‘Tis the IPL season. The season where almost the whole country is glued to either their phones or their TV screens in support of one or the other teams that are playing this T20 tournament. Cricket fever is always at a high at such a time. But, what about us gamer types? We’re too lazy to go out and play, right?
With the release of Cricket 19, the latest Cricket offering from Big Ant imminent, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit the game that started it all, and why even after years of its release, its still an underground cult classic among gamers who love Cricket.
Fear not, my dear, for I bring to you a gem from 2014 that might have slipped past your radar. After EA Sports stopped making cricket games after Cricket 07, there’s been a dearth of good cricket games. Then, from out of nowhere, Aussie developer Big Ant Studios released Don Bradman Cricket 14. How is the game? Does it hold up to 2018 standards? Let’s find out in the first article in a series that brings you the cult classics of yesteryear, games that are not old enough to be retro, but still not new enough to be in people’s wishlists. Fair warning: There will be comparisons to EA Sports’ Cricket 07
Graphics, Sounds and Performance
While the graphics aren’t anything to write home about, they’re passable. They are sometimes stiff and janky looking, but they don’t detract from the gameplay experience. There’s no aliasing, and the characters, bat, ball and stumps look crisp and clear.
The animations are slick as well, be it bowling or batting. You can see by the hand movement whether the ball is fast or slow, and whether you’ve timed your shot or not. Yes, the animations are a bit rough around the edges at times. There are times when the fielders dive for no reason whatsoever and miss an easy fielding opportunity, or glitch-teleport a few feet. This isn’t game breaking, however, and it’s likely that you won’t even notice them.
The sound design in this game is brilliant. Every flick of the bat, every bounce of the ball, every scream from the players and the crowd, it gives you the feeling that you’re right there, in the middle of the field, playing a good game of cricket. The audio has come a long way from 2007, and it shows. The menu music is a treat as well.
The commentary is slightly more varied than Cricket 07 and is completely in an Aussie accent. Yes, the commentary does get repetitive, but this has never been annoying. It’s a limitation of games that you’ll just have to deal with since they don’t really have the ability to generate sentences on the fly. Personally, it’s always fun to imitate the commentator when you’ve smashed a perfect six, or clean bowled a batsman.
Coming to the performance, this game has weird issues with hexacore processors, in that it randomly crashes. A lot. Every time you feel the game is going GREAT, the game crashes. Fortunately, this is just a mild annoyance as the fix is pretty simple: Just set the program to not use more than 4 threads in the task manager, and you’re golden. There are a couple of other minor annoyances such as the score being reset to 0/0 if you save and reload, but that’s fixed after a ball is bowled.
Gameplay and controls
The game needs a controller, unlike the cricket games of yore. It’s literally unplayable without one. I thought this would suck, but a controller gives the much-needed range of controls that isn’t exactly achievable with digital keyboard keys.
For example, while bowling, the left stick selects the delivery type; A, Y or B decide the length of the delivery and finally (for fast/medium bowlers), the right stick is pulled back and pushed front as the jump and release action. The line of the delivery is decided by the final position of the right stick.
The bowling can be a lot more finely controlled than Cricket 07, which had a circular indicator as to where the ball would go. I prefer the line/length system as it makes bowling a challenge.
As for batting, the left stick decides the foot placement, and the right stick the power and direction of the shot/stroke. You still get the same Loft/Advance control and an aggressive grounded shot mode. You also get an “unconventional” shot mode, where you can pull off some amazing sweeps or hell, even a Dil Scoop and whap the ball over the wicket keeper’s head.
The fielding controls are responsive as well, with the ability to throw at either end and aim for either the stumps or the player standing next to them. This gives the ability to score direct hits if your fielder is good enough, but it also brings out the frustration of aiming for the stumps, barely missing, then having to wait while the nearest player runs behind the ball to catch it.
Gamemodes
The game has a variety of game modes, including a FIFA-esqe “Build your player” career mode, where you start as a young 16/18/21-year-old rookie in an English or Australian county club, as a batsman, bowler or all-rounder. You have to prove your mettle before you get selected into other squads, such as the IPL or the national squad of the player’s country. You can set the difficulty to progressively increase as the game progresses, or set it to a constant value. Be that as it may, international matches are just a bit more difficult than club matches, which is a nice touch. Play well enough, and you might just be installed the team captain, which means you get to select who will be the next bowler or batsman. You can even simulate your career player if you prefer not to watch the AI play.
There are casual matches that can be played single player, or with up to 3 other players in co-op. These are pretty self-explanatory: One-off matches based on the conditions you set.
Then there are custom tournaments in which you can set up the type of tournament, and pick a team to play as. You can even play all the matches in the tournament as one or the other team. This entire mode can be played in 4 player co-op. The game also includes a few tours (either historical or custom) that you can play.
There’s also an online mode, where you can play either casually or a tournament. The best part is, the combination of players in local + internet co-op doesn’t matter.
The rest of the game
The biggest obvious issue that you notice the moment you launch the game is the licensing. There are effectively ZERO licensed players or stadiums in the game. But don’t let that detract you from getting the game. There’s an in-game player editor, where you can alter all the details of players, teams, and stadiums. These can be shared online. Now, since it’s been over 4 years that the game launched, people from all over the world have contributed to the players, and you can just click on “Update all teams to best versions” to get the highest rated and most used teams in the game, full with (almost) real faces, names and stats.
TL;DR
At ₹499, Don Bradman Cricket 14 is a great way to pass the time, especially if you have a brother or sister or friend who’s a cricket fan as well. There’s endless fun to be had from the various modes of cricket, be it the drawn out 5-day test match, or a quick 5 over stint for those 15-minute study breaks. Give the game a shot (pun intended). Who knows, you might even lead your favorite team to victory, and then proclaim EE SALA CUP NAMDE!!