If you are looking for a realistic tennis game, Matchpoint: Tennis Championships is a game that you should keep a close eye on

There are great examples of tennis games like Mario Tennis Acesto name a few, but not even games like ao tennis, who sought realism, succeeded in bringing the sport into the virtual world. Match point: The tennis leagues want to cover this gap with a proposal focus on playing And in faithfully recreating everything that happens in a tennis match.

I discovered the game a few months ago, at the recent Steam Next Fest, and it left a very good taste in my mouth there, so I jumped into this beta excited to see if the game is headed in the right direction. The creators of Matchpoint are tennis fans, they told us in an online meeting with the press, and are clear about the aspects of the game they have to focus on to make it happen. More realistic experience. To do this, of course, give us the address Many must-have features: different ball strokes with the racket (top spins, flats, balls, cuts, falling shots …), animations that allow us to perform parallels, backhands or any other stroke, the possibility of placing the ball anywhere we really want and the pitch of the different surfaces that affect on the movement of the ball. These are four items that I consider essential to be able to have them feeling in control About the match and thinks of Matchpoint like me. But did he succeed?

It came to my attention that one of the developers explained in our meeting that tennis video games often make the player look at their own court, at their character, when it is desirable to focus on them Look at the opponent’s path. I pretty much agree with that statement and the match point solves the problem in a great way, because the mechanic makes our successes more very accurate.

When preparing to hit the ball, a small black cue appears in the opponent’s field and we can move it with the left stick. Basically, this way we choose where We want to direct The ball is after our racket. It would be better if we could fill in a circuit that loads every time we hit the pushbutton, because as I mentioned before, the hits should be ready. When the opponent hits the ball and returns it to us, we can start to hit it with more power and accuracy.

The fact that we can see into the opponent’s court where we can send the ball makes the movement unfold always in the distancePlan shots and try to control the game. That, yes, sometimes we might lose our player position on our side of the field if the rally takes too long, but in general the sight and our reactions get used to playing looking at the back of the track.

But we no longer have a more organic game, but this mechanic also prefers that the strikes are accurate and that we do Really nice plays. On top of that, when the rallies go on, we can see the original Matchpoint that would raise more of his chair.

For this reason, and because the shots are powerful and allow you to play the way you want to, Play From the video game It is very satisfying, although I admit that I have not finished noticing that the different surfaces of the courts affect the ball in this obvious way. If you follow tennis, you know that playing on mud or grass, for example, has nothing to do with it; In the first, the game is slower, but in the second, the ball moves quickly and can behave unpredictably. At Matchpoint we can perceive these differences a little bit, without it being something really crucial.

The gameplay of the game is very satisfying.As much as Torus Games insists that all of this is in the game, I couldn’t see it very clear. It is true that we are talking about issues that are already difficult to appreciate from the point of view of the average viewer in the real world, and it seems to me that it is a little difficult to bring them up in a video game. But hey, other than these specific and complicated details, I had a great time playing matches at Matchpoint, despite the fact that I missed more details, like HawkEye who – which Not implemented Or the fact that the ball leaves a trail when it hits the ground on the mud.

Part of the blame for the attractive gameplay lies with AIwho has a fairly realistic behavior on the right track, and is preferred by programming that give personality for players. This makes them start playing one way and It changes according to the circumstances from the match. For example, the opposing player may initially focus on attacking us from outside the field, but if we are in control, he may be encouraged to climb into the net to shoot the ball.

In fact, players have a series of “Features” that define their own game modes. There are tennis players that grow if the equal players position lasts several minutes or they collapse in long pools, to name a few. This variety is great and gives some realism to the game, especially when we play against the machine. Moreover, I found it funny that as the game progresses and we “see” our opponent’s reactions, we can Detecting strengths or weaknesses which has.

The study, to justify this more “arcade” addition, hides behind the fact that tennis matches last a long time and players studying each other and discover patterns of play. And yes, this is something that actually happens, and suddenly the mechanics just don’t seem normal anymore. However, I missed more difficulty in my machine rivals in the hours I was playing it. By the way, although the game is oriented towards simulation, it has some accessibility and difficulty options so that any player can enjoy it.

And I’m only talking about artificial intelligence because I can’t play online. Honestly, I don’t know if it’s really activated, but the times I’ve tried to find a competitor (which obviously can only be other fellow journalists or people with early access) haven’t had any luck, so I won’t tell you about this at all . I can only tell you that the game will have a crossplay Among all platforms, also with the Nintendo Switch, although we don’t yet know the release date on the hybrid.

Not everything is perfect in “Matchpoint”

I wanted to focus a lot on the gameplay because I think it’s the best part of the game and what makes someone enjoy a sports title. The rest is at match point, Not at the same height. First of all, graphically, the game leaves much to be desired. The stages are decently designed (all the tracks and tournaments are made up, by the way, there are no licenses in this regard), but the players look bad, I can’t use another word.

faces of tennis players It is very general And while the 16 actual tennis players (men and women) are generally identifiable, there is a lot of work ahead. In fact, for example, the video game is licensed by Carlos AlcarazBut it doesn’t look like anything at all. One of the developers at the meeting said that when they started working with Alcaraz he was number 120 in the world and now he is one of the best players at the moment, and that was an incredible thing. Exactly true, which is why I hope that it’s paraphrased into the title better in the final version.

In addition to this, there is some animation who – which They spoil allAnd that makes me especially sad, because most of them are really cool. For example, jumps are recreated to hit the ball hard, a success that contrasts, for example, with how terrible the movement a player makes when running backwards to get to the ball that beat him by a difference. Not to mention there is an animation that endlessly repeats itself when you fail to hit the ball.

Match Point: Tennis tournaments have great potential to bring tennis lovers together in a video gameThere is, too marital absence In the game, the type of match you asked them about directly. The answer was a bit vague… and I can’t tell you if this mode will be available at some point in the future. The study thinks it would be interesting to explore its inclusion, but first they want to improve feeling well in singles matches. But the worst thing is that in this preview version I am worried about game modes. In addition to the online rating (which will have a qualifying rating), the game has Few options: free matches, training (a series of mini-games to improve our tennis) or track mode. The point is, this last pose has made me feel a little chilly, even though it’s interesting. In it, we created our tennis player from scratch (by the way using a very basic editor) with the goal be number one.

When we run training sessions, tournaments or other challenges, we gain Various improvements That raise the standard of our tennis player. In addition, we can get new equipment that improves certain areas of the game, such as the racket that improves hitting backhand by one point, for example. The problem on the way is that It’s very linear It is restricted to playing games without additional incentive. It amuses me a lot, but I think, for example, the First Virtua Tennis World Tour and the comparison hurts the match point a lot.

Match point: Tennis Championship It has a lot of potential To bring tennis fans together in a video game and I think releasing it on Xbox Game Pass might be great to encourage many players to try it, but those first players with it raise doubts. The Playthough but, It’s very good And Torus builds a very good base, but everything else in the game (graphics, game modes, lack of licenses…) can spoil the good work. On July 7, we’ll be able to find out if the title has managed to win the video game tournament.