It’s almost two months – and two updates – since my first review of AFL: Evolution.
I gradually worked my way up to the hardest level (LEGEND), thinking at its best, the game is playable – on par with its predecessors.
On LEGEND, however, AFL: Evolution is unplayable. Message boards are rife with gameplayers complaining about how impossible it is. The game’s been patched and some things have been improved (e.g. the dumb advantage rule, which paid advantage the moment a player from the team awarded the free touched the ball), but most of it just makes a mockery of gameplaying.
The biggest issue isn’t that the computer (referencing consoles or computers) outplays you, but that it outplays you through double standards. Got a bit of space and want to wind up for a big kick? Oh wait, you’re tackled in the process of the interminable wind up.
The computer? No problem, a big and immediate kick. Want to hit a teammate with a handball? Well, maybe. The computer will hit teammates from all distances (sometimes upwards of twenty metres), all angles, regardless of how many players you have in the way.
You’re tackled and constantly get pinged for throwing the ball – for some reason, this keeps happening. I finished one game with a 12–1 free kick count because my players kept throwing it, the one free kick I did get coming in the last thirty seconds after I put the controller down.
Tackle the computer and they will either get away a perfect disposal – an infuriatingly perfect disposal – or they’ll hold onto it and not be pinged. Kicking at goal on the run? Take your chances as to your accuracy.
The computer? It is insanely accurate (they kicked 14.1 in one game), regardless (this word is being used again – that should tell you something) of distance, angle, or conditions. Bump somebody in a marking contest or off the ball? Bang. Ump gets you just about every time.
The computer? They play a style of game more befitting the 1970s, bumping your players to the ground and pretty much always get away with it. And on how many occasions will you time things (e.g. marks, rucking) perfectly (being told your timing was GOOD) and still lose out?
This is not fun. Why would Wicked Witch think this is fun? It’s not enjoyable to be undone by double standards. It’s one thing to be outplayed. But this is being outplayed because there’s two different sets of rules. Compounding that is the terrible interface.
The computer will play a short, chipping game that a) you have no time to respond to, and b) sometimes, you can’t respond to because the camera scrolls so slowly that by the time it catches up with where the ball has gone, the action’s already in the process of happening, or has happened.
(AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
And the icing on top is the absurdly dumb AI. When in attack, players spread when you need them close, and they stay close when you need them to spread. Defensively, they don’t attack the ball, they follow opponents who are not running to dangerous parts of the ground instead of coming back to play. They leave opponents who need to be manned up only to be caught in no man’s land, impacting neither the ball carrier, nor the opponent they’ve left.
Then there’s just stupid things in the interface. When choosing your team, you could have an icon next to a player’s name, signifying they’re unavailable (either through injury or suspension, or possibly because they no longer want to take part of this travesty either). But you’re not told how long they’re unavailable for. To find that out, you need to leave team selection go into some other sub-menu. Why? How is that logical? How is that expedient? Why is all that information not available where it matters – in team selection?
As an aside, there are options to have a career just as a player – this means you can play as a single player for a team. You have a choice of either as an existing player, or by creating your own player from scratch.
In the case of the latter, you start with moderate stats and have to build up. Okay, that’s fair enough. But why is speed such a radically improvable statistic? Surely a player is quick or they’re not. They might build up a little through conditioning, but a turtle doesn’t become a hare.
Some of the other stats are similarly questionable. Young players might begin their careers with great skills or strong hands (for marking) and just keep getting better. But AFL Evolution approaches it that you’re just largely a lump.
They also don’t have the one stat that matters – form (this could influence how well you play) or have tiered selection (e.g. coming up through the lower leagues).
Running around as a single player for your team is a nice concept, but comes – like much of the game (so why be surprised?) – amazingly undone. Go for a couple of sprints, and you lose endurance to the extent that the coach drags you.
You’re then given the option of watching the game unfold, or simulating it until the end. Surely, there should be an option to simulate it until you’re put back on? However, having said that, why would you sit on the bench for a quarter or more (if not the rest of the game) replenishing endurance in the modern game? How realistic is that?
How realistic is it that players have only a couple of sprints in them and then have to lope around until their endurance goes back up? Watching the modern game, are players really just cantering around and injecting the occasional sprint or two every quarter? Is that the way elite midfielders play?
Does Patrick Dangerfield just jog around for the bulk of a quarter, and put in the occasional big sprint?
Worse is that following any stoppage, the game resets you to your position. So if you’re a midfielder and the ball goes through for a behind, you’re a) reset to the middle of the ground, and b) suddenly have your direct opponent back on you. Why? Often (like, all the time) the positional reset makes no sense.
You might’ve streamed into an open goal, kicked a behind, and then you’re back in the centre (if you’re a midfielder). And why the hell does your opponent just get stuck back on you? Surely it would be better if you remained where you were following a stoppage, and your opponent had to find you. It certainly doesn’t work the other way around. Again, double standards.
At any level other than LEGEND, and against a human opponent, the game can be enjoyable, but no more than either of its predecessors, which aren’t antiquated now because of gameplay, but playing lists.
If they updated their playing lists, you’d be where AFL: Evolution is now. Is this truly as far as we’ve come? AFL Live was released in 2011 (and, despite its own idiosyncrasies, remains a superior game in gameplay), and AFL Live 2 (by Wicked Witch) in 2013.
Have we advanced so little in addressing how those games could be improved? As I said in my original review, how is it that AFL 98 (almost twenty years ago) has a better gaming engine than games designed for systems astoundingly more capable?
I’m extremely disappointed. And the issues in AFL: Evolution border on recall-and-refund-worthy, but it seems almost as if they’re banking on the goodwill of the game (of Australian rules), the fanaticism of us (the sporting public), and a blind optimism to invest exorbitant amounts of money (I paid one hundred bucks) so we can enjoy our own national sport, the way followers of other sports enjoy incarnations of their games.
Nope – no more.
I’ve poked around the net and, for the most part, AFL: Evolution scores 6/10 ratings – just a little above average. No, that’s generous. AFL: Evolution not only does nothing we haven’t seen before, but introduces a set of frustrating glitches that’ll either have you scratching your head, or shouting at the stupidity of the game.
If you’re prone to hurling controllers around the room, AFL: Evolution is sure to satisfy you.
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