A bittersweet cricket experience

Developer: Big Ant Studios

Publisher: Tru Blu Games

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Release Date: December 22, 2016

Don Bradman Cricket 14 was as good as cricket games could get. Other than the lack of licensed content and the unrealistic visuals, it was pretty much a decent game. When the next iteration, Don Bradman Cricket 17 was announced with the promise of better visuals and more detailed gameplay, I was very excited. So much so that I bought the game the first day it hit the local stores. Was it worth the hype? Yes and no.

Don Bradman Cricket 17 introduced a lot more features than I was expecting it to. Even though the developers have still failed to incorporate licensed teams and stadiums, they compensated for it with an improved version of their "Cricket Academy" feature. While previously, the community could create only players, teams and umpires from the Academy, now it is possible to create custom logos, kits, bats and even stadiums!

The career mode is now more detailed since it allows you to get past the first class stage and play for the national teams and T20 franchises as well. Fictional versions of more or less every franchise-based T20 leagues have been introduced, including our very own BPL, dubbed as "Bangladesh Super League". For the first time ever in a video game, DBC17 allows players to play with the women's teams – a very welcome addition.

The batting mechanics are essentially the same as before. One of the very few changes is the ability to play precision shots. The helicopter shot, popularised by MS Dhoni, has now been added as one of the unorthodox shots as well. The advance down the crease button has been moved from R1 to R3, which is mildly inconvenient.

The bowling gameplay, however, has been given a complete overhaul. There are now two entirely different mechanics for pacers and spinners. The new bowling controls are very convoluted and need significant time to be mastered. The field settings menu has been shifted from the Up Arrow to a sub-section in the pause menu, yet another inconvenient change in the gameplay. Overall, the gameplay is a lot slower and more complex than it was before.

The developers failed to deliver on their biggest promise, the improvement in visual quality. The lighting and the textures in the game are very poorly done. The character models, while slightly better than before, are not as good as promised either. The game currently has a bug where the player kits have very low resolution textures and the issue has not been fixed at the time of writing this review. The game is also filled with lots of other game-breaking bugs ranging from AI glitches to there being session breaks in limited-over matches.

Don Bradman Cricket 17 had the potential to be the most detailed and immersive cricket experience ever. However, the technical issues hold the game back and almost bring it down to the level of the dreaded Ashes Cricket 2013. Cricket fans should hold out on getting the game until the developers fix the issues.

Nony Khondaker is an introvert with immense passion for tech and music. Feel free to send your constructive feedback at nonykhondaker@live.com or follow him on twitter.com/NonyKhondaker