Cricket 24 review: A swing and a miss

Modified Nov 13, 2023 12:00 GMT

Cricket 24 remains a swing and a miss (Image via Big Ant Studios) — Cricket 24 remains a swing and a miss. (Image via Big Ant Studios)

Cricket 24 is the latest offering from Big Ant Studios, providing the sport's fans to get hands-on with the action. While the game consists of detailed bowling and batting mechanics that will allow you to add your own flair and style, the core gameplay is more or less indistinguishable from Cricket 22. This is one of the most common complaints that players have regarding the new title.

But it's not all gloom and doom, of course. We have a variety of new licenses to play around with, including the likes of Indian Premier League (IPL) teams. Do these make a strong enough case for players to pick up Cricket 24? That's what I will strive to answer.

Cricket 24 leaves much to be desired despite its positives

Before diving into the issues and fallacies that I faced during my time in Cricket 24, I will go over the things I liked and enjoyed. Being an Indian, I must admit that, stereotypically, I have a soft spot for the sport. I have many fond memories of playing with my friends growing up, be it on fields or streets. Thus, when I got the chance to dive into Cricket 24, I couldn't wait.

If you have played Cricket 22, the latest offering will not pose any problem gameplay-wise. I hadn't, so I had to tinker and figure it out during the first few sessions in the nets. The variety of options in both bowling and batting did impress me.

The game provides you with the option to adjust the difficulty to best suit your prowess. The delivery types allowed me to test out the batsmen as I would have in real life. It was sheer joy to float a 'doosra' and make the batsmen attempt a shot, only to nick it to someone in the slip.

Cricket 24's gameplay is its redeeming factor, at least when it is working. There are still quite a few drawbacks, especially some that are immersion-breaking. Plenty of times, fielders refused to pick up the ball and throw it back, leaving me to complete dozens of runs by running between the wickets.

The only option then was to quit and re-load the game. Fielding isn't one of the strong suits of Cricket 24, with AI often standing dumbfounded and then making a late movement. Later on, I found out that similar issues also existed in Cricket 22. Furthermore, fielders will always hit the wicket if there's an attempt to take a run.

Other times, I would see while batting the ball glitch from its path and appear in the next frame inexplicably somewhere else. This would become particularly infuriating when those deliveries ended up taking my wicket.

Another major immersion-breaking point in-game is its commentary. As any sports fan would tell you, commentary adds to the overall enjoyment of the game if you are playing or watching the sport on the big screen. Be it Harsha Bhogle, Peter Drury, or Martin Tyler, their words often end up immortalizing the sport.

Cricket 24's commentating leaves much to be desired. They are often out-of-sync with whatever is happening on-screen. You can hit a boundary and still be chastised for making a poor shot selection. You may hear them declaring a match one-sided even if the reality is starkly opposite.

Given that it has quite a few modes to tinker around with, I spent quite a long time in the Career Mode. While it is fun making a single player grow through the ranks, the mode still lacks depth and doesn't have enough side activities to keep me hooked.

Big Ant Studios' focus on licensing is quite clear, with a large roster of teams and players being available and their likeness evident. The biggest draw during the promotional period of the game was the first-ever inclusion of professional Indian T20 teams, though not all of them.

Inexplicably, the Indian national team is not licensed, and random names and faces make up one of the strongest outfits in the world of cricket currently. Similar cases can be seen for many other teams and players, too. This isn't a major concern, nevertheless, as the community will surely add them with time.

In Conclusion

While Big Ant Studios focused squarely on licensing and the Ashes, maybe the developers could have spent more time tweaking and improving the gameplay. Plenty of complaints that have been there for the past few years still remain, like the lack of pitch degradation as the match progresses.

The gameplay does provide a variety of options and responses, but the fielding issues and AI antics often leave you annoyed. The commentators' gaffe from time to time only makes the matter worse. The developers will likely patch many of these issues out over the next few months.

For now, Cricket 24 is not a must-pick title, especially for those who already own Cricket 22.