AO TENNIS 2
The net big thing in PlayStation sports
AO Tennis’ release in 2018 was met by widespread criticism of the fact that it wasn’t Top Spin or Virtua. What many missed in making lazy comparisons to past greats is that it was pretty good on its own terms, establishing sound fundamentals in areas like serving, player movement, and varied baseline play. It lacked the gloss of a FIFA or NHL, sure, but there was promise.
Here that promise bears fruit. AO2’s basics again make it a pick-up-and-play gem, with responsive serves and lobs and slices and a control system that enables player movement, shot power, and ball direction to work together seamlessly – a necessity for this particular pastime. Net-play feels a touch fiddlier, especially in doubles matches (where your player occasionally fails to respond at all), but overall it’s solid dog-toy-thwacking fun. New animations and improved ball physics also upgrade things from last time out, though you’d expect those from any sporting sequel.
Longevity comes via a fairly traditional career mode where you control and power up either an existing pro or a player of your own creation. Tournament, tournament, rest week, tournament: its structure is typical but there’s a neat level of detail to its micromanagement. Upgrading your class of flights reduces fatigue between matches, for example, while employing a doctor enables you to recover faster from injury, and hiring an assistant improves your form. Throw in sponsored rackets and clothing and there’s plenty to play for.
AO, LET’S GO
It’s all good, if hardly groundbreaking, but AO does also pack happy surprises that up the aforementioned gloss factor. Multiple-choice press conferences and the option to request a doubles partner flesh out career mode, while all areas of the game benefit from medical timeouts, umpire challenges, and gameplay sliders. Want a more arcadestyle experience? Turn stamina off and push ball speed and game speed up to 100. Neat.
As with fellow Big Ant title Cricket 19, AO’s truly ingenious element is its creation suite and community sharing system.
Andy Murray and Roger
Federer aren’t in the game… except they are, because fans have made and shared them. Aside from inevitable visual limitations and the need to keep names clean, there’s theoretically no limit on who can be made, so the scope for fantasy contests between past and present greats is endless. It’s easy to spend more time cycling through creations than actually playing the game.
Yet when you do play, it’s mostly great. You won’t be doing so day after day, month after month – there’s little meat outside career mode – but AO is a sim you’ll leap into whenever the mood suits, such as during Wimbledon, and thoroughly enjoy. It’s PS4’s best racket swinger. Faint praise, perhaps, but praise nonetheless.
VERDICT
“NET PLAY IS A TOUCH FIDDLY, BUT OVERALL THIS IS SOLID DOG-TOY-THWACKING FUN.”
Less polished than PS4’s bigmoney sporting contingent, AO2 nonetheless pleases thanks to user-friendly controls, cute details and a clever creationsharing mechanic. Ben Wilson