Better than every other poker game, but poker is just not meant to be a videogame.
First things first: World Poker Tour is the best poker game on the market. The game play is superior to any other, and more options are available. The graphics could use some work, but it is still a very playable game.
A poker game can only have so many features that can still make it a true poker game. World Poker Tour has gone very far in the making of a true-to-life poker game, yet it still lacks. WPT has a career mode in which your start out with a chunk of money, and play as a poker amateur and go through 10 tournaments before finally going on to the WPT Season Championship. Each one of these tournaments has a specific casino and city based on a true place. The tournaments have three different events: Satellite, Super Satellite, and Tournament Finale. The Satellite event is a quick poker game in which if you win the table, you get a free entry to the Super Satellite. The Super Satellite is a bit bigger, and if you finish in the top 10, you get another free entry, this time to the tournament finale. The tournament finale has 100 contestants, and the top 20 poker players end up with a money prize.
The artificial intelligence is alright in World Poker Tour. The only problems with the computer players is that they are suckers for bluffing, they are very predictable and you can read them like a book, and there are way too many checks by the AI. Even if they have a good hand, it seems they’d much rather check than bet a bit of money. The bluffing might just be the incapability to make the AI adapt to different playing styles. Or they might not be able to read hands very well. Either way, it is still very easy to win with a terrible hand. 2K Sports could have done a better job with the AI.
This method of tournament set-up is in every one of those ten tournaments before moving on to the WPT season championship. In this tournament you must finish in the top six in the season money earnings. If you qualify you get the chance compete in a six-man table to win the championship!
Once you win the amateur level, you may proceed to the next difficulty. There are many difficulties, so it is possible to play for quite awhile. If you really want to play this game completely through, you have to have plenty of time on your hands. However, once you go through the season even once, the game could get a bit repetitive.
At the start of your career you customize your player. But the customization does not end at the beginning of the game. During WPT, you may win chips by completing certain objectives. These objectives can be as simple as beating a pair or something as difficult as getting a royal flush. With these chips, you can buy many accessories for your player, such as hats, glasses, shirts, pants, rings, earrings, shoes, and more. These options are fun to play with in any career mode, and there is a relatively good variety of different options.
There is also the very welcome online capability in World Poker Tour. This is quite refreshing, as playing against a computer in a game of poker can be a bit unreal. However, it is almost impossible for a new player to jump into the online game, as the majority of games have certain money restrictions. On top of that, there aren’t many games to play. At most, you will be able to see five game rooms online at a time.
WPT has ugly graphics. The graphics in World Poker Championship were downright horrible, and haven’t improved very much from its predecessor. The players actually look ugly. You can use facial expressions, but you can’t really tell by looking at them. The backgrounds in the casinos are a bit nice, but they are hardly ever shown. There aren’t really any cut scenes either, unless you win the tournament, and even then it’s still one of the ugliest scenes you’ll ever see. In a game so simple, the graphics are hideous.
In addition, the sound is even worse. There is basically no music at all in this game, which in turn can make the game pretty boring. The only slightest drop of music you’ll hear is in the main menu, and even it isn’t much at all. The commentary is pretty annoying too. Sure, WPT has brought in their real commentators from TV, but they don’t have very much to say, and it is repeated way too often. It shows that 2K didn’t work much on commentary. There are a couple quirks and yells that are said every so often, but that is also repeated too much. Then there are also the player sounds, which are a nice addition to the game, yet, they didn’t seem to have much polish either. It is pretty cool to hear them talk a bit like in a real life poker game, but this is more like a two-year-old kid repeating the same thing over again. And when playing as a woman, she will talk deeply in a man voice. This is either a mistake, or the graphics are so incredibly bad that it’s possible to mistake a man for a woman.
There are some pretty cool options in this game though. You can create a game, in which you play almost any kind of poker known to man. This is a very nice option for learning new games. This is what most players will probably end up doing when they’ve beaten the game numerous times, because it creates a whole new learning option to poker enthusiasts.
You can also go to “Poker Corner” and watch poker tips shown by a few pros, amateurs, and Shana Hiatt - WPT’s way of attracting males. These tips are useful for the game of poker in general, but a bit useless for playing against the AI.
Overall, World Poker Tour is a good game to get only if you like poker. It doesn’t have the longest lifespan out there, but it does have a lengthy career mode that you might want to try out. The graphics don’t really make much of an impact even though they are terrible. The sound is a disappointment, but the gameplay makes up for it. Seriously, if you want to learn about poker, start here, and then move on to friends and family. If not, do not buy this game. Give it a rent.