I’ve praised every update through early access because I truly felt that Tiebreak would become a solid foundation for a tennis franchise. But since launch, the game’s direction has been steadily moving in the wrong direction, at least in my opinion.
It seems with every update we are moving away from a controlled realism to a much more arcade style game. A lot of solid feedback has been given time and time again, but it seems BigAnt is either incapable or unwilling to just implement the simple changes we’ve asked for.
Unfortunately for me, I loathe current direction so I’ll probably just check back every few months to see if things have changed or not. But I’ll try to provide good solid feedback one last time, hopefully not on deaf ears.
Tiebreak started out as, and was moving towards, a very realistic style game. Yet we are closer to Virtua Tennis now then we were a few month ago. And much of it has to do with how BigAnt handles difficulty.
I’ll start off with the two biggest negative changes.
-Risk vs Reward-
Risk is just no longer a thing in Tiebreak. Hit as HARD and as WIDE as you want and the ball will land in bounds every single shot. There is zero reason to play conservatively. In EA7, there was at least a risk in using LT and RT, but that mechanic was removed. So it begs the question, why does LT/RT even exist? In what scenario would I want to refrain from using LT/RT if they are the better and safer shots?
-CPU AI-
BigAnt decided that the best way to improve CPU difficulty was to make them go for winners with every single shot. Obviously anyone who follows tennis knows this is not a viable strategy. It’s insanely risky and taxing on stamina. But not in Tiebreak. In Tiebreak, going for a winner is the norm and honestly, it means every CPU will play the same style. Go for winner. Go for winner. Go for winner. That is now the current strategy for all CPU, regardless of the actual character.
And so here the things I think desperately need to be changed if Tiebreak is to become a decent game.
-Risk-
Risk, risk, risk, risk. It’s become the number one thing that the fans have asked for. We want our choices to matter. We want to figure out how to open up for a winner. We want to have to pace ourselves and wait for a pattern to emerge.
LT/RT must be risky. They NEED to be risky. It should be an active choice whether to use them and open up the court or not use them and play it safe. That is all. That is all we need for risk to be added back into the game.
-Serve-
There still is zero difference between returning a fast flat serve vs a slow kick serve. None. A simple solution is to make first serves much more effective, but also make them much more risky. More faults, especially when the AI is serving. Players and AI should only be hitting 60-80% first serves in.
Returning a fast first serve should be difficult. It’s a simple change too: I can either move into the serve direction for a decent return or I can stand still and risk a sloppy return. And if I stand still or I move in the wrong direction, I should open up a chance of being aced.
Player stats would help determine the chance of sloppy returns and aces. But the actual movement of the player should be critical.
-Timing-
Timing used to matter in Tiebreak. It used to determine how sloppy a shot could be or if overpowered, how wide/long the ball would go. You used to be able to hit out if you held the shot button too long. And you used to be able to hit out if you mistimed a LT/RT shot.
We really need that timing mechanic back. Why was it even removed in the first place?
My conclusion for now is that somewhere in the development of Tiebreak, it was decided the game would forgo realism to try to lure in more casual gamers, perhaps those who don’t play tennis. In my mind, this was a wrong decision. Sport games on these levels have always been dedicated to realism and that’s where the the loyal fans are.
Again, I have not totally abandoned the game. I’m still hopeful. I’ll check back every few weeks/months to see what has changed and hopefully one day I’ll be impressed enough to return.