Rugby
union fans have been starved for authentic video game representations
of their beloved sport for years now, with the last truly strong rugby
game being Rugby 08. Sadly, Rugby 15 is not the game to break the drought. In fact, it’s an utter disaster.
Of all the various sports that share the ‘football’
classification, rugby union is one of the trickiest for newcomers to
wrap their heads around thanks to a myriad of rules and complexities.
While scoring points is the same logic as other forms of
football—getting a ball across a try line or kicking a ball between goal
posts—converting kick-off to try time involves a number of key set
pieces.
For instance, ground is gained by a kicking game, that’s
governed by specific rules of whether the ball lands out on the full,
bounces before the out-of-play line or is
Take the helm of official teams
and clubs from the most prestigious leagues: the Aviva Premiership
Rugby, the PRO 12 and, in a world exclusive, the TOP 14 and PRO D2!
caught on the full behind the 22-metre
line and ‘marked’. The team in possession of the ball can run as many
phases as they like, unless there’s an infringement or they kick the
ball. When tackled, the player holding the ball must release it, as
players from both sides pile in and form a ruck, which can only be
entered from the side. Scrums and mauls can be used to drive the ball
across the try line or gain precious metres, while line-out kicks are
essential for gaining ground.
In short, rugby union is a tricky game to learn, and
developer HB Studios deserves kudos for condensing the complexities of
the game into a relatively simple arcade-style control scheme.
Unfortunately, for gamers hoping
Rugby 15
will be the gateway to understanding union, there’s a lack of a
meaningful tutorial, or any specific training modes for the various
components of the sport. Instead, you’ll have to learn by way of ten
static training screens and in-game control reminders.
For the most part, the controls are all very easy to come
to grips with, but it almost instantly comes apart after kick-off. As I
played, it became increasingly clear to me that the gameplay stops and
starts based on what the player is doing. While it’s nice to be at the
centre of the action, it makes for boring rugby, as both sides stand
around waiting for you to act.
For instance, at kick-off, your AI teammates only start
moving after you’ve fully completed the drop-kick start of play, and the
kicker stands stuck on the spot for a second or two before being able
to move. Even if you switch players immediately after kicking, it’s
impossible to perform cheeky ten-metre starts/restarts that give you the
opportunity to gain possession and make easy ground.
Similarly, there were times when I pulled the ball out of
the back of a ruck and just stood there watching the opposing team stand
around, oblivious to my possession until I took a step forward. The
best tactics were to deliberately relinquish possession to gain easy
metres. I found the most successful and repeatable tactic, regardless of
difficulty level, was to perform a box-kick from the back of a ruck to
gain ground. As long as the kick stayed on the field and outside of the
22-metre line (where the AI will take a mark), it’s incredibly easy to
force a turnover.
Basic tackling is as easy as guiding your selected player
into the opposing player with the ball. Or any opposing player for that
matter, as you never seem to get penalised for tackling players that
aren’t carrying the ball. In fact, outside of ruck infringements, I
rarely got penalised for anything. Forward passes were never noticed or
penalised, whether performed by me or the opposing team, and off-side
penalties were only awarded about ten percent of the time.
As for ruck penalties, they’re incredibly easy to avoid.
Once the player carrying the ball is tackled, you have to push the right
stick into a predetermined sweet spot that rushes from red to yellow to
green, then you can take possession of the ball. Attempting to take the
ball when the meter is red results in an instant penalty; yellow is a
risky grab that may result in a penalty (and is, surprisingly, easier to
get away with in hard difficulty); while green is safe to grab, except
when the referee erroneously pings you from time to time for a legal
grab.
The ruck mechanic is glitchy when in possession of the
ball, meaning I had to hit the right trigger to release the ball before
attempting to play the meter game. If I didn’t do this,
Rugby 15
stopped registering controller input for a few precious seconds. This
is a problem that plagues that PlayStation 3 version of the game more
than anything else (also outside of rucks). Given the specific way
you’re forced to ruck, it’s best not to be in possession of the ball
until you’re within ten metres of the try line, so you don’t have to
deal with the incredible frustration of losing possession because the
game bugs out.
Even on the supposedly hard difficulty, it’s incredibly
easy to win back possession in a ruck once you learn the right-stick
sweet spot and perfect timing combination.
By far the biggest problem I had with
Rugby 15,
though, was that it rarely felt as though skill or tactics played into
scoring tries. When running with the ball, you can flick the right stick
up or down, or twirl the stick around completely, to sidestep
opponents, but even that mechanic only seemed to work sporadically for
me.
The game seems to predetermine the outcome of specific
plays before the animation occurs, resulting in an inability to pass the
ball if it decides you’re about to be tackled, or a lack of a sidestep
if that stationary player in front of your guy is destined to take you
down. Similarly, partial AI control over the player-controlled
footballer means that sidesteps and fends automatically occur at the
game’s discretion, while players will regularly run off on their own
accord, even if they have the human-controlled icon above their heads.
It feels more like rugby roulette than rugby union.
When you eventually make it to the trial-and-error-style
try-scoring mechanic, you’ll discover that there are two ways to score a
try. The first, game-encouraged option is to click in the left or right
stick to score a try. This proved to be a risky manoeuvre, though, as
full-speed players had a tendency to dive over the dead-ball line,
resulting in a penalty. Even the opposing team was guilty of this on one
occasion, in an uncontested try opportunity.
The second, guaranteed option for scoring a try is to run
your player over the try line and wait to be tackled. There’s no option
to get a player beneath a try attempt to stop them touching down the
ball, and a button for charging down a kick is sorely lacking. While
there’s no sprint option, stamina didn’t appear to come into play
(despite its presence in the options menu), and pursuing players rarely
catch up to a running player, even if their stats determine they should
be able to.
There are rare moments where the intended gameplay formula
bounces to the top of the heap, and local co-op/competitive play
improves the rhythm as it helps get around dealing with the atrocious
AI. Local multiplayer has its own specific issues, however, particularly
in regard to the weird system of tracking and switching players during
co-op.
It’s worth noting the game looks decidedly last-gen, with dated
visuals that can become confusing in certain matches where jersey
colours are indistinguishable between friend and foe, especially when
you consider how frequently players flock in front and behind the
off-side line. The PlayStation 3 version of
Rugby 15
is particularly ugly, with a lower resolution, darker presentation,
plenty of jaggies and a terrible frame rate, to boot. Combine the
unappealing visual presentation with the aforementioned game woes, and
the PS3 version is unplayable in its current form.
The Verdict
I went in to
Rugby 15
with the hope that the arcade presentation would result in a fun,
pick-up-and-play rugby game, but my expectations were quickly tackled by
a never-ending stream of bugs and paradoxical design decisions.
Overall, this is an experience that’s so broken it’s hard to recommend.
The best thing you can do is pass.
