Cricket Revolution

Cricket Revolution is a cricket simulation videogame with emphasis on the multiplayer component.

Gameplay

Cricket Revolution focuses on statistics-based online multiplayer through LAN or over the internet. This gives the player access to various competitive and community events. There are player chat rooms available too. There is also an offline component available. All player data, statistics, match winning innings and data are tracked and stored. There are various ranking systems and leaderboards that keep record of the tracked data. There are leaderboards for batting, hattricks, matches won, top match performance, game winning innings and more. There are so many achievements and awards to compete for. You can compete against your friends and other people from all over the world through the in-game competitions. There is also a spectator mode that allow you to spectate matches.

The statistics tracking is really extensive. Every century scored, run and wicket taken is tracked and analyzed. You can compare your performances and see areas that you need to improve on. You can go back to old matches to check scores and stats.

Though Cricket Revolution focuses on online multiplayer, the offline singleplayer is good enough. You can play offline exhibition matches, tournaments and leagues. The matches can be played under different match settings. There are ten international teams and 114 non-international teams. The game’s AI is developed and it learns from your moves in each match. There is also a practice mode where you can finesse your bowling and batting.

Cricket Revolution features realistic gameplay with over 30 batting shots available. The type of shot taken depends on the keyboard combination used. The batting shot also depends on the ability, state and level of the batsman.

There is a bowling gadget in the game that takes your bowling gameplay to the next level. The controls for the bowling gadget are easy and you focus on tricking your opponent rather than fiddling with controls. You can control the swing, seam movement, turn and speed of your bowling.

The gameplay is simple and yet frustrating at the same time. There is a steep learning curve involved. The AI plays impossibly deft shots that is hard for you to match and make impossible moves. The steep learning curve could put off players that are playing the game for the first time.

There are various animations after each shot taken and the audience cheer you on with decent sounds. Games can be played during the day or at night. There are various team and match customization settings. The game graphics are rather mediocre.

Pros

• Multiplayer-based cricket
• Competitive gameplay
• It’s currently cheap to buy

Cons

• The game isn’t updated anymore
• Poor graphics and presentation
• Cheating by some players
• There is no commentary

Certain Sports Are tough to recreate in the "interactive digital medium", cricket and rugby seemingly being the most difficult to pull off. Yet this effort is one of the best attempts we've ;'o seen, despite it looking -- W rougher than a man in a sandpaper leotard.

What it does is come close to capturing the physical nature of the game of cricket, at least in terms of how the ball reacts off the bat - the one thing nobody has ever yet managed in a cricket game. It's not perfect, but genuine edged shots do actually occur, and not just in a really forced, fake manner as is the case in other games.

Anyway, it's easy enough to get the basics of cricket right - press buttons at the right time to initiate a shot, move a target around and assign swing and seam to deliveries and so on. Cricket Revolution has great potential, if it can find enough fans of the sport willing to pay the relatively budget price. It's got Steam achievements, a web community element, stat tracking and all that sort of thing. It also has challenging-yet-playable game mechanics holding everything together. Batting is a matter of tapping key combinations to initiate a stroke.

For example, a dab of the down arrow key makes your batsman play a forward defensive shot, while doubletapping the right arrow tries a hook. Hit down then left and a cover drive is done. Lofted shots and gentle pushes can be achieved using modifiers (Shift, Ctrl and Alt) to make the list of potential shots available as comprehensive as you've ever seen in a cricket game.

Gully And Slips

Bowling is more traditional and less fun. The aiming circle is far too twitchy, but at least it means a human opponent won't just be nailing your batsman with pinpoint deliveries for the whole match. The online play is where the game will stand or fall. Numbers aren't huge at the moment, but if you can manage to find others around the same skill level as you - rather than those of immense ability who'll club you out of the ground with each ball - then you should have a great time, as the underlying mechanics are solid. However, it's inevitable that some bastards will find exploits and use them to grind out win after win. If Mindstorm can deal with this, as and when it happens, they could have a sleeper hit on their hands. If only it didn't look like such a dog's dinner.