Early Access 3 impression and the state of gameplay

[hhaaqq2266]

GOOD:
+ The presentation, the official ATP & WTA tournaments.

+ The ATP roster could use more players but the WTA side is great. Good variety of both sides.

+ The graphics and the player models are great.

This is where the praise ends.

BAD:
The game leans into being a tennis simulator but the core gameplay is broken, thus results in a game that is neither a simulation nor an arcade experience. At its worst it’s not unplayable, the game is just not fun to play. Very steep learning curve and not easy to pick up and play, not accessible for new players coming from other games, even AO Tennis 1 & 2.
Every match feels like a handicap match: Player vs. the opponent AND the control scheme. Here’s why:
- There are 2 ways of hitting a shot: by tapping or holding a button. Tapping results in a safe, slowly floating shot and holding results in a more powerful shot but at the expense of accuracy. On paper there’s nothing wrong with this system but on a gameplay implementation level it’s a disaster: both tapping and holding the shot can result in an unforced error because the success margin of hitting a perfectly timed shot is absurdly low.

- For example, tapping a button makes the ball floats slowly to the other side. On a harder difficulty, this will be punished by the AI (more on that later). Holding a button for a more powerful shot results in the ball going out or just dipping into the net 9 out of 10 times. The timing for a normal shot should not be this tricky. It’s insanely difficult to maintain a rally, let alone push the opponent to get a winner. If I’m playing the other tennis games, tapping or holding a button like I do here would just result in extending a rally, not a frustrating error. The unforced errors in this game are almost tripled the winners in every match.

- The newly introduced RT/LT mechanic of preparing a shot makes it extra hard to position your player and lining up a good shot, on top of the timing mechanic mentioned above. You can hit a winner by tapping the wrong button at the very last moment that results in a low bounce shot that the opponent doesn’t even attempt to chase. I’m 100% serious in saying I’ve hit more winners this way than trying the powerful shot that always ended up going out. Why cant we just have 1 button for running/repositioning and 1 other button to switch swinging side once the player is ready to hit? The ready-to-hit stance also doesn't work well in this game because of…

- …the Player movement. Between rally, your player moves simply by side-stepping left and right without adjusting stance to hit forehand or backhand. This is nothing like real life tennis. The moment your opponent returns the shot, you are already running and prepping the swing motion - which is non existent in this game. Your player just simply gliding & side stepping into position and slap the ball at the very last minute regardless of how long you’ve been holding the button. I guess the RT/LT mechanic aims to solve this, but right now its too complicated (moving L stick and holding 2 buttons just to attempt a shot?? holding both RT & LT to run??) and proved to be more trouble than it’s worth.

- Now here’s about the AI opponents:
• On easier difficulties, instead of hitting a weak and exploitable shot, the CPU just simply gives up the point. Like stopping and not even attempting to chase the ball regardless of the placement of your shot. It could be a short ball to the middle of the court but the CPU just decided to nope out and stopped the rally. How is this fun to play against?

• On harder difficulties, the CPU exploits the clunky movement control by hitting shot that are unrealistically accurate and out of reach (clipped the line) that even top 5 ATP could not hit 9 out of 10 times. This is not a result of a long rally nor the CPU just reacts to your style of play. It’s just lazy AI aiming for the unpunished, unfair placement of shots, especially the return of serve where you get a fraction of a second to react, and most of the time it just dips below the net.

• On top of all this, the CPU also makes the same mistakes player can make: off-timing shot results in an out or a let. You can exploit their weakness by using drop shots and apparently the CPU doesn’t know how to smash or volley.


Bottom line is, there is still a long way to a finished product. It’s nice that the developers are willing to make the changes before charging full price. But the way it is now there has to be tons of improvements to address the concerns above and make the gameplay loops better.

[Djsmoovic]

You def nailed it there with the feedback and like you said the game is simply not fun to play. I think the devs are really confused as to what they want to achieve with this game. It's neither a simulation nor an arcade experience - a mish mash of nothing. If anything they really really need to focus on the gameplay before they try introducing new features and new content.

Here's hoping TopSpin 2k25 delivers in terms of gameplay!

[jesp8500]

I totally agreed. Everytime I tried to play, after few strokes, I immediately stop because its really not fun to play.

[quettunen]

"At its worst it’s not unplayable, the game is just not fun to play. Very steep learning curve and not easy to pick up and play, not accessible for new players coming from other games, even AO Tennis 1 & 2."

I wonder if a streamlined experience is planned for the game? The shot preparation sounds a lot like TE4, but it is possible to have that on auto setting, for example. Without that it's going to take hours of practice just to be able to control your player.

Here's hoping the game will be a complex simulator, but that it can be also played with simpler controls!

[Andski]

Perfect feedback and super relatable. I was fearing my age and slower reflexes were the reasoning for mashing buttons and failing to determine LT or RT.

Wouldn't be able to write this better if I tried. I convincingly win against Easiest and Easy but on Medium is when the problems begin. I use the exploit returning cross court it's almost always a winner but that's where the positives for me end. All my Medium matches have gone to 3 sets and I win some of them but it's painful and praying for AI unforced error.

Although my First Serve is 100% I can't hit a single ace meanwhile Zverev hits 24 against me... I'll probably drop this game for a bit as TopSpin 2K25 comes out but follow closely for patches and updates.

I like the extra challenge in the controllers and hope it's a learning curve, getting used to it and nailing the muscle memory. But I wouldn't be opposed to some help with LT/RT and your player moving side to side vs running.

[Djsmoovic]

After playing a few hours of TOPSPIN 2K25 Tiebreak is so far behind its not even funny. Imo TOPSPIN 2K25 nails the key elements of a tennis game especially in terms of gameplay and most importantly it's FUN!

Tiebreak has a loooong loooong way to go.

[Chatbert]

Originally posted by Andski:

Although my First Serve is 100% I can't hit a single ace meanwhile Zverev hits 24 against me... I'll probably drop this game for a bit as TopSpin 2K25 comes out but follow closely for patches and updates.

With the current serving system getting an ace seems to be entirely dependent on finding the sweet spot on the left stick prior to starting the toss. On one side of the court with the left stick at about 27 minutes o'clock there's a pretty much guaranteed ace with the kick serve. But it's not really satisfying because the results are so predictable.

Of course if you don't find that sweet spot you're double faulting like crazy because the game only goes for the lines in an all-or-nothing fashion.

[PLAY GAMES NOT COMPANIES]

Agreed the controls are horrendous, the lack of response to every serve is bad in so many ways, why make it so complicated to move in the direction of the ball and response. CPU just scores at will and there is nothing to do about it.
The ball is so floaty even in the tutorial, I'm like who's idea was it to make the controls and connection with the ball so ridiculous.