Overview

Play as one of the 31 best tennis players in the world: Roger Federer, Angelique Kerber, Stan Wawrinka and many of the sport legends. Veteran players or rising stars, baseline defenders or serve & volley players: all playing styles are represented in Tennis World Tour to guarantee an even more immersive experience. Using motion capture technology, all tennis movements are perfectly represented on all types of courts. The different surfaces affect your style of play and each tennis player has their favorite. Adapt to the surface to claim victory!

 

Well, that’s what the official blurb says, this is the review where you’ll get to read the truth, so do I think this game is game set and match or just a load of old balls? Let’s get into it and tell you the score.

Now when I first got this game I was open-minded, to say the least, I’m not the biggest tennis fan but I like most sports and I can tell my Federer from my Djokovic and to be fair, all the other tennis games I have played in the past have normally been fun to play.

 

 

Published by: Bigben Interactive

Developed by: Breakpoint

Available on: PS4, Xbox One (out now), PC (June 12th) and Nintendo Switch (June 19th) – Reviewed on PS4 – both Standard and Legends Editions Available.

Price: Standard £49.99

Legends Edition £64.99

 

 

Gameplay

As soon as I loaded the game up, it gave me an impressive menu with a good selection of the normal modes:

• Tennis Academy (tutorial)
• Career
• Exhibition – single match or local tournament
• Online matches
• My player (player creation)

It is advisable (if like me, you are a bit of a novice of the tennis world) that you take a look at the Tennis Academy to get yourself acquainted with the controls and the move sets of your player, otherwise you will find it harder to progress through career mode. Once you feel like you can at least hold the racket, off you go. I jumped in with an exhibition match (2 players) couch co-op style with my son so we could both master our techniques before we tackled the game. We both found this to be great fun and enjoyable which I found somewhat surprising as the game seems like more of a simulation rather than an arcade title. After a few games we started to get a few wins each under our belts, I felt now would be a good time to tackle the career mode.

Starting the career you have the option to create your player, you start with 10 preset faces to choose from, you have the choice of outfits and trainers (all essential life choices). Here you can also customize different parts of your technique to ensure the gameplay is reactive to every move. I can honestly say that I have never come across a career mode as in-depth as this, you have to take part in training drills to increase certain skills and you decide which ones to do that will benefit you most. You then have exhibition matches or tournaments you can enter if you feel ready, but this isn’t a game you can blast through career mode and smash in a day, you actually have to think about your actions, you have to take rest days at certain points in the career (normally after a grueling tournament) otherwise you will find yourself getting fatigued quickly and will get nowhere fast in the game. The correct balance of training, competitions and rest is key to success here; your choices are crucial and will be the test of whether you hit the top or stay rooted to the bottom. Career mode isn’t something you can just pick up and play, you can save and come back to the game at another time but it is something that pulls your concentration so needs attention.

The online mode unfortunately at time of review is still being developed so I wasn’t able to try out an online game but from reading the developers notes the online mode is on its way in the free patch coming soon along with doubles mode, that really is the only let down and quite strange how they release a game when quite a big part of it is unfinished or not ready, but I am patient enough to wait.

Graphics

The graphics of the game are impressive and although the arenas aren’t licensed they are very well imagined and enjoyable to play in. The players are realistically portrayed and you can tell who is who at a glance straight away, the licenses they do have with the characters are put to well use. All the outfits are licensed with sportswear heavyweights such as Nike available to use, if you get your hands on the Legends Edition, you will get your hands on iconic outfits from Andre Agassi and John McEnroe for you to use for your character. If you are after a smooth looking and playing game, you will not be disappointed here.

Sound

The sound of the game is okay, what I mean by that is the music is good throughout the game but the in-game crowd noise and commentary is a bit wooden and can start to become slightly annoying.

Verdict

To wrap up, I truly like this game and to be honest has got me into watching tennis on TV as well; I like the feel of the game and how a complete novice (to tennis, not gaming) and my 8 year old son can pick up the game and be able to play an enjoyable game straight off the bat (or racket!).

On the flipside, it has a simulation style career mode where you can lose yourself for hours. It’s definitely a game worth picking up. Yes, it’s not completely finished and it has had a bit of a battering online, but make your own minds up as when the patch is released to fix the lack of multiplayer and the doubles, it has also been promised more characters so maybe Nadal or Djokovic may make an appearance soon.