TopSpin 2K25 - Review
TopSpin is a name that has become synonymous with quality tennis video games over the past couple of decades, the first installment of the game was released way back in 2003 for the original Xbox (with versions coming later for the PC in 2004 and the PlayStation 2 in 2005.) Most versions of TopSpin have been released to favourable reviews, with the last installment, TopSpin 4 being released back in 2011, so tennis fans have been starved of some good video game tennis action for a long while, that is all about to change as 2K Sports are urging everyone to pick up their virtual tennis rackets again with the release of TopSpin 2K25. Development has once again been given to the folks behind the great TopSpin 4, but also the developers of the mediocre TopSpin 4 for Wii. The team formally known as 2K Czech, now Hangar13 has stepped back onto the course, so did they continue the success of the former, or is more like a double fault of the latter?
TopSpin 2K25 is described as a revival of the beloved tennis franchise and boasts a roster of 25 playable real life tennis pros including Roger Federer And Serena Williams (with more to be added for free after release) an academy training center voiced by the one and only John McEnroe, competitive single player (including a career mode), and multiplayer modes with all four historic grand slam tournaments and an incredible selection of 48 unique courts for you to play on.
When you load up the game for the first time, I highly recommend that you jump into the TopSpin Academy which is the games tutorial mode, not only will you get to listen to John McEnroe giving you a masterful narrative performance guiding you through the intricacies of the game, but it will save yourself a lot of time and frustration later on. TopSpin Academy does a decent job of guiding you through the workings of the game in three separate sets of lessons from basic and advanced through to lessons on the various playstyles available to players. There are also lessons that explain the timing of precision shots and power shots, basic and advanced serving, dropshots, volleys and of course, top spin. Timing your shots is done by pressing the button corresponding to the shot you want within a timing window that is displayed on screen or holding down a button and releasing it within the window for a power shot.
The tutorial can get a bit confusing in some lessons when explaining this as sometimes good ole John McEnroe will tell you need to be clicking a button when you need to actually be holding it down and then releasing it, it’s enough to make you smash a racket in frustration and call the umpire a couple of choice names while you are at it! A move also know as a McEnroe, oh and speaking of smashing rackets, or in this case controllers, it is something you might find yourself tempted to do when you first take to the court and try to hit a few shots, even after going through the tutorials, I found that the timing and the entire control system just didn’t click with me and I had an absolutely frustrating experience in my first few games even trying to score a point on my opponents. Bit by bit though the timing becomes second nature and suddenly everything just clicks and boy does it feel good when it does and you smash your first power shot with perfect timing past your opponent. The hitting mechanics feel great in this game, it just takes a while till your brain gets to the point where it all syncs together, so try not to get discouraged or frustrated if you do not get it at first.
MyCareer is the mode where most of the meat of the game lies, and it is probably the mode that most people will spend the most time in. If you are familiar with other sports games this is the place where you get to create a player, male or female, and give birth to your dreams of becoming a pro tennis player. I was surprised by how comprehensive the character creation suite was and I think it would be hard to find anyone who is disappointed by the number of options you can change, tweak, and customise when creating your character, you can even change the frequency of times your character grunts and groans and on what particular shots they do so. The amount of clothing you can outfit your character in, both licensed and unlicensed, is also impressive and you can win and purchase even more gear by completing challenges and using in game currency.
Once you have created your character and are happy with the results then it is time to step onto the world stage and smash the ever-living crap out of some tennis balls. Whilst MyCareer mode in TopSpin doesn’t have the type of depth that the mode does in the NBA2K series of games it is certainly no slouch when it comes to the amount of options you have either. As is usual with career modes in sports games the goal is to elevate yourself from being the new kid on the block up to the heights of being the best in the world at your craft, and the way you do this is by winning. Each month your player has three options available to them and they can partake in as many or little of them as they wish, though each one you participate in will end up costing you some of your available energy.
Training is the first one and this will allow you to choose between training activities which if you complete successfully will net you experience points for your player. Special events are the second activity available, and these will be challenges against other players where you have the chance to win different courts to play on and also outfits for your player, the last activity is the tournaments themselves where you can compete in anything from TS 250 tournaments all the way through to Grand Slams. If you do all 3 activities each month you are going to quickly going to start running out of energy and will need to take off to recuperate, so career mode becomes a juggling act of trying to participate in as much events as you can while trying to maintain your energy levels as playing in tournaments with low energy can be risky and result in injuries which will force your player into taking time off the court.
All the experience you earn on the court can be spent on customising your player to fit in with your playstyle, you can spend points on upgrading all parts of your game from your serve through to your volley, your speed on the court and also your overall stamina, there is a lot of freedom here to create the type of player you want. In addition to upgrading your player you can also hire coaches who provide different types of boosts to your stats, coaches can also be upgraded and the boosts they provide made stronger by fulfilling the tasks they set out for you. Career mode is engaging and a lot of fun even after playing around ten hours of it, I do wonder how about the long-term appeal of the mode though especially once you have your player fully maxed out, you can take your created player into online matches though, which is nice.
There are other modes apart from MyCareer of course, you can play offline exhibition matches in either singles or doubles mode against the computer or you can play local multiplayer singles or doubles with human partners. There is also an online exhibition mode with skill-based matchmaking and cross-platform play, multiplayer modes against friends are also planned to be included in the near future. 2K Tour mode allows you to pick your favourite pro player and take them into an online match, each day there will be new challenges based around pro players that will net you tournament points and allow you to climb the official 2K online ladders. World Tour is where you can take your created player from career mode and challenge other people online, this is where I envision spending most of my time with the game once I get tired of career mode, unfortunately I wasn’t able to try out any of the multiplayer modes during the review period as I simply couldn’t get the matchmaking to work, even during the special press event, I suspect that this was due to the fact that with all the different time zones there just wasn’t enough people online to support multiplayer and that once the game launches there shouldn’t be any problem finding a game.
Graphically the game looks good, especially when it comes to the lighting and most of the animations, the only area where the game really fails graphically is with created players faces, they tend to look all uncanny valley when viewed close up, the models of the pros included in the game do look fantastic though. Presentation is a bit of a mixed bag, the sweeping views of the court and players walking into the arena are great at setting the mood for the game as are the crowds that whoop and yell at the end of every point, all of this is let down by the fact that there is no commentary at all in the game which I feel is a major let down especially when they had John McEnroe on board for the tutorial component of the game, I have never seen players argue a point with the umpire while I have been playing either and though the players do show emotions from time to time there doesn’t seem to be really be a varied range, so they get boring pretty quick. The crowd, ambiance, and the sounds of the ball hitting your racquet are fantastic though, and it is satisfying to hit a power shot with perfect timing and hear your player yell as they hit an unreturnable shot.
Tennis games live and die by how well they control and in my first few hours of play I thought this was an area of the game that Hangar13 really messed up on. Even after completing the tutorials a few times, I was still struggling to be competitive in matches, even on easy difficulty, it was a frustrating time, but then the game and it’s timing just clicks with you and before you know it you are hitting perfectly timed power shots, slams and lobs all over the court and that's where you start to understand the brilliance of the control system that Hangar 13 have designed, this really is one of the most pleasing Tennis games I have ever had the pleasure to play and the way you it rewards you for playing with skill makes the game incredibly addictive.
This is a 2K Sports game, so this is the part of the review where we address the elephant in the room, you know, the elephant with ‘VC’ and ‘Season Pass’ tattooed across its sides in giant florescent letters, it is also being ridden by a giant demon, with a whip, the whip is also on fire and its coming for your wallet. The game has 6 planned season passes, you get these all for free with the Grand Slam Edition, they can be purchased individually as well but unfortunately, I have no idea of the cost of the individual seasons as the price wasn’t showing in the shop, possibly because I already owned all the season passes. The good news about the season passes, if the first one is anything to go buy is they seem easy to complete and you will earn a lot of rewards just from going about your business playing the game. They also don’t end when the next season comes along which means you can fully complete the season pass you have paid for and not worry about how long it is going to take you, even though I am not a big fan of paid season passes I am a big fan of letting people finish the season pass they paid for and not having an end date for it. VC (the games currency) can be bought at the rate of 500 for $8.45 AUD and can be used on anything from clothing for your players through to experience boost tokens for matches, having experience boost tokens is something I am not a fan of as it skirts the line of pay to win or at least pay to get there faster. Season passes and virtual currency are part of today's gaming climate, so I am not going to into an old man rant and start yelling at clouds about how much I dislike this type of thing, nobody listens anyway, at least in TopSpin the pricing isn’t too over the top.
I was really impressed by TopSpin2K25, the game looks and sounds great for the most part, the career mode is engaging and the game controls beautifully and provides some engrossing and utterly addictive gameplay, there is a great base here for Hangar 13 to build on and hopefully this is just the start of a massive revival run for the franchise. Game, Set, Match! Tennis is back in a big way, and I am loving every minute of it.
The Score
7.5
Review code provided by 2K
The Pros
Ambient sounds are great and really help to set the atmosphere, the soundtrack is also pretty damn good.
Control scheme is an absolute delight once you get to grips with it.
Graphics, lighting and animations are great, all combined with a deep character creator makes for one visually impressive game...
The Cons
...However the games lack of audio commentary is a big ommision, which does mar the overall presentation of the game
Longevity may be an issue if there aren’t enough players to help the online modes flourish
VC and microtransactions, we all live in 2Ks world
