AO Tennis 2 is a deep and rewarding simulation that offers much for the hardcore tennis fan. An initial difficulty wall will likely put a few players off, but for those that persist there is a rewarding and deep game of tennis to be found.

An imperfect and crude, but still surprising title.

Tennis feeling, the physical feedback of the shots, the animations, everything is in place but the responsiveness that allows to move with more agility on the field is still missing. AO Tennis 2 remains a little rough, but its talent is crystal clear.

As expected from Big Ant, AO Tennis 2 looks more like a big update of the previous version than a brand new episode, and once again largely relies on the community to complete the content. While still lacking some tennis expertise, the australian studio managed to optimize the gameplay, that finally shows its potential full of delicacy - in every sense of the word. The main additions focused on immersion emphasize this laudable quest for authenticity, although their rather limited impacts tend to exhibit the superficial side of this production, yet unfinished, but built on solid bases.

AO Tennis 2 is most certainly a great step in the right direction, with large improvements to animations, physics and general gameplay. In addition to these improvements, the career mode here is one of the more personal and engaging career modes you'll find in a sports title, up there with any other sports title, especially thanks to the extensive character customisation which lets you create just the person you want. AO Tennis 2 isn't perfect though, there are still some issues with the general feel of the fall and some game mechanics like movement being tied to the aiming of your shots, causing an overlap, but the improvements are there and there's no doubt that Big Ant Studios are making large strides.

AO Tennis 2 is one of those games that is neither good enough to deserve an applause nor bad enough to deserve harsh criticism. It's a tennis simulation with good gameplay, deep career mode, solid editor mode, weak animations, and not so good visuals, and some famous tennis players are not licensed as well. So in the end, it's hard to either recommend or not recommend it, as it really comes down to personal preferences rather the quality of the game.

While the presentation of the Australian Open is quite entertaining, the overall experience with its limited freedom of movement and strong focus on automatisms is mediocre at best.