Now that they've read the intro – and maybe even the conclusion – those who were wondering if Tennis World Tour could be worse than Big Ant Studios' title (see our AO International Tennis test) finally hold their response. To simplify, the game looks like a vast construction site with foam foundations. Despite the obvious, the developers refused to integrate the timing which, however, is the basis of any tennis game. This is what allows to give angle to the strike, to torture the opponent to force him to open the court, to differentiate the artists from the nags; in short, to give pleasure while offering a certain margin of progress. There, the choice fell solely on the power. Basically, the harder you hit, the more you will cross your strikes and succeed in flirting with the lines. Once you've figured it out, you manage to get nice exchanges but which are only a matter of providence. For example, the guys from Breakpoint assured us that at the end of the day, it would be difficult to load the gauge without sending the ball into the stands. False. On several occasions, we happened to slam a surreal short-crossover by typing like a deaf person while we were picking it up. That's the problem with Tennis World Tour: the mechanics are totally beyond our control, and in an identical hitting situation from one point to another, the result will be different. Wanting too much to make the game unpredictable (to correct, it's true, the Cartesian nature of Top Spin 4), the developers lacked discernment with, in addition, a strawberry physics engine.
We don't even blame Bigben Interactive and Breakpoint who, certainly, were overwhelmed by the communication around the game and the promises it implied. Of course not, Tennis World Tour is in no way a worthy successor to Top Spin 4.
No matter how much they explain to us at the Tennis Academy the existence of three effects (flat, slice, lift) to vary our game, they are not sufficiently marked to put in place a real strategy. Precious to have time to recover, the slice is rather shy in Tennis World Tour, just like the topspin which is supposed to attack the player opposite and push him back to the bottom of the court. Does the rubber have an impact on the bounce of the ball? Not really, and it's not for lack of having chained matches on all surfaces. Here, since we are talking about it, the players are unable to slide on the ocher material, a scandal when you know the importance that it can have on positioning, support, assessment of trajectories, or even anticipation . Instead, we're treated to characters adept at teleportation like in Mario Tennis Aces, except that Nintendo never hinted that its game would be the ultimate tennis simulation. We could also discuss the random management of hitboxes, lag, the lack of rhythm in the exchanges and the questionable inertia. When the players go to the net, it looks like they have a caravan stuck to their buttocks. We have lost count of the number of times we have been trapped by a largely recoverable cushioning, or a very weak ball that comes to die at our feet without us being able to react. Frustrating. Is everything to be thrown away in Tennis World Tour? No, even if it doesn't save him from disaster. The immediate grip makes the game much more intuitive than AO International Tennis, which requires time to adapt.
STATE OF WAWRINKOU
The cast, made up of around XNUMX licensed players (including legends André Agassi and John McEnroe), also helps to make a difference, although there is much to complain about – no Nadal, female players are underrepresented. The double (in any case, the volley is not developed) and the online game being postponed (an update will be deployed), the “Career” is the only drinking mode. As you might expect, the goal is to create your own character and take it to the top of world tennis. Do not expect anything crazy in terms of customization options, Breakpoint having rather done in the basics: impossible to modify in detail the features of our avatar, it will be necessary to be satisfied with predefined faces. That is. Once the administrative tasks have been completed, you can take part in various tournaments and thus earn money (for equipment) and XP points. These are essential to improve the stats of our foal, knowing that there will be no way to only put the package on the service, the forehand, the backhand, or the volley. Indeed – and this is quite fair – the developers assumed that it would be inconsistent for a player to be able to slam atomic serves but be lame on the forehand. They then set up three main archetypes (Attack, Defense, Serve-Volley) which, by spending XP points, will modify several attributes at the same time and not just one. Since we distribute the good points (like what), we will remember the fact that we must pay attention to fatigue so as not to start a competition on the kneecaps, without forgetting the coaches and the agents who also evolve over the years. tournaments.
Graphically? It makes you want to shoot yourself in the head. Today, how can you release a game with such a dated production? The modeling of the athletes insults them, the animation is rusty, and the audience is amorphous.
Finally, the "Career" mode allowed us to familiarize ourselves with the famous card system. Clearly, each player has a deck giving him up to five boosts depending on the course of the game. Some bonuses are triggered when approaching a match point, others when serving, still others when embarked on a tie-break. To maintain a form of balance, the developers have made sure that cards that activate frequently have a lower impact than those that appear more rarely. Too bad the rest does not follow, because it is undoubtedly the most interesting find of Tennis World Tour. Graphically? It makes you want to shoot yourself in the head. Today, how can you release a game with such a dated production? The modeling of the athletes insults them, the animation is rusty, and the audience is amorphous. When you see the stands in the other sports simulations, there are three galaxies apart. Stan Wawrinka? Call him "Stan Wawrinkou" instead. Each face is really freaking out and we escaped the rolling eyes seen in the demo. The courts may be clean (perhaps too clean since you're always looking for footprints on clay), but they still look like huge dormitories. Zero atmosphere, and it is not the soporific and lunar comments of Guy Forget ("He sends these pralines", "He mistreats the ball", "Pfff! How does he manage to be so powerful?") that will change the given.
