In tennis you must keep moving to prevent from being caught flat footed, yet the game isn’t always up to the task. Whether you have the movement assist on or off, your player is occasionally unresponsive. Movement is a problem when it comes to changing direction. However, too many times these happen seemingly out of thin air. When these occur due to strategic rallies and/or a well-hit and placed shot, that’s great. Perhaps this phenomenon influences the title’s high number of outright winners, where a player hits a clean, unreturnable shot. Players also give up unexpectedly on balls that look like they can be chased down. You and your opponents can seemingly teleport a short distance to all of a sudden make a shot – an issue that is even more egregious online. Players’ movements don’t always synch up with expected shot animations, which can produce some surprising outcomes.
It’s not a loss in straight sets, but it’s a defeat nevertheless.
Rough spots in the gameplay, including wonky animations and that dreaded feeling that some outcomes are pre-determined, undermine a game that nevertheless includes an admirable career mode. Flow is important in tennis, but it’s hard to get in the groove in AO Tennis 2.
