket game), EA cricket ‘99 (world cup edition), EA cricket 2002 (using Codemaster Brian Lara engine) , oh and Brian Lara cricket (Amiga and ST) Brian Lara cricket (PC console – ‘98) Brian Lara 2005, Brian Lara 2007. Ashes cricket 2009, ITC (Dan’s great game, but I lost the serial key for it), Internet cricket, Cricket 3d (Macintosh none intel) 12th man cricket (Billy Birmingham productions)
There are many MANY more. I reckon I have around one hundred and eighty cricket games across perhaps twenty formats (from Sinclair ZX81 through to the latest PC games)
Add you’ve played them all have you? Guess what. I don’t believe you.
I picked up bowling at about the third ball. Can’t see how it’s harder than batting. (according to the reviewer) I found it dead easy.
But batting! WoW, i’ve twice got past the first lesson in the nets for playiong a shot. I press the key, any time and it comes back “no shot offered” The only time he does play a shot it’s when I press it so early that it feels entirely unrealistic (i.e it’s still in the bowlers hand)
Bowling mechanic seems great. Easily the best and most intuitive i’ve used.
Batting?? I really have no idea. Does timing matter at all? It seems not.
this game is good,
but difficulty level of easy is not that is too play,
parten of playing criket 2007 is very easy to play,play a shots
fielding is too slow,fielder throws the ball very slow to the keeper or fielder…
the game is very slow…& shots through off side is very hard to play..
The reviewer has criticize the game play unfairly as it deserve appreciation because it has brought more realistic sense in game by giving so many varieties of batting and bowling so I must say that this game has got best game play better then Cricket and Lara…but I must say in terms of other options like their is no commentary in that game and graphics is not very clear compare to other cricket games launched at the same time and also sound of crowd and other game sound are irritating while reply problem is their like when ever third empire is asked they dont offer reply of that shot instead just a big screen on the ground and just decision no reply of it so that it could be easily understand so they should work in this but no doubt developer has done a great job as coming from no where launch something like that is something that they deserve credit for…I think they should launch another game very soon because their game is in market and other developers would bring changes by looking at this game in their game play and take their advantage from them so this was a very good game and deserve 6-7 at least due to its some lacking as have been mentioned…Looking forward for next version of it and expecting they improve graphics and other things in their next version and also made their game play much better by bringing something new to it…
I just saw this game on steam, I am glad I read the comments below the review, I was just going to disregard the game after reading the review. But having read some of the comments I am going to buy it, I found ashes, brian lara etc very easy , much to simple to properly simulate cricket but fun. Probally the best was the first Brian lara on the ps1. Anyway to read the comments that this is possably one of the best in a realistic sence is enough to make me want to buy this . Espeacally as I just go the new international cricket for the xbox today and half way through my first game I got the red ring of death, I need to play some cricket :D