Melbourne-based Big Ant doesn’t have an easy job. It needs to take a fast, highly kinetic sport like rugby league and turn it into a video game for the same sort of budget the developers of the FIFA series presumably allocate to keeping pace with Cristiano Ronaldo’s haircuts.
The disparities in the budgets of Big Ant’s Rugby League Live series and top tier sporting kings like FIFA 13 and NBA 2K13 aren’t reflected at the cash register though; Rugby League Live 2 sells for just as much as its big bucks rivals. With that comes a level of expectation fans are entitled to possess.
2010’s Rugby League Live was poor on most fronts; light on features and plagued by frustrating gameplay quirks. Two years down the track and Rugby League Live 2 is a noticeably better effort. It still falls well short of great but it has improved in most areas. In some cases, significantly so.
The visual makeover is likely the first thing you’ll notice; the presentation has come along and there’s more detail in the players, who’ll be glistening with perspiration at the end
Rugby League Live 2
Rugby League Live 2 promises to deliver the hard-hitting action and excitement of the greatest game of all, accurately capturing the speed, creativity and strategy of today's Rugby league.
MUCH MORE of a match. Likenesses range in quality but the NRL’s most popular players are generally recognisable. Pre-game flourishes before big clashes help too; it adds to the atmosphere to see rep squads emerging from the tunnel through a phalanx of cheerleaders and a cyclone of confetti. The graphics won’t knock your teeth out but Rugby League Live 2 is certainly several steps up from its predecessor.
More important than looks, however, is the gameplay. The news here is mixed. Players no longer seem to teleport into tackles or skate around as much and, while the whole thing can’t quite shake that 2002 pre-canned feeling, the game speed and player movement certainly go further to resemble the sport far more than the original Rugby League Live ever did.
Tackling is one area of noticeable improvement. You’ve now got a low tackle that’s hard to fend but allows for offloads if you don’t get a second man in, as well as an arm-pinning tackle that will wrap the ball up but is easier to evade. There’s also a diving tackle for last-gasp try-savers. The best thing about the whole system is that you can now hold tackled players down to slow the pace and allow your team to get back onside.
Passing has been tweaked but unfortunately it’s surprisingly unreliable. The pass buttons themselves seem just as annoyingly fickle as ever and, more often than not, seem to simply ignore your instructions. Spreading the ball from the ruck or from a scrum is handled fairly well, with onscreen guide lines indicating where a player is going to run and face buttons over their heads allowing you to easily choose your receiver and throw a cut-out pass. Unfortunately, the quick pass left or right always seems to catch your first receiver with no momentum, and the deep cut-out passes are no better; they’re a safe pass at the expense of forward velocity. You can snap away flat cut-out passes to have your players running onto the ball with speed but the risk of interception ramps up to unacceptable levels.
Interceptions in general in Rugby League Live 2 are far, far too common; they’re incredibly frustrating and make flat cut-out passes generally too risky to bother.
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