Matchpoint - Tennis Championship | Tried
Tennis is one of these sports, which experiences great moments exposure due to the most important tournaments and then returning behind the scenes of the sports magazines not being able to enjoy always active championships and constant visibility. Despite this, in the past, some titles have managed to achieve a truly sensational success, establishing themselves among the best sports titles ever: Virtua Tennis and Top Spin are historical names of an era that no longer exists, which was followed by a a period that saw so many pretenders to the throne for the best digital racket appear. We do not know if Matchpoint - Tennis Championship will be able to aspire to that much, but at least we can tell you what it was like to warm your hands on the Torus Games title.
Let's warm up the muscles and put on the cuffs.
Il The initial tutorial is simple and concise, designed to illustrate as clearly as possible which shots are available and how to use them, to help even newbies to the genre to get in tune with the mechanics. However, this is not an overly soft approach: Matchpoint - Tennis Championship aims to create gameplay built on "Tactical Realism", radically changing the way we play compared to what we have been used to until now.
| } In fact, if in the past it was almost mandatory that the player's movement and the aim of the shot were linked to the same command, challenging the player to find the right time to place himself on the court and aim correctly, in this case instead we are offered a tennis in dual analog style, in which we deal separately with our avatar and the direction of the shots, each associated with the sticks of the gamepad.
The control of the tennis player is already intriguing in itself, because while showing a sort of support in the management of the movement towards the point of impact, it makes one perceive a certain weight in the movement, making intuition work intensely to begin to understand which is the right position to occupy and make it easier to change directions.
When we press the button, however, with the right analogue lever we have to move a cursor on the part of the field where we want to send the ball, making sure not to throw it out in the excitement. Therefore, it is not enough to answer in a basic way to send the ball over the net, it is also necessary to aim for the points on the field that can put our opponent in difficulty.
It is a choice that initially it can really put a strain on the muscle memory of the player, who may need a few matches to start mentally separating the player's movement and the aiming of the shot before starting to metabolize the mechanics properly.
Once practiced, things become simpler, thanks to the excellent support for the positioning of the tennis player that allows you to easily reach the required position, while as soon as you press the button we go to touch the lever just enough to cross, aim for the long line or take a risk trying to aim for the corner. After a few matches the mechanics become very natural to handle, even if it never becomes really easy to master - which isn't necessarily bad. If we feel safe, we can also choose to deactivate the indicator on the screen and trust our instincts, perhaps even changing the view on a third person close by. Ready to start a new career?
Who wants to break a few rackets?
We are welcomed by a very functional editor which, however, does not offer many customizations for the player and all in all, it leaves something to be desired for the choice of outfits and overall aesthetics, even in terms of physical characteristics. A bit weak at the beginning in terms of identification, but the center stage is clearly left to gameplay and modalities.This is why to warm up the muscles you are thrown in the middle of the final of the Adelaide Open, during the Tie Break of the fifth set. We didn't struggle to get there, but the pressure is felt. The match is not too demanding, but allows you to get acquainted with the mechanics of "discovery of the weak point" of the opponent, which, following our continuous pressure on a certain shot, can allow us to become aware of what to do in order to have the best on him - note, it also works the other way around, and it may happen that you discover its strengths instead, which is just as useful in setting up the game.
At the beginning of each career, the game generates 499 players who can compete with us, all with parameters, career and competition history. They are equipped with an artificial intelligence that, based on basic game presets focused on the game at the baseline, aggressive at the net or balanced, a la "all rounder", shapes opponents with always different strengths and weaknesses, that you can discover and memorize in the game to know how to face the next challenges.
CPU tennis players are also characterized by a level of personal temperament that can lead them to change their attitude on the pitch depending on the result, for example becoming , following a series of points granted, more aggressive or cautious depending on this parameter. This value can also lead to radical changes in the field, totally modifying the playing styles mentioned above, if the situation requires it.
In the career there is an events calendar that allows you to track all the tournaments in which to participate, depending on our ranking, to gain experience during the first months and then sign up for the first, big tournament when the opportunity arises. By participating in these competitions and training mini-games, you earn skill points and equipment that can increase your player's stats, allowing you to tweak a few points here and there, perhaps wearing shoes that make us faster and more stable.
Numerous virtual coaches are also available, which allow you to work on specific statistics by offering different results even at the level of actual quality depending on their grade. As you progress in your career and increase in successes, new and better coaches will come knocking on our door. We will need all the knowledge and experience possible to get the best of this mode, which allows you to participate in 65 different tournaments, which take place across all continents, and in 29 all different stadiums: the road to rank number 1 of the ranking is long!
Live from the central field ... almost.
On the pitch the overall performance of the graphic system is discreet, almost conservative, and sports a fairly solid framerate, coupled with convincing video cleanup. The video configurations are not so many, but it is easy to file the settings to obtain a marked improvement in fluidity in case of need. At maximum details, however, the game behaves honestly, without overdoing it.The ibdrio motion capture system, which uses movements captured by a professional tennis instructor and player, stands out. lent for the occasion, connecting them in an intelligent way, following the player's commands rather than rigid pre-set sequences, to offer the most realistic and “soft” animations for the occasion. It is a very flexible system, which can be updated by the team simply by adding new animations, letting the algorithms use them on the fly, without further intervention. Excellent for the future, for game updates or any new titles.
Despite the basically aseptic appearance and style, which does not show virtuosity capable of generating enthusiasm before jumping into the field However, Matchpoint - Tennis Championship creates a solid and credible atmosphere, net of the small stumbles in the transitions between game and UI, a little rough. Thanks to the presence of 16 famous tennis players, including legends such as Tim Henman and Tommy Haas who represent the bonus of the "Legends Edition" destined for retail, who can cross their rackets with characters created in their careers, the incentive to carry on the experience will certainly not be lacking for fans of this sport.
Extremely interesting is the choice of Torus Games and Kalypso Media to create a title that would allow cross platform multiplayer, thus allowing owners of PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch to play together over the network, even at great distances, without suffering from lag or other technical problems - at least according to the demonstration. This is a highly appreciated move, which elevates the value of the game to a completely different sphere than traditional titles, having the potential to create a community that is alive, cohesive and considered on the same level regardless of the platform.
We just have to wait for the final version of the game to understand if the small technical uncertainties will be solved or if we will simply aim, as it should be, at the purely simulative aspect to finally recreate a tennis game. 'height . We invite all those who have grown up with the exaggerations of Virtua Tennis to moderate expectations, being a production characterized by a tactical and "heavy" gameplay in a certain sense, while those who over the years have jumped from one game to another in search of realism and tension, he may finally have found the right representation of a discipline that has never been appreciated enough.
To conclude, we remind you that Matchpoint - Tennis Championship will be available on 7 July 2022 for PC and for all consoles of this discipline. generation and the previous one, with a single price of € 39.99 and the arrival on Xbox Game Pass at launch: another move that seems to want to create a fair and shared space for all players, making the game even more attractive. In the meantime, we suggest Steam owners download the demo of the game and try a smaller version firsthand but still sufficient to touch the peculiarities of the peculiar gameplay firsthand.
