Grand Slam Tennis 2 Review

It’s not hard to see how EA came to dominate the sports games market. While seasoned gamers might do their homework and eventually go with the ‘best’ digital translation of any given sporting pursuit, those who could be considered sports fans first and gamers second simply want to see their passion recreated as accurately as possible.

With official licences all over the shop, EA has had this corner of the market sewn up for years. Their FIFA series demonstrated how powerful a license could be; for the best part of a decade, it got away with being mostly awful by putting a familiar face on the box and having the right kits, while Konami’s Pro Evo series boasted far superior gameplay if you overlooked dodgy player names and likenesses.

Fast forward to today and EA has really raised its game, accuracy now backed up with quality, and with FIFA deservedly back on top and the likes of Madden, NHL and Fight Night all dominating their particular fields, the American giant has decided it’s the right time to pick up a racquet.

From the off, Grand Slam Tennis 2 oozes the usual EA production values; an instantly familiar and sleek front end teeming with options and modes.

The training mode is as good a place as any to start, if only to get your head around the concept of Total Racquet control. Just as it has before, EA champions the right analogue stick as a preferred control option for this, an initially confusing but ultimately strong alternative to traditional button inputs.

It lacks the over-the-top style of Virtua Tennis.

Both schemes are available at all times and although there are clear benefits to mastering the new system, it never feels as precise as it could and indeed should.

Inputs often feel misread, with spin being added to intended flat shots; placement isn’t too much of a challenge, once you learn to use the full extent of the right stick’s two designated 180 degree; and it’s still far harder to regularly hit corners and sidelines than it is with the alternative button-based scheme.

With Top Spin 4 delighting tennis enthusiasts and Virtua Tennis offering arcade thrills for gamers that might call themselves ‘tennis-curious’, EA has elected to slot into the ample middle ground between these two extremes.

Wayward swings don’t see the net bruised or the chalk disrupted nearly as often as they would in the 2K games but on the flipside, Total Racquet control will make fans of Sega’s simplified rallies weep tears of pure confusion.

It strikes a fair balance for the most part; epic rallies and highlight reel shots are effortless but they don’t come at the loss of a tactical edge to the matches.

Despite treading this middle ground in terms of content, it is unfortunately not the most balanced of games. Player movement is crazy fast, making drop shots and lobs all but worthless as a result, which in turn has a knock-on effect.

Popping the ball over the head of overly aggressive opponents is almost impossible, so it can almost become a race to the net; from here, movement speed covers lob attempts while acrobatic lunges and dives block most passing shot, making a successful trip to the net a free point much of the time.

There's enough for tennis fans to really get stuck into.

The AI is quick to exploit this too, even when in control of supposedly defensive players - rather than play from the baseline and look to slowly wear you down, they’ll often just fall out of character and storm the net in search of a freebie.

AI can be patchy elsewhere too, particularly as you try to find a difficulty level that fits your own abilities. Rookie is pretty much pointless if you’re over the age of five, and Amateur just seems to go easy on players in far too overt a manner – opponents will force you into a corner only to return the ball right back to you.

And while it’s only one step up, the leap to Pro level is huge, and demands a real mastery of both your chosen control scheme and tactical movement. Superstar, we can only assume, is there for people that just really enjoy losing, the masochists.

When these foibles aren’t shouting over the umpire’s cries for quiet, though, Grand Slam Tennis 2 is a joy to play. It’s fast, fluid and at times genuinely exciting, particularly as you play through the very enjoyable career mode.

Here, you can evolve your player through a trio of event types. There are exhibition matches to unlock stat-boosting gear, training drills to boost your base stats and tournaments to get your name out there and hit the big time.

It’s a fine balancing act and one that rewards patience, so while it might seem wise to play shorter matches in the interest of getting better faster, doing so can make it much harder to fulfil bonus objectives that might just take your created superstar from good to great.

Broadcast-style presentation and player-specific animations are backed up with ESPN branding for a truly authentic take on the sport, one only made more attractive to tennis fanatics with the first appearance of Wimbledon in a 360 game, alongside the other main Grand Slam events.

In fact, the only thing that really breaks the illusion is the commentary – Cash and McEnroe very much dial it in, their polite silence book-ended by basic observations and intentionally vague exchanges of jargon.