Top Spin 2 is a solid game of tennis, but suffers from a repetitive career mode.
The main mode in the game is your career. You start out by creating a character using the impressive character creator tool. This is very similar to the one in the Tiger Woods PGA tour golf games and lets you create your player to look like anybody you want. You then hire a trainer and begin your rise to the top by doing various training drills which are repetitive, but help you increase your character’s abilities. When you first start out you are ranked 200th on the overall rankings. Through training and playing in tournaments your goal is to reach #1 in the world. After choosing your character’s home country you will be presented with a rival from this country. They will always be from the country your player is and will race you to the top. They will occasionally challenge you to a match of tennis to prove who is better, but this rarely ever happens. Something that your rival does quite often is send you annoying messages every time you play in a tournament. Having said all that, this feature is mostly irritating and makes me want to quit playing.
However, something that keeps me playing this game is the addictive gameplay. Although the game is relatively easy overall, the higher ranked players can give you quite a challenge. Finding the right combination of shots to use against an opponent and getting back into place in time also makes this game tough at sometimes. Shots are set up on each of the four face buttons. The “X” button is the slice shot, the “Y” button is the lob shot, the “B” button is top spin, and finally the “A” button is the safe shot. The safe shot is the most common shot and always hits in-bounds no matter where you aim. Using these buttons along with the left and right triggers you can create a vast array of shots that are useful in different situations. The online mode in this game is virtually non-existent. I tried on several occasions to find a match and nobody was even online. This is a real shame considering about half of the achievements are obtained through online play.
The visuals in the game are somewhat unimpressive. This game looks like an Xbox game only with better lighting affects. The courts don’t look good at all and most of them look eerily similar to each other. The player models on the other hand look fairly decent with the player’s clothes moving very realistically.
The sound in the game is very basic. The sounds the players make when they hit a shot with effort doesn’t sound good at all, and the shot sounds themselves don’t sound anything like they should. The music is very annoying but only plays in the menus. This can be overridden by playing a custom soundtrack however.
If you’re looking for a good tennis game then I would suggest picking this up. Otherwise, this title is simply a rent because of the repetitive nature of the game.