At the business end of April, Big Ant Studios will release their newest iteration of the revered “Cricket” series – Cricket 22. Defined as the “Official game of the Ashes”, the title will come out a full 1.5 years ahead of the next series which is pencilled for August and September of 2023 and around a year after the last title was made available to play on consoles and PC. The new game will be playable on Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4 & 5 and Xbox Series X.

This game will, of course, appeal first and foremost to cricket enthusiasts, promising to immerse them in the ultimate cricket experience to date. There is also an inclination that there will be a built in appeal to those who aren’t necessarily avid fans of the sport in day to day life – with better playability (but not at the expense of realistic-ness) touted to draw in cricket casuals.

We’ve certainly seen a similar sentiment in the real life game of cricket in recent years, with Test cricket coming under scrutiny with the expansion of the game into other shorter formats. It makes complete sense for this to be reflected into the new game!

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Game Modes

All new career modes are set up with a built in ‘narrative driven’ story. This is set to deliver an immersive player experience where your character begins playing for their local grassroots team and battles their way up through the club, county and to the pinnacle of international test and (or) short format cricket.

There is also the possibility for you to play T20, Ashes, Big Bash, The Hundred and other high profile competitions.

Gameplay Mechanics

Red Ant have developed all new bowling & fielding controls which are targeting a much  smoother and snappier experience when playing as the team in the field. There were a few criticisms of the last title that the fielding was a bit inconsistent and buggy. These issues have supposedly been ironed out, which is good to hear for potential buyers of the game!

Playable Teams and Players

All major mens & womens international teams are playable in what has been described as “treasure trove” of licensed content. The only notable omission is the Indian Premier League, but with the other T20 formats included – this isn’t too much of a miss unless you’re a real die hard fan of the IPL and IPL alone.

Expect all the real names of the world’s cricket stars too – no Brian Lara cricket-esque name obscuring to save on the licensing fees. There is a reasonable likeness in terms of the aesthetics too, although if you compare it to other sporting games of late – there are clearly some budgetary restrictions in place.

Graphics

Completely overhauled graphics make this the best looking cricket game yet. Long have cricket games been the maligned cousin of the much better refined sports games like FIFA or NBA – perhaps the team at Big Ant will have that remedied with this latest launch. There certainly has been some improvement since the days of Brian Lara cricket on Playstation 2 & 3 and continued work in progressing the graphics

Other Stuff

An all new commentary team has been assembled featuring Michael Atherton, Ian Healy, Mel Jones, Alison Mitchell, and David Gower. They are on hand to call every boundary, wicket & change of ends. For the first time ever in a console sports title, there will be an all female commentary team built into the game.