Cricket 22 review: A straight six or a massive miss?

Cricket 22 is the latest sports video game iteration developed by Big Ant Studios and published by Nacon. It is a direct sequel to 2019’s Cricket 19 and features matches from the 2021-2022 Ashes Series (a Test cricket series played between England and Australia). The developers are also famous for releasing “Big Bash” cricket games across multiple platforms like PlayStation and mobile devices.

Cricket is one of the world’s most famous sporting events, which started with England and all commonwealth countries. Its history goes back to the late 16th century with a south-east England origination and is now the country's national sport. It’s a game where two teams take part, having eleven players each. The game is played on and around a 22-yard long pitch, and its main components constitute a bat and a ball. Cricket is the second most popular sport, coming just after football.

Cricket 22 brings a lot of changes in comparison to Cricket 19. The changes include improved bowling and fielding controls, men’s and women’s editions of the Big Bash League, arcade-style gameplay, and more.

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Cricket 22 review: A good overall cricketing experience

Gameplay

The gameplay in Cricket 22 improvised on what Cricket 19 used to be. The developers have overhauled the bowling and fielding mechanism by introducing arcade-style gameplay with a new after-touch system. This helps the player control the ball's direction after it is bowled. The game is approached with a more realistic feel using this system, simulating real-life conditions while bowling.

Swing bowlers in real life utilize the direction of the wind while bowling to induce more movement or “swing” effect on the ball. This confuses the batsman to play a risky shot, ultimately bowling them out. The after-touch system simulates this particular experience.

Apart from this, implementing the new “Direct-hit” system in Cricket 22 was much needed. Players these days have become very fit for what they used to be a few years back. As a result, their fielding has improved, which has indirectly aided in more direct hits on stumps. This new fielding mechanic successfully manages to mimic its real-life counterpart.

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Licensing

Cricket 22 has managed to both impress and disappoint fans from different regions of the world. For the very first time, they have included men’s and women’s editions of the Big Bash League. Apart from that, the T20 World Championships, the Caribbean Premier League, and The Hundred have also been included in the new game. The Hundred is a 100-ball cricket tournament involving eight men's and eight women's teams across major cities from England and Wales. This addition did make the fans of the Australian and British regions happy.

Cricket 22 include multiple new tournaments and leagues (Image by Big Ant Studios)

However, some Indian fans were disappointed after the world-famous Indian Premier League (IPL) failed to debut with Cricket 22. IPL is one of those tournaments that includes too many sponsors, money, and restrictions. So it’s understandable upon the exclusion of this prestigious event from the game. It might be included in future versions of the game, but at this moment, the reader’s guess is as good as the writer’s. The player names of the unlicensed teams are not as bad as they used to be in Cricket 07!

Apart from these limited-overs tournaments, the game also holds the official license of the Ashes series. It is one of the oldest and most iconic series in the world and has been portrayed beautifully in Cricket 22.

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Tutorials

Tutorials in Cricket 22 have been very informative. Every aspect of batting and bowling was explained properly and was done in multiple routines. This helped me get used to the new mechanics of the game and made the Career mode even more enjoyable. Players who pre-ordered the game could test the game using the Net Challenge feature.

Batting net practise (Screenshot from Cricket 22)

Net practices in the game helped improve and get familiarized with batting and bowling features like footwork, timing, shot choice, inswing, outswing, cutters, spin bowling, and more in Cricket 22. Artificial Intelligence of the game has various difficulty settings to set up with, favoring both veterans and newcomers. Experts may easily notch the bar up and challenge themselves, while new players may take their sweet time to get to the remodeled mechanism of the game.

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A fun Career mode

Sports games without career modes feel incomplete. Cricket 22 also features a Career mode similar to FIFA 22, NBA 2k22, and other games from the same genre and greatly improves its previous installment. This time, it focuses more on narration with the characters who will guide the player to glory. Players need to select a manager from the outset, customize their character, and then start training.

As the player progresses with the character’s career, they attend press conferences which are necessary as it helps to enhance the relationship with the media. This can sometimes be controversial, and the media reporters tend to go out of their lines and ask irrelevant questions. The experience in-game, to some extent, imitates real-life scenarios with these press conferences.

Gyms in Career mode (Screenshot from Cricket 22)

Apart from this, doctors and physios take care of the players with injuries, trainers, and coaches for expert guidance. This mode also ensures that the players build their fanbase and keep their sponsors happy by doing what they need to do. Players can also practice at the nets or hit up the gym, partaking in mini-games, increasing their overall strength and stamina. The overall experience portrays what an actual cricketer goes through in his lifetime.

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New tournaments and commentary

Cricket 22 has added new tournaments and leagues, turning up the fun factor for the players. These events will attract new and more regional fans for their familiarity with the events. The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and The Hundred have been added this year.

The former is a classic T20 tournament featuring all six franchises, while the latter is a 100-ball per innings eight-team tournament based in England and Wales. The exclusion of the Indian Premier League (IPL) was a disappointment indeed. These tournaments allow players to experience the emotions, challenges, and adrenaline rush right in their palms as the game is best enjoyed with a controller.

Caribbean Premier League has been added to Cricket 22 (Image via CPL)

Commentary, however, was a letdown. It did improve with respect to previous installments but did not feel as immersive and real when compared to real-life live commentary. Analysis before matches is in-depth, depicting the conditions of pitches and anticipation of scores. Tosses are again done with the traditional Big Ant Studios coins and are pretty accurate.

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Graphics and Ray Tracing Support

Big Ant Studios attempted to make Cricket 22 the most visually appealing game of all time but did not quite succeed. Yes, the visuals did make a leap compared to the previous installments, but it’s not something extraordinary, especially when compared with other sports games.

The game includes ray tracing support and faster loading times. Players have reported that the Xbox Series X managed to run the game at 4k Ultra HD with 60+ frames per second and HDR10. The PlayStation5 version can also match the results since its configuration matches the horsepower of PCs and the latest Xbox Series X.

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Performance of Cricket 22

The Cricket 22 press copy provided by Big Ant Studios was played on the following configuration systems:

• CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
• GPU: GTX 1060 6GB
• RAM: 16 GB
• Resolution: 1920 x 1080
• Preset: High
• Framerates: around 60-80 fps

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Conclusion

Rating of Cricket 22 by Sportskeeda

Cricket 22 is undoubtedly the most modern-looking cricket game to have been made yet. It has all the varieties that modern cricket offers, maintaining the production values and accuracy of player models with their real-life counterparts. But when compared with esports giants like EA and 2K, the lack of quality is visible.

Overall, the game provides a good cricketing experience if someone specifically looks for it. The controls are good, and the tutorials make the Career mode worth playing. Even if the game is unpolished, it does manage to get the basics right.

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Cricket 22

Reviewed on: PC (code provided by Big Ant Studios)

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch

Developer: Big Ant Studios

Publisher: Nacon

Release: December 2, 2021 and January 2022 (Nintendo Switch)