Summary
Overall TIEBREAK isn't the worst tennis game out there, it has it's competitiveness and is playable , with only minor glitches that aren't distracting and more to due with framerate . However the character models need some major upgrading to feel like a up to date sports title that competes with the big leagues like 2K/EA sports.
Developer – Big Ant Studios
Publisher – Nacon
Platforms – Nintendo Switch,PS4/5,Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PC (Reviewed)
Review copy given by Publisher
Ever since I played Don Bradman Cricket back in 2014 , I’ve always called Big Ant Studios a great company that turned to sports games, and became a major disaster. I remember the early 2000’s when Big Ant was working on The Legend of Spyro games and more , but i could never get over how bad the glitches and gameplay where once they started making sports games, and I can say they where the start of my dislike for most sports games. However I’m willing to give Big Ant another chance with TIEBREAK: Official game of the ATP and WTA , because with a game like tennis , is there really that many mechanics you can screw up on ? let’s find out.
TIEBREAK is pitched as “the most lifelike tennis simulation ever released”, which is a big claim. the game showcases the essence of gameplay on the court and the challenge of managing a career through an entire season of 90 official tournaments against 120+ officially licensed pros from both ATP and WTA.
During the development of the game, The TIEBREAK Dev Team says they ” took player animations to new heights” , by traveling the world to capture authentic signature movements of players to deliver a realistic, immersive experience. While I agree the player animations are very well done , the graphics/character model design feel outdated graphics-wise. When they say they have “A Roster of Unparalleled Quality” they obviously are talking about the pros themselves and not the quality of the character models in game.
I will say, that the devs did do a lot to make the game feel authentic when it comes to being a tennis game itself , TIEBREAK has integrated real-world data into each AI-powered professional tour player to echo their actual tactical patterns. They also integrated , the authentic schedule for ATP and WTA season, so you can play in the same tournaments at the current time.
Another plus is the online multiplayer, which is surprisingly quite competitive from the few games I played for this review, but it did take some time for me to find matches ( this could have been due to the timezone I was in while playing this game for review and having an early review copy, and only playing a few multiplayer matches after public release).
To finish up , TIEBREAK for some reason , has a User Generated Content system, allowing the crafting of your own court designs, stadiums and players, which how much can you realyl change a tennis court and stadium other then some colors and stadium design choices, this just seems un-needed and a waste of hard-drive space and developers time, that could have been spent in better areas.
Overall TIEBREAK isn’t the worst tennis game out there, it has it’s competitiveness and is playable , with only minor glitches that aren’t distracting and more to due with framerate . However the character models need some major upgrading to feel like a up to date sports title that competes with the big leagues like 2K/EA sports.
