Review

Stepping into the skipper's shoes

Cricket Captain 2015 is probably the most evolved version in its series, and while it lacks a few innovative features, it's a solid cricket management game

Videep Vijay Kumar
08-Aug-2015
Watch match highlights as you play  •  Childish Things

Watch match highlights as you play  •  Childish Things

A couple of things are abundantly clear right off the bat with Cricket Captain 2015: it doesn't have the prettiest interface, nor does it reek of polish, but underneath its seemingly ragged surface, it is very obviously a cricket management game. London-based developers Childish Things have been making Cricket Captain games for some years now, and this year's could well be their most evolved version yet.
The last Cricket Captain game I played was Empire Interactive's International Cricket Captain 2001, a game in which I discovered young genius Ambati Rayudu, who ended up opening for India in my own little alternate universe. That was a game I remember thoroughly, for its attention to detail, real-world squads (with player thumbnails, no less), and particularly for its match engine. The on-pitch action was visualised using 2D sprites - a refreshing change from the then nascent 3D engine that powered EA Sports' cricket games. Cricket Captain 2015, however, in line with its more immediate predecessors, sports a 3D match visualisation engine.
The game features domestic teams in three major countries: England, India and Australia. This is across all three formats (the IPL is not licensed, but you have access to all the players and statistics from the league). You will also be able to play series and tournaments as one of the ten Test-playing nations, in addition to being able to field teams of legends. There's also a classic England v Australia series game mode that lets you revisit tours of old - Botham's Ashes or the Australian triumph of 1958 under Richie Benaud.
There's enough to sink your teeth into in terms of scenarios, tournaments and series, but it's when you put on your manager hat that things begin to get expectedly interesting. You'll make monetary decisions involving contracts, recruit international talent, assign coaching and physio sessions to players, pick your teams, make real-time adjustments to team strategy, micromanage each player's aggression, and decide bowling line and length, field placement and batting style. All of this is sure to be overwhelming at first, and the lack of any kind of tutorial (as in last year's version), doesn't make things easier for newer players unfamiliar with the series.
There seems to be a lot happening under the hood, and you are given occasional feedback on how your decisions have affected the team or an individual player, but there's still a lack of quantifiable information. There are detailed statistics which can be reviewed to gauge player and team performance, but the absence of a meaningful attribute system means that you're still picking a team purely on batting/bowling averages, current form, fitness level and availability. I know this may sound ridiculous because that's what coaches and managers do, but the ability to watch a player in the nets, interact with him or see his potential is absent in a video game. The best substitute, for what it's worth, is a bunch of numbers. For instance, I would like to know if a batsman is an 8, with the potential to hit 10 at the end of a season given the appropriate training. On some level, these numbers are being crunched somewhere in the code of Cricket Captain 2015, and it's a shame they're not made available to the player.
The simulation engine works, but there's clearly a lot of room for improvement. The game lacks an objective-based player progression system. For instance, you could have it give you objectives for the season, simulate board and fan expectations from matches, and have a rudimentary media simulator that tells you what the press thinks of your team's performances. A player satisfaction engine would do nicely as well. These aren't particularly original ideas; they've existed in sports simulators and enhanced their immersive qualities for years.
The match engine, on the other hand, does feel realistic. T20s by default yield more boundaries and sixes, Tests feel well-paced, while the outcome of an ODI does come down to your strategy during crucial periods. The shorter the format, the more immediate the impact of your changes to tactics on the fly, while persistence is key in the longer versions.
The 3D visualisation is not the prettiest in the world, but it fits the bill nicely, as you see your players attempt to follow your instructions on the pitch, and it can be satisfying to watch when your strategies work.
There's definite time-sink potential in Cricket Captain 2015 for those in search for a cricket management simulator, if you're willing to overlook the lack of polish and innovative features. And while I can't comment on the improvements over last year's version (or the lack of innovation in general, as a result of the series being annualised), Cricket Captain 2015 is a good take on cricket management with the potential to be great.
Cricket Captain 2015
Childish Things
Platforms: PC, Android, iOS
Approximate prices: US$25, A$30, £17, NZ$34 (PC)