Initially I wasn’t sure what to make of the new update as I am so used to playing the game with the mechanics and gameplay of the previous updates. But after playing for some time now I can confidently say that I am absolutely loving it.
One of my biggest complaints was the difficulty and this has been improved. I consider myself quite a good player but on expert due to the CPU being more aggressive and more intelligent and the fact that general gameplay difficulty has been increased, it is not easy at all anymore and I am getting beat pretty comfortably by the CPU. I am actually loving the fact that the challenge has been increased and am really having to think about my shot selection. Some of my below observations may possibly be placebo but try to report them as i seem them.
The speed of general gameplay appears to have been increased including the serve speed.
The CPU difficulty has been increased. They are much more aggressive but still make questionable errors every now and again. They are better and more consistent at hitting shots closer to the net.
You can no longer keep L+R pressed together and hit all of your shots like this, the shots are a lot more sensitive and they will end up going out of court.
Its also much more risky to use L trigger or R trigger by themselves and doing so will also cause the ball to go out of court.
You very much need to use a mix of getting yourself into position and just hitting the ball without using triggers at all and only use them when the ball bounces high enough and you have had enough prep time. Obviously you can still use them on many shots and they will go in but massively depends on a number of factors including timing. The risk/reward of using L or R has been greatly increased.
Serving has been made much more difficult and will take some time for people to get used to. I expect some complaints regarding the difficulty of serving now using the A button which is now the risk serve with the B button being the safe serve. Once you get used to it, it very much clicks. But the analogue and direction of serve placement is extremely sensitive and you really need to only flick a direction at the very last second rather than holding a direction like you could previously.
I like what they have done with the serve but my experience on expert is that it is still basically impossible to hit an ace against the CPU.
For anyone that has noticed this bug in the previous update, the CPU player model is still getting a white box appearing in between the characters feet. I believe the devs are aware of this but I had hoped that it would have been resolved with this update.
All in all, great update. The game continues to improve and feels more and more like real tennis with every update. If I could still critique anything at this point it would probably be the CPU still makes weird errors, but the game is that much more difficult now in terms of having to be very careful regarding shot selection that I am now thankful for these errors as I need all the free points I can get.
It would also be nice if there was a way to get aces against the CPU on expert, maybe I am just not very good at serving but have put in quite a few of the risk serves with perfect timing and just doesn’t seem possible to me.
I would also say that for anyone finding the game too difficult now (bearing in mind I am also getting my butt handed to me) please spend a good few hours with it and get used to the way you now have to play before making any judgements. Although I am losing pretty badly I can see a clear way to being competitive, I just haven’t had the time with the new update to improve my game as yet.