Fortunately, the loading times aren’t too bad. Oddly enough, Cricket 22 does not at any point give you the option to save your current playing session unless you stop using it.
That’s handy if you want to dive into the game for a super short play session even Twenty20 games take a few hours. Jumping straight into any of the officially licensed leagues or competitions is easy enough at any time, you can choose to control the entire team or just a single player, fast-forwarding to the game passages he or she is involved in. In general, you can conjure up all sorts of exotic deliveries, such as googlies or cross-seamers while bowling, and take all the shots you need with the bat. There’s also a revamped fielding system, which adds some risk and reward by allowing you to be shy at the stumps, the possibility of knocking over or the chance to safely throw the ball to the bowler or wicketkeeper.
#EA SPORTS CRICKET CONTROL KEYS LICENSE#
Only the Indian Premier League is noticeably absent, understandably, given how pricey its license sure would be. It supports both women’s cricket and men’s teams and boasts an impressive array of official licenses: not just the Ashes, but the 50-over, Twenty20 World Championships, the recently inaugurated Hundred, the County Championship and the Australian Big Bash League, amongst others. However, in the context of cricket matches, Cricket 22 shows an admirable amount of ambition. For example, the renditions of famous cricketers are good enough to be recognizable, but no more than that.
Compared to the will of the FIFA or NBA 2K games, Cricket 22s production values look somewhat amateurish. If you’re used to sports games made by huge development teams like EA Sports and 2K Games, keep in mind that Big Ant Studios is a small developer with a miniscule budget. The fact that Cricket 22 exists, in a world otherwise starved of cricket games, is commendable, but expectations should be tempered. However, Australian developer Big Ant Studios has managed to keep the flame of a cricket game burning and its latest effort, Cricket 22, arrives just in time for the Ashes, the most prestigious long-form cricket match. Cricket sims seem to have gone desperately out of fashion, perhaps due to the complexity of the sport and the fact that it doesn’t get flashy overflowing with money.
In recent years, cricket fans have had little choice when it comes to video games. As long as you don’t expect the kind of production value offered by the mega budget sports games, you will find plenty of exciting gameplay in this rare example of a cricket video game.