Grabbed from the official forum, this is a pretty fair review IMO.
In my honest opinion, and I'm not bias toward or against sidhe, this game has not lived up to my expectations. My expectations weren't all that high after the first game, but still, im not happy with it after playing it for 3 days. I wanted to like the game, and i've tried to like it, but i'm finding little niggly bugs or flaws that spoil it too often for my liking.
Before i start i'll state that i'm not a fanboy, but i'm not here to put sidhe down either. I'm just a huge rugby league fan, bought both rl1 and rl2, but not a hardcore gamer. I bought rl2 on ps2.
Overall, its improved on RL1 in some areas, but gone backwards in others. I'm finding its more of a sim than arcade, unlike rl1. So its not as fun i dont think, but it is more realistic. Graphics are good, but gameplay is not very smooth, and is let down by lots of little things.
I'll start by listing some of the good things about the game:
- very deep franchise mode; plenty of attention to detail here
- player likenesses are very impressive
- overall graphics a huge improvement on the first game
- players are most of the time placed in their correct positions, although i'm still sometimes finding front-rowers on the wing
- scrum defense improved
- a bit easier to tackle
- more realistic player speeds (i.e. webcke cant outrun slater anymore)
- dummy half running a lot better
OK, now the bad:
- Camera angles/player size: i haven't been able to find a decent camera angle. Behind close is way too close, high and behind are both too far away, and the rest are just not practical. Or maybe its just the players are all too small for the field, but its just really hard to see whats going on.
- Sideline awareness: still haven't fixed this up from rl1. Players still just grab the ball near the sideline and can't help but run out.
- lack of mobility of players: they have the turning circle of a truck... and theyre on skates. This is especially bad for defending, as sometimes an oppostion player will run straight past while a human player is halfway through turning around.
- On-line defence: Its still pretty woeful, whether its computer or human. Its not that they cant tackle close to the line, but theres just huge gaps either side of the play-the-ball, instead of the defenders being bunched up near the play-the-ball and spread out wide of the ruck, like in real footy.
- Dummy-half tries: Sooo many dummy half tries. Its almost unstoppable if the computer decides to scoot when he's within 3-4 metres of the line... And its too easy for us to score from dummy half as well. These sort of tries replace the scrum tries in rl1, they cant really be stopped. I havent played online yet, but im sure people are exploiting this.
- Passing: The new advanced passing system looked promising, but in the game i think its quite disappointing. Every time i try to cut out a player or two, i throw a pathetic pass that ends up rolling around on the ground. And then the nearest player doesn't pick it up unless you select him and press triangle to dive on the ball. So now i've given up throwing long balls, i've reverted back to normal passing which is much more effective.
- Kicking: This has not been changed at all from rugby league 1, in fact its worse IMO. Sometimes, and this happens at least once every game, when my kicker receives the ball he is facing either backwards or straight at the touchline, making it impossible to kick it anywhere but out on the full. And its still annoying how theres a locked range for the direction of your kicks, why shouldn't you be able to aim your kick more than the limited angle given?Bombs are useless once again, it would be good if you could change the trajectory of these.
- Cutscenes/cinematics: I turned these off after one game. They just dont make sense, like why would the camera focus on josh hannay staight after carl webb has been sent off for a high tackle? how often in rugby league do you actually see a "team talk"?
- Lack of referee: i know people say this is a minor thing, but it is quite wierd having the ref's voice but not seeing him at all, especially when scoring a try, or seeing someone get sent off, or going to the video ref... we usually look to the referee to confirm these things.
- Commentary: its good that they changed the commentary, but vossy has less of an idea of whats happening than in the first game: e.g. handover on the 6th tackle... vossy says "he's put it out on the full, i've seen better kicks from a mule"
Well thats about all i can think of for the moment. Despite all these flaws, the game is still playable, and its a lot better than many other sports games i've played recently, and i will still play it simply because its a rugby league game. But i'm just expressing my disappointment, because this game could have been so so much better if a few issues had been fixed up, as it certainly has the foundations of a great game. I know i'm gonna get a few people saying "ur a goose, dis game rockz" but remember this is just my opinion, and i'm sure deep down, there are people who are disappointed like me.
