Game Review: Cricket Coach 2014

Rockingham Software Ltd., has released the latest edition in their Cricket Coach (CC) franchisee – Cricket Coach 2014. Cricket Coach 2014 is a cricket simulation game, and the amount of depth, various strategies, and game options take the game to a whole new level.

For those unfamiliar with CC, it is a cricket simulation game and has a very strong and unique cult following. It’s what Football Manager is to football. Rockingham Software Ltd., calls CC 2013 as ‘the most detailed cricket game ever’, and they are absolutely right. The game with its improved stats of (almost) every single domestic team out there and various small nations such as Nambia and the in depth career stats of players, both past and present, makes it without doubt the most detailed game in cricket.

New Features

CC 2013 has rolled out plenty of new enhancements to the game, and here we have highlighted a few that we thought were worth mentioning. For starters, as mentioned, the attention to detail is now a characteristic of CC, which is proven by the importance that it gives to the stats of players and country. There are many more squads and many more players added into the database, from Bermuda to Somerset seconds, and the comprehensive data makes this game a mouth watering delight for cricket fans who are obsessed with numbers and figures.

Also, there is an improved game machine that makes the game simulation extremely realistic. Furthermore, the variations in the ground sizes and improved UI 2D representations for the day/night matches add a new dimension to the game. The graphics continues to be 2D, and International Cricket Captain 2013 is ahead in this segment, but the 2D graphics is not much of a downer. It’s actually been vastly improved from the previous edition.

There are more strategies and tactical options available now. An enhanced assistant manager helps in picking teams and makes the selection process straight forward. Likewise there are new options for the batsmen such as ‘keep strike’, ‘go bonkers’ and ‘hit and run’. The scheduling is now more complex and has more details. Scheduling a new tour/series, etc., is now easily adaptable into the calendar..

Some simple things such as improved save options are a good welcome. Adding to all these, the option to export all your matches as an HTML Almanac (example) is something that makes the stats resemble the Cricinfo or Wisden site.

There are many more new features and you can find the rest here.

Positives

• With CC, the biggest plus is the stats.
• More teams, more players and more fun.
• Better match engine that gives a realistic simulation.
• Features such as different ground sizes, strategy options, etc.

Negatives

• The 2D graphics
• Learning curve is quite steep (but that comes with the sport management genre, one would think)
• Too much details in a sense that the game can get a little overwhelming at times

Score - 4.5/5

Our take – We believe that with so many new enhancements and features, CC 2014 is, without doubt, the most comprehensive simulation game out there for cricket. We were surprised by it all. With CC 2014, CC have taken a giant leap forward. For cricket fans all over, there’s no better way to kill time than this.

You can download the 2 day demo and try out the game before buying it [download link].