With 2023’s Cricket World Cup kicking off in India this month, Massive Ant Studios has taken the chance to launch Cricket 24 alongside. Equally with EA Sports activities FC for soccer and MLB The Present for baseball, Cricket 24 is a yearly instalment in cricketing video video games however on a a lot decrease finances than its stablemates.
Compared to the earlier entry within the sequence, Cricket 22, there’s little or no noticeable distinction. The gratifying core gameplay all stays actually similar, with an incredible number of choices for performing varied aggressive, defensive, and unorthodox pictures whereas batting, and delivering cutters, swingers, bouncers, and spin balls whereas bowling. Fielding, nevertheless, nonetheless feels unpolished, with inaccurate controls and lacklustre animations that usually left us in hysterics on the hilarity of the fielders throwing the ball between one another as a substitute of on the stumps, all whereas going through the entire fallacious course.
The noticeable additions this yr are within the licensed content material with extra franchise codecs and groups. The Indian Premier League, The Hundred, The Massive Bash League, and several other different franchise tournaments make the lower, bringing the entire variety of playable codecs to a whopping 23.
Visually the sport seems outdated, missing detailed textures in lots of areas. This isn’t made any higher by the frequent glitches; gamers going invisible, the digital camera clipping into the setting, commentary not aligning with gameplay, and lots of extra points. Mixed with the occasional crashes and desolate on-line lobbies, you’re left with a beneath par rating on a flat pitch.
Cricket 24 fails to construct upon the sequence’ stable opening partnership from its earlier instalments in a major approach. Its gratifying core gameplay is virtually similar to Cricket 22, with the one noticeable addition being franchised match codecs. Its abundance of bugs and glitches, and barren on-line lobbies, leaves little purpose to take one other swing on the sequence if you happen to’ve already performed an innings of a earlier title.