Don Bradman Cricket '14: Game review and gameplay features

A still from the gameplay of Don Bradman Cricket 14

Cricket gamers had to endure a dry spell for quite a while. After the cancellation of the disastrous Ashes Cricket 2013, the fans were utterly disappointed as their wait didn’t turn out to be worthwhile.

But after the announcement of Don Bradman Cricket 14, there was a revival of interest among the cricket faithful particularly for the iconic name on the title of this new venture. Following the announcement of its release date, gamers sat in anticipation waiting to get their hands on the new franchise developed by the Australian company, Big Ant Studios.

After a lot of delay and some halts during the development phase, the game was finally released in the month of April on various consoles. In what was promised to be a new flavoured prospect, the game certainly removes the familiarity aspect and sets you up to take a new challenge. While the PC version is waiting to be released for about 2 months later, we take a look at how the game has fared till now and the positives and negatives from its new features.

Pros :

1. The game has restricted its licensing options to one player (Don Bradman) and two stadiums which means that by default, you will have to be satisfied with random players and unrecognized stadiums. Sad? Well you shouldn’t be considering the fact that Big Ant has been clever in addressing their licensing issue by letting you download the top created teams from the cricket academy. It basically means that since we look for real world similarities in modern games, you can import a team once you are on-line and get the realistic version of every player.

2. Don Bradman covers a wide range of game modes including tournaments, tours, career and practice. The career mode is one of the highlighting features of this game as it will enable you to create and customize a player of your own choice. With the designing and attributes assigned, you can field your player to represent any country and guide him over 20 seasons to become a legend of the game. The tournament mode will allow you to play different kinds of competition ranging from a t20 game to a round robin tournament. Meanwhile, In the tour segment, you can decide to visit different cricketing nations and face them off in a series.

3. Coming to the point of unfamiliarity, the game introduces you to a new dimension in the department of bowling and batting controls. The degree of comfortableness depends on what kind of difficulty level you decide to play in. For a beginner level, the game will assist you to pitch the ball and let you control the speed with the right or left stick. You can control the amount of jump too while making a delivery towards the pitch. The batting however, is a bit familiar yet more difficult at the same time. You can move your feet and shape your body while going for a swing. With the use of your controller buttons, you can execute various kinds of shots but your timing and power has to be accurate.

Fielders can be unrealistic at times

Cons :

1. If there is a major issue which we could point out in this game, it would have to be the graphics and the visual quality. In an era of breakthrough sport games like FIFA 14, WWE and Pro Evolution Soccer, the game is not even close to the league of fore mentioned projects. What becomes noticeable as the game progresses is the dreary atmosphere of the stadiums and the monotonous nature of the crowd. The only thing that catches the eye is the replay and appealing system which includes the hot spot technology as well. Umpires committing mistakes have made the game more interesting but there can be instances when right appeals are not given leaving you disappointed.

2. As much as the controls and new features have been appreciated, the gameplay, overall, does tend to be confusing with the absence of the fielding radar which will be most unsettling to newcomers. You need to survey the field and then remember the gaps manually. Also the problem of running between wickets and the huge amount of direct hits on the stumps are annoying. You will also get irritated with your bowler taking off the bails every time you throw the ball at him.

3. The game has also been criticized for the high amount of bugs and glitches in the game. After some game time, glitches begin to unveil in commentary with the use of repetitive words every now and then. Also, the fielding sometimes can make you wonder if you are facing a bunch of superheroes as it is ridiculously difficult to get a shot through them. But the good thing is that a patch will come out to fix these initial errors. A key point is that they impact both the player and the AI equally – which means you never end up really losing out.

Overall Rating

If you have been waiting for a realistic experience, Don Bradman Cricket 14 is surely the right ingredient for you. With new features and a whole lot different control system, you will surely be engaged to overcome the various difficulty levels and enjoy the different modes for a good span of time. There is not a lot of cricket games to cherish but this one surely works right and will be a fine addition to your collection.

Rating – 8/10