Grand Slam Tennis 2 Reviews

  • Removed Gamer
    Gamer has been removed
    16 1 4
    Making a new tennis game must be a daunting prospect given that On one side of the court there's the zesty arcade brio of Virtua Tennis, with the controlled, sim-like approach of Top Spin on the other. unsurprisingly EA Sports has in my view made a brilliant authentic tennis game.

    The gameplay is excellent the graphics in the game are exceptional plus the way the game has adapted the way players move like their real selfs like Nadal and his topsin technique and even grunt sound and others like roddicks unique serving style and many more make the game seem realistic, in addition to the ESPN replays in game.

    Then you have the new Total Racquet controls, which map strokes of all kinds to the right stick, the triggers acting as modifiers for lobs and drop shots, topspin ,flat and slice shots. Though it never feels entirely intuitive, particularly when you're moving around with the left stick and to be honest i`ve never seen the point of having the feature as those familiar with existing tennis games might wish to start with the Arcade controls, where you can choose from a quick tap to return the ball with an average amount of force, or wind up for a more powerful stroke by holding the button and releasing when it reaches you.

    The career was a good in the sense it had the licensed grand slam tournaments and licensed stadui which made it more authentic but for me it is way too long and boring with even less variety than Top Spin's similarly single-minded campaign; Sega remains streets ahead in this regard. The career covers 10 years/seasons and just gets repitive.

    However a good mode is ESPN Grand Slam classics, which dump you in famous matches and ask you to recreate or rewrite history. (Similar to Madden Moments in Madden 11) Its a good opportunity to play as classics like McEnroe etc.and play in the best matches of all time.

    Achievements
    Even though this game has got a fairly high TA score of 2058 this game is far from difficult it just takes along time as one of the achievements requires you too finish the whole career at no.1 and another is too collect all unlockables, and the multiplayer cheevos which some may find difficult like the one which require you to win 10 matches in a row. The rest of the achievements are easily achievable ,the career ones are luck based because you have to beat certain players to obtain them but who you play in career is random. But if you play through 10 seasons you will surely get it.

    overall this game is very good especially the superb gameplay but the career lets it down just not as enjoyable or longlasting as other tennis games due to it being boring.

    thanks for reading, this is only my 2nd review so may be a bit shit......
    wave
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    drabikNice review. I have this game sitting at home unplayed. I look forward to playing (and completing) it. smile
    Posted by drabik on 21 Apr 12 at 15:05
    NawtyCawtyNice review, but you forgot to mention how terrible the commentary is. It must be the worst commentary in a sports game ever lol
    Posted by NawtyCawty on 30 Apr 12 at 12:14
    OMGWTH00111111Very good review. Def going to pick this up. +1 and it is most definitely NOT a bit shit
    Posted by OMGWTH00111111 on 05 Mar 13 at 00:06
  • TheGillesMullerTheGillesMuller613,884
    29 Sep 2016 06 Dec 2016
    1 0 0
    This will be a long read so I hope you're sitting comfortably!

    This is Grand Slam Tennis 2, EA's attempt to rival the Top Spin/Virtua Tennis games, is this game ace or has EA served a double fault? Well as the #1 ranked player in the world on the game I think I am as qualified as anyone to tell you.

    The Roster

    A fairly decent spread of players ranging from current pros to legends from many years ago, here is the full roster complete with their playstyles and overalls.

    Men's

    Roger Federer (All-Court) (81)
    Andy Roddick (Offensive Baseliner) (76)
    Bjorn Borg (Defensive Baseliner) (79)
    Boris Becker (Serve and Volley) (78)
    Pat Cash (Serve and Volley) (72)
    Pete Sampras (Serve and Volley)
    Andy Murray (All-Court) (79)
    Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (All-Court) (76)
    Lleyton Hewitt (Defensive Baseliner) (77)
    Michael Stich (All-Court) (74)
    Novak Djokovic (All-Court) (84)
    Stefan Edberg (Serve and Volley) (75)
    John McEnroe (Serve and Volley) (79)
    Kei Nishikori (All-Court) (66)

    Women's

    Maria Sharapova (Offensive Baseliner) (72)
    Ana Ivanovic (Defensive Baseliner) (69)
    Lindsay Davenport (Offensive Baseliner) (71)
    Martina Navratilova (Serve and Volley) (69)
    Serena Williams (Offensive Baseliner) (73)
    Venus Williams (Offensive Baseliner) (73)
    Chris Evert (Defensive Baseliner) (69)
    Justine Henin (All-Court) (70)

    The game also offers 31 created player spaces so you can add 31 more created players based on real pros if you want to.

    Graphics

    Pretty good I would say, the Grand Slam arenas are all represented very well with actual sponsors on the billboards and umpire's chairs and are in my opinion the best looking arenas of any of the tennis games on consoles right now. The players look excellent as well, if their names weren't below their images you would still be able to tell easily who they all are, and happily none of them have the terrifying eyes you see in other tennis games (looking at you Top Spin 4!). The only issue I have is one that has been brought up in many EA sports games, the crowd. If you've read FIFA reviews you will know what I'm on about, they simply look like cardboard cutouts which especially on the smaller courts where you see them close up a lot more in the replays is not nice to look at at all.

    Gameplay

    Now this is where I can offer a very different opinion to what is widely believed and what has been written in all other reviews for this game on any site, You have 2 ways to control your shots, you can use the standard buttons (A for flat shots, Y for topspin and X/B for slice, hold LT with any of them for a lob and hold RT+B/X for a drop shot) or you can use the Total Racquet Control controlled with the RS, now the difference between the buttons and TRC is far bigger than any other review would have you believe, for someone who can use the RS consistently they have a huge advantage over any button user however good the button user is, you can hit powerful angled topspin shots that aren't possible with the buttons to drag your opponent way off the court, you can hit deeper slices and use them as extremely effective approach shots, you can hit deeper lobs which when timed right can even lob the CPU on superstar difficulty, you have a wider range on volleys and have a better chance of them leaving your racquet with far more pace than with the buttons, and your serve speeds are far more consistent and always near the maximum speed your player can reach. The only shot the TRC is useless for is flat shots, stick with the A button for them.
    The game itself is extremely fast paced, with players moving at a ridiculous pace a lot of the time and a lot of shots feeling like they're travelling at the speed of light, but the shots themselves feel excellent, you can feel and hear the weight of a perfectly hit flat shot unlike Top Spin where it sounds more like you're playing badminton.
    There are many gaps in the gameplay though that can be exploited (although take it from me there really is no need to if you have any skill) these are things such as smash rushing where you can simply hit a lob then run to the net and volley the opponent's smash away for an easy winner, you can hit drop shots when your opponent is at the net and he won't be able to take a couple of steps back and stop his player playing a terrible volley which gives you an easy passing shot chance, and in online matches there is an exploit where an opponent using a player with high power can slice down the line and it will cause your player to do a ridiculous uncontrollable lunge towards the ball regardless of your position on the court.
    But these are simply exploits, you don't have to use them if you want to play the game properly, to summarise this part I will say this: An absolutely excellent game of tennis can be played on GST2, you just need to learn the intricacies of the game and have the right person on the other side of the net playing you for it to be possible

    Game Modes

    The game features all the modes you would expect from a tennis game such as play now matches (singles and doubles) a career mode and online H2H and an interesting addition that is the ESPN Grand Slam Classics mode which puts you in control of 1 player involved in some of the most memorable and epic matches the sport has seen and achieving various secondary objectives during them (hitting the infamous diving winner with Becker for example). They are split up into 5 sections, 2000's,1990's,1980's, All-time and Fantasy matches which pit the legends and current players against each other in a full match played from the start (Best of 3 sets for the female's and best of 5 for the men's).

    The career mode is poorly structured and extremely repetitive, you start off with an overall of 35 and ranked 100 and work your way up to become #1 and a 'Grand Slam Legend' sounds great right? It isn't. The 1st 2 years will be a cakewalk for anyone and should consist of training + exhibition before a Grand Slam, you can play pre-tournaments as well but in my opinion they are a waste of time unless you're way behind on your season's objectives which are only ever 3x hit 25 or 50 winners of a certain type, 2x win at a certain Grand Slam court, 2x win semi-final match at a certain pre-tournament (don't bother with these seriously), 2x win a match at a certain non Grand Slam arena and 1 reach a certain rank.
    Once you get to year 3 the difficulty spikes dramatically and for people who haven't played on pro or superstar difficulty up to this point you will struggle at first without a doubt, the difficulty appears to stay at the same level from there onwards though so once you adapt to it you should be ok for the rest of the career. The same pattern of training,exhibitions and Slams should continue until you reach 67,500pts and unlock the final pair of shoes, then unless you really love the career you should simply skip every event until the end of your 10th year when you receive 50G for finishing career ranked #1. EA really disappointed with just how little effort appears to have been put into the career mode.

    Online

    This is where the most fun is to be had with the game and where you won't get the same style of play every match like you will vs the CPU on superstar difficulty, if you have unlocked any of the performance boosting gear in career for your player you can equip them with it and gain up to an extra 60pts for your player which will take their overall up to 85 and give you a helping hand online.
    The community isn't dead yet but it is a pretty dedicated group of players who are left now so if you were to start playing online now expect to see a lot of certain players. There are 2 main modes of online play, your standard H2H and online tournament which has you going through 5 rounds to win, sadly this mode is basically dead so online H2H is the obvious choice, despite the relatively small community there is still a wide range of players, there's good ones, bad ones, defensive players, serve-volleyers, smash rushers, lob abusers, basically you can still find any style of player you can imagine at some point in the day.
    If you really start enjoying this section of the game and get to somewhere in the region of 2000 overall skill points or anything above take my advice here and avoid a player called ndm716, he's a cheat and it is well known amongst the people who have played him regularly, how he has not been banned by now is beyond me as it has been going on with him for over 3 years, how do I and these others know he cheats? Well go into a match with the CPU on Pro/Superstar difficulty, play a long enough rally so that your player gets tired, let the CPU come to the net (which will eventually happen if it hasn't already) and attempt a lob up the line, the CPU will smash cross-court every time and despite the fact you know exactly where it is going you will never be able to reach the ball and get it back, but ndm? he can do that very thing with extremely slow players like Roddick or the Williams' sisters even when they are completely tired and playing vs a 100 power player, he'll get to the smash, then from near the edge of the arena will hit a drop shot and even if you do the very same thing and just drop it back over the other side of the net he will cover probably around 3/4 of the width of the arena with a player who is completely gassed and reach it, and just to put it into perspective try it vs the CPU, you and me will struggle to go from 1 tram line to the other when tired, but that's just 1 of many things, I would probably end up with a review longer than a Harry Potter book if I wrote what I've seen and what many other people have told me they've witnessed in matches vs him. In short just avoid the guy.

    Conclusion

    A tennis game that is underrated and often dismissed by the majority simply because most people are too lazy to learn the game properly and realise it's full potential, there is a fantastic game of tennis within GST2, it just isn't as obvious or as simple as people would like it to be. As a game I would give it 4 stars but from a personal point of view there is no way I can't not give it 5. If you have any questions, problems or anything you could add to my review please leave them in the comments section.

    Oh and if anyone ever wants to play either message me on here or Xbox Live.
    5.0
  • Tiger MayhemTiger Mayhem426,760
    29 May 2012
    0 1 0
    This is a refreshing change from the usual Virtua Tennis series,realism aplenty here,with Wimbledon,Roland Garros,ect along with all the top players past & present with stunning graphics,Becker,Borg,Sampras and many more for you to pick your wits against.How the players actions have been recreated is very clever indeed,Sampras's economical but deadly serve,Beckers rocking serve,plus all the Nadal fidgeting & scratching before serving!! (tennis fans will understand that) The new serve engine where you use your right stick is tricky at first,when you get used to it though its very rewarding indeed,not sure about completion hours wise however im hammered it for the first 3 hours for 300g,so its not to bad,and definately not boring in any way,with Career/Scenario modes from different Tennis generations to choose from,i would say its the best Tennis game so far but to be honest thats not saying much really,although Tennis fans like me will enjoy it.
    4.0
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