Tennis World Tour 2 has arrived for Next-Generation consoles and looks to bring the action of the court to gamers. The game offers training modes or allows players to jump into the action with a multitude of professional players and the ability to customize your character.
There are multiple courts which allows players to experience variations and challenges as they adapt to the various playing surfaces.
The graphics of the game are sharp and the detail level of the courts, venues, and players looked great and the sound was solid enough to capture the experience.
The biggest issue I had with the game was that it was tedious at times to play. The menu system is overly cumbersome and required some real trial and error. Choices are great but at times it seemed as if there were too many things between me and the action.
The tutorial was an exercise in frustration for me as some early shots to a targeted area went well but another was frustrating as shot after shot went just wide regardless of where I positioned my player or timed my shot. After 10 minutes of this I lost much of my enthusiasm and returned to the menu for a match.
The match had me watching two players without giving me any control of either which I found an exercise in tedium. By the time I worked things enough to get in the game; the gameplay for me was very lacking. While I did not expect the arcade style gameplay that the Tennis on the Wii offered back in the day; I was shocked over how little fun there was in the gameplay.
It was like being trapped in an endless practice session and to be honest; if I am expected to put this much time in a game; I would rather take to the court and work on my serve and get some exercise.
There are likely many players out there who will welcome this level of complexity and challenge but I found it more tedious than fun and as such the game did not work for me. It was great to look at and does capture the experience of Tennis at a professional level; it just wraps much of the game in a cumbersome experience which is lacking in fun.
2.5 stars out of 5
