Cricket 24 first impressions: Looks and plays like a rebadged Cricket 22

The game looks fantastic, presentation is largely top-notch. (Image: Big Ant Studios)

Cricket World Cup 2019 finalists England and New Zealand are all set to square off in Ahmedabad in the opening match of the 2023 edition of the tournament on October 5. And in a move that may not necessarily be unrelated, the ‘Indian Edition’ of Big Ant Studios’ Cricket 24 is also set to drop on the same day.

At a preview event in the National Capital, Sony announced the launch of the PlayStation 5 Indian Edition Cricket 24 Bundle and put the DualSense controller in the hands of a few mediapersons to see what all the hype is about. According to the press release issued on the occasion, the game features “professional Indian T20 teams” for the first time and is “the most complete video game simulation of cricket seen to date”.

So naturally, it had to be put to the test.

(Image: Big Ant Studios)

Art imitating life… to an extent

The ‘Indian Edition’ aspect of Cricket 24, thus far, seems limited to the branding that proudly features the fully licensed teams from the Indian Premier League. However, it appears the league itself isn’t licensed, evident in the fact that it is referred to as the “Indian T20 League”. Also, it isn’t as though the Indian teams won’t be available to players, who purchase the international version of the game. So the jury’s still out on what constitutes this “Indian” edition.

Moving swiftly along, the attention lavished on the IPL teams — in terms of uniforms and player likenesses — is quite stellar. But it’s a bit strange to see a near-photorealistic Rohit Sharma proudly helming Mumbai Indians, but nowhere to be seen in the Indian national team. In fact, the entire team contains fictional players. Further, the Indian team remains one of the only international ones to use an unofficial crest. Even the Pakistani team has the official PCB crest, uniform and player names. Likenesses though are a different story altogether.

Making this patchiness seem even worse is how well the English, Australians and New Zealanders are rendered. But this is a courtesy largely extended to the men. On the women’s side, it’s a distinct step down in quality. Finally, and I promise this is the last time I’ll whine about likenesses in this article, one of the most bizarre things is the Indian women’s team featuring half-real and half-fictional players.

(Image: Big Ant Studios)

But how does it play?

If this is the first time you’re playing a cricket game or the first time in a while that you’re doing so, you are in for a treat. The game looks fantastic, the presentation is largely top-notch and the commentary is a complete mixed bag ranging as it does from the insightful to the outlandish. Now, if you’ve already played Cricket 22, you are probably going to find very little new, aside from the visages of Rohit Sharma and his cohorts, of course.

Cricket 22 had elevated batting to a near-art form so if you enjoy batting, you can expect more of the same in Cricket 24. I’d even go as far as to say some of the batting animations and flourishes look even more stylish than in the previous version. On the bowling side, there are plenty of delivery options, each bowling style is well fleshed-out and it is incredibly rewarding to outwit the batter AI and claim a wicket. More importantly, it feels almost identical to the last edition.

This is going to be something of a refrain, unfortunately, until I’ve had a chance to sink a few dozen hours into the game.

(Image: Big Ant Studios)

Early verdict

There are a number of modes and functions I haven’t yet had a chance to try, and so I will reserve judgment. For now, I haven’t seen much to convince me that this isn’t a rebadged Cricket 22 with IPL teams thrown in. But, time will tell on that one.