AO International Tennis captures the war of attrition that makes the sport tense and arduous. But the entire experience, both the ups and downs, felt stale after some time.
AO International Tennis
Developer: Big Ant Studios
Price: $49.99
Platforms: PlayStation 4 [reviewed], Xbox One, PC
MonsterVine was provided with a PlayStation 4 code for review.
Tennis is a swift sport that requires endurance and careful precision to score a point. Even then, the sport comes down to a war of attrition where each player teeters the line of victory or defeat. AO International Tennis, the latest title from Big Ant Studios, captures the intense and strenuous work I’ve seen tennis athletes go through in order to win. But the game also struggles with a learning curve that left the mechanics feeling clumsy. By time I grew comfortable with the controls, the entire game felt stale.
AO International Tennis aims to deliver a serious simulation of the sport. On one hand the game is successful at delivering that sort of tennis experience. The player has to take into account timing, shot power, and ball placement to be successful. But in practice, I found myself fumbling with the game’s mechanics as I tried to keep track of every input. I have to make sure my timing is right while holding down one of the shot buttons, which also determines the power of my hit. At the same time, I’m trying to move the analog stick to place the cursor over the spot on the opposite side of the court I want to aim my shot.
Ergonomically the controller felt awkward in my hands while I played AO Tennis. The inputs also felt sluggish, meaning there was a noticeable latency between my input and the character’s animation. In my mind, the sluggish inputs convey the fatigue factor the game takes into account. But it didn’t engage me in a fun way.
Despite the learning curve and latency-plagued inputs, I grew to understand the concepts AO Tennis was throwing at me. The tutorial mode was useful in teaching me the different mechanics, but I felt like I learned the most through the game’s career mode. In the career mode, you can create a new character or take control of one the players on the game’s robust roster. Either way, you’ll develop your character’s skills through a myriad of tournaments to choose from. There’s a lot of tennis to be played in the game’s career mode (no duh), and it allowed me to get comfortable with AO’s mechanics. But by the time I felt like I hurdled over AO Tennis’ learning curve, the game ran out of its fun factor.
My larger issue with AO Tennis is that the entire experience grew stale for me. I had fun winning but that feeling of success lessened quicker than I would’ve liked. Even emotional response to game’s clumsy controls and sluggish inputs felt lessened as time went by.
Multiplayer works just fine in AO. I never really had a bad connection when facing off against a single opponent. My only issue is that the game doesn’t provide a ranked mode or some sort of a standard rule set. For example, I matched up with a player that was using a created character with maxed out stats. Even though I used the highest rated character in the game, I was completely outmatched. Not putting in a standard rule set for online play seems like a glaring omission.
The game’s presentation is mostly clean, thanks to an unobtrusive user interface. From a glance, the in-game action can pass as a real life broadcast of a tennis match. The atmosphere of the match, between the cheers from the crowds and hushed audience during play, feels authentic enough. It’s only when the camera gets close to the character models that things go awry. The players look glossy and out of place with the action happening on screen. Even the audience looks rough, but I suppose when the match gets heated, you’ll barely notice. I did notice, however, and it was enough for me to be distracted whenever I got a good look at any of the characters on screen.
AO International is not by any means a bad game. It delivers on what it sets out to do, which is a simulated tennis experience. The action it depicts is arduous and as a result, victories feel like a real accomplishment. Yes, the learning curve left me feeling clumsy as I tried to learn the game’s mechanics. And yes, the sluggish inputs were a detraction from the experience. But AO’s biggest fault is that its end result, despite the ups and downs it provides, is a stale experience.
The Final Word
AO International Tennis is a totally competent game. It delivers an experience that feels close to the sport it aims to simulate. But after I got over the game’s faults and started to appreciate its positives, AO International Tennis became a stagnant match.
– MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Fair
