Don Bradman Cricket – Review

Sir Donald Bradman, or “The Don” to his fans, is widely regarded as one of the best batsmen of all time so it only seems fair to extend his legacy by releasing a game in his name. Don Bradman Cricket aims to be the go to cricket game on consoles, especially after the burial of its only recent competition; the bug infested Ashes Cricket 2013. With a decent amount of sporting experience in their locker, can developers Big Ant Studios make sure the only bugs here are in their company name?

Surely this will be just another cricket game that offers a competition to enter and a few specially chosen tours to fit the Australian who lent his name, right? Not at all. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many options offered in any of the previous video game incarnations of the sport combined. Although I’m a rare watcher of cricket, I have played every cricketing console release for many years which makes that a claim not to be ignored.

The career mode is clearly the most anticipated inclusion though as it’s something that’s a first in my experience. Having the ability to take your own player from a youngster, in this case playing for my home county Lancashire, through to becoming an international cricket star across twenty years is music to my ears. There’s finally a mode that will keep me playing a game like this for longer than a few weeks.

Taking on the role as either a batsman, a bowler or an all-rounder, only playing well will improve your abilities and I’d say that’s a good thing as you grow with your guy. If you’re smashing shots on your front foot often then that’ll become the strongest skill in your proverbial bag of shots. Likewise taking wickets with certain delivery types will increase abilities for off cutters and seams etc.

It can begin to feel like a chore though, especially if you’ve gone down any path other than bowler because it means the majority of time during the innings you’ll be fielding, and if my playtime was anything to go by you could see the ball as little as ten times in fifty overs. Sure you can simulate to when you’re the focus with the bat or it’s your turn to bowl but then you might miss out on a catching opportunity. At least that option is there, even though the purists will no doubt be happy standing in a field wishing time away.

Career is certainly the meat of Don Bradman Cricket and although it could have been executed with a bit more depth to player abilities, it’s is a decent mode to build on if they make another in the series. And so that takes us to the rest of the modes, it would take an unnecessary amount of time to go over every single option but for those wanting to control an entire team there are Tours and Competitions aplenty.

Some of the Tours included are England touring Australia in 2013/2014 where they compete across test matches, ODIs and even T20. It’s not just limited to those teams; expect to see tours for South Africa, Zimbabwe and the mighty Bangladesh (too soon?). Whereas if you want to add a bit more variation to proceedings, then Competitions brings world cups, leagues and knockouts to the table. Should that not be enough they’ve allowed you the option to create your own!

Speaking of creation, the Don Bradman Academy is where all of it happens and when you want to add your own spin to a match type or tweak the look of a player this is the place to be. You might not believe this but in reality it’s the most important part of adding any authenticity to the game. Due to the lack of licenses there’s the old problem of having players with the wrong names and them not looking very accurate. Kudos to Big Ant Studios for using their smarts to find a workaround where we, the community, can edit and share our teams, thus those creative players with too much time on their hands have recreated teams accurately for everyone to use.

As always with sports titles, it doesn’t really matter which modes are available if the gameplay isn’t up to scratch. The batting is edging towards the good kind of realism with plenty of angles to swing the bat at and timing being a key factor in connecting with the ball. The omission of a hugely important on-screen radar generally means you run blind even on the widest camera angles, an unnecessary mistake that has big repercussions on the field.

But it’s the bowling that takes things up a notch, offering length types, bowl types and then having to time the jump and release of the throw to make for varied bowling.

The difficulty level can be changed but I think they’ve messed up a bit here because when starting on the lowest one, Amateur, the opposition were still hitting great shots, bowling really well and taking world class catches. Their stubbornness on the bat also made bowling a real pain at times, against players at the tail end of the order every type of throw possible wouldn’t put them off. When it did eventually let you have a wicket it felt a bit flukey which slowly but surely has turned my excitement to play into pure dread at bowling.

Beating, or attempt to beat, the A.I. is one thing, but it’s a whole different thing to take on a human which is where the online can come in handy if you’ve got no friends to join you locally. Do you remember me mentioning this game having bugs? No me neither because until I ventured online there was only ever one weird incident that could be considered a bit. Once online it’s a bit of a mess when you eventually find an opponent. I’m not just talking tiny bugs; I mean runs not counting, balls teleporting from fielder to wicket in an instant and players making the strangest of movements.

Believe me when I say that put a huge downer on the whole experience; the online has lots of match types to play but even a quick FIVE5 match was unbearable. They might as well have not included it as there are no redeeming qualities to a buggy mode.

What initially started out as feeling like the best cricket game I’ve ever played has slowly shown its true face over time and turned into one that I can take or leave. Where Big Ant Studios have excelled is in the creation side meaning gamers can add to the small amount of teams in the game and create new competitions to compete in. However If you don’t really enjoy the gameplay then all of that becomes rather useless doesn’t it?

Don Bradman Cricket tries to be realistic but I think they’ve gone beyond the amount needed to still be enjoyable. Not a bad game, it just requires patience and a whole lot of skill…