Rugby 25 Reviews

The discourse around this game is honestly a bit shameful, and feels like people have just decided to sledge it to prove themselves right rather than actually how the game is. It. Is. Getting. Good Since release its uncrecognisable. Rucks, set pieces, competitions etc are all miles better and it is genuinely very fun to play. It is by no means perfect but clearly there's no lack of effort from Big Ant to keep improving it. Once tournament types are instituted such as pool stage it will genuinely be a finished article in the sense it will properly be able to be played for hours. Give them that chance as it's clearly where its going.

The game is still a work in progress, but it has improved greatly since first coming out. Do not expect a finished product at this stage if you're buying it. For that you'l probably have to wait a few months. Regular updates bring constant improvements, and while there are still a number of bugs to sort out and rules to implement, it does now feel like a game of rugby, but only if you play against a human opponent. The AI gameplay is too frustrating at this stage. Decision making is poor and nonsensical and along with the fact that every penalty results in the AI opting for a scrum, and the fact that its next to impossible to not collapse the scrum, means that I don't bother playing against AI. Personally I'd like gameplay to be snappier and tighter; right now controlling players feel a bit like driving an iceberg. Direction changes take ages and passes are often delayed, resulting in you hitting a gap only to pass the ball back into traffic. If you'll mostly be playing against AI then don't get the game right now. But if you'l be playing multiplayer against a local human opponent then I'd say its worth getting.

Catastrophically bad. The previous game worked a lot better. It feels like all the time spent on licenses could have been better spent on actually making the game playable. The latest update has made it impossible to change the starting XV. You make changes, lock them in, the new lineup appears, then you enter the game - old lineup. AI are next to useless - until they aren't. Unable to maintain an attack, yet AI giving away a penalty is incredibly rare. Controls work when they feel like it, pretty much half of all rucks the game does its own thing no matter what your controller inputs are. Sometimes offsides, knock-ons are given, other times the ref couldn't care less. Players will more often throw the ball into their own players rather than actually pass the ball. I really, really wanted this game to be good - they've managed to completely decimate the serviceable match engine from the previous game. Without a lot of further work, it's unplayable. Waste of £45, and unfortunately I realised that after just over 2 hours gameplay.

I have played this game since early access, but I have come back and forth into it intermittently. So I have seen the progress as a series of jumps. While I see progress, pretty much all of the main issues are still there. 1. The AI - I am yet to actually see a difference between the ai difficulty levels other than they turn you over more (which seems to be pot luck whether a ruck will go well or not). Despite the devs saying that they've patched them always taking a scrum penalty, it still happens A LOT! 2. The Teams - It's great that there are so many teams in this game, but why the heck was this such a big focus of the dev teams resource when the gameplay has been so rubbish. 3. The gameplay: Rucks - There is no skill here. whether you win or lose them seems entirely random despite their recent patch. The AI however, is a rucking genius even on easy. You can literally tackle the AI team behind the line and push them back down the pitch to their own 22 before they kick the ball away, and won't turn them over once. There is no mechanic for the first defender actually getting over the ball and turning it. There is no mechanic for the attacking team holding onto the ball and so no chance for any penalties in the ruck, which would massively improve the experience. I think it would also be a massive improvement if the passing options from the ruck had consistent button mapping (on the xbox controller A, B, Y and X often switch around so you can't plan an attack properly because you can't be 100% sure which player you're about to pass to). Passing - Passing has massively improved but support runners still run odd lines. doesn't matter anyway as you can't get past a defender without running sideways in ways you never see in an actual game. Scrums - They just don't work. they collapse all the time even if you get it right. even if I press to get the ball out, it doesn't always happen and the ref blows and I get stuck in a loop of never ending scrums collapsing and resetting. Mauls - They have no purpose in the game at the moment. They're easy to push back but you can't win a scrum or penalty from them, and the AI passes straight away anyway. General Play - Attacking is bland. it's just players passing in a line with no clear structure (despite a patch adding pods to the game). you can't have dummy runners behind the pods and the pods often aren't there anyway despite what the devs say. Just pass until the defender catches you. Hand offs and sidestepping are way too hard to do and barely ever work, but again the AI is a genius at these things!! Rugby 22 had all of the mechanics that made a rugby game interesting, it just needed refining a bit. It had actual pod structures and set plays and was just better overall. That is what the devs should go back to and implement the mechanics from that game into this new one. This Idea of basing it on the rugby league games just has not worked. I CERTAINLY DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS GAME CURRENTLY. I am happy to update this if or when I see it actually be worth buying for £45.

Criticism. The game is no where near complete. Players make a break in the line pass to beat the FB and then end up being blown for offside when they physically can't be offside but yet when I purposefully put my players offside they never get blown up for it. There are way to many inconsistencies. I've made and received high tackles and yet they never seem to be sin binned or sent off yet they get a 1 - 3 game ban. It's almost like the developers don't know the laws of the game. It's beyond a joke. No matter how many times you spam X (Xbox controller) to win a ruck it's next to impossible. I can't see how developers looked at this and played it and thought yes this is good to go! I do the exact same movements for spot kicks and its random to whether or not the kick connects properly. It's not worth buying. Intercepts are a joke the opposition is nowhere near the ball yet seems to intercept all the time. A loose pass seems to fly across the width of the pitch and if any of your players are near it no matter what you do they seem to be blind or not know how to pick up a ball. Where I think improvements need to be made. The commentary needs a lot of work, they always seem to be negative about what you're doing. I.e kicking for touch for a pen, even though you definitely make touch they always say that you've missed touch or words to that effect. When bringing on replacements, it could be the best player on the pitch and they would say he's had a bad game he needs to be replaced. I think they need to look at Rugby 22 and have a look at how they've made it so you can select which kind of play you want to make from a breakdown or set piece. If that's already an option it's not visible to me. There's no way of setting how deep you want the attacking line to be or how wide you want them either. I also think that when playing career mode you should be able to have more of an input to training sessions and actually be able to take part in them similar to Rugby 22 and this would give you a better opportunity to increase the skill level of the players in game. When you're selecting your team sheet maybe make it so that you can filter positions rather then having to scroll all the way up and down. This would make it easier for us as players to compare each player and their stats for that position. Conclusion for me I don't think i'll be playing this game until a lot of improvements have been made. I've looked forward to this game coming out and I've been massively let down. The only good thing I can say is that I'm glad they have official teams and players. Just a shame that everything else ruins it. I realise that this review is mainly negative but there is so much potential for this game to be a huge success. Unfortunately it's about as successful as Welsh Rugby right now. (Sorry Wales)

Alright... I know this game is not perfect. However, I'm putting my support behind it and had some excellent times. If you take the time to really really spam the tutorials, you can understand the game enough to have a lot of fun. It really can get bogged down, but I've had enough good times playing. I hate to say it, but this game is not worth $50. If you can get it for $30, playing "rugby" in a modern video game setting is more than worth it.

It still amazes me that despite the perfect rugby game having been created in 2007 (Rugby 08), there are a number of developers that fail to replicate a modicum of that success year after year. Team AI is atrocious - when trying to pass out of a ruck, the receiving player is running towards the ruck. Passes to a player not in the back-line but instead standing behind everyone else in the worst position to launch an attack. When swapping to the closest player in defence the player you swap to is often running away from the ball carrier. I have conceded many-a-try to this. Control responsiveness is non-existent. Good luck making that second pass. Swapping to the closest player often swaps to the fullback, which ruins any defensive line. Don't buy in this state. This shouldn't have been 1.0 and it most definitely shouldn't be AU$80

I have had the game on early access, and have played it mostly on my steam deck. I more or less give it a go daily - awaiting the Tuesday update for improvements. The early access was a challenge to play, but I had to finish a season of URC. With the full release and subsequent updates things have improved. As I really love a good rugby game - I feel the redant team are taking the community comments into account and trying to improve the game. Currently I am playing on the highest difficulty. What does need improving are: 1) scrums - they seem almost impossible to win on offence - might be a steam deck issue- but so far I have won many 3% of any scrum I have 2) offside penalty for forward passes - I’ve noticed this happens a lot in running play - especially with offloads. 3) the new stamina changes in difficulty - I hate it - nothing worse than breaking the line and your wing gets caught by a prop. Nevermind for any type of player - if the opposition is faster - ok fine - but not because his stamina runs out. Perhaps game sliders like in Madden could be applied to difficulty settings, meaning if you want to remove this , but enjoy other aspects of the difficulty settings, then you can. 4) high tackle - this does in some way mimick the frustrations of watching rugby today - where a high tackle can come from now where. But in the game you genuinely don’t know if your player will commit it or not, and then face a ban at the end of the match. In past games there were two tackle buttons - standard and hard tackle - standard could mean your opponent breaks the tackle - but no penalty, whereas hard tackle means the opposite. 5)rucks - there must be a way to bind more players to the ruck in order to win or lose the ruck - this is a fundamental of rugby - not enough players at the ruck can cost you possession. Also the speed at which the players arrive can be frustratingly slow. 6) mauls have very little impact - although here you have the ability to bind several players to it. Suggest more effect of a maul here, and the ability for the opposition to collapse it. 7) kicking - there needs to be a better pointer for the kicking - it’s too random and quite hard to pinpoint where you will kick. 8) tackling a player over the try line - always results in the defending team holding it up. This should be changed. 9) camera angles - sideline view can be fun, but I find the angle to be too low - zooming out just gives you a worse view Overall I will keep playing - I appreciate the changes that have been made so far. Also it is the ONLY rugby game you can play on steam deck.

At first, couldn't stand the gameplay, but as more and more patches and fixes have been released, the gameplay has become really enjoyable. Player creation and depth in teams and squads has always been a strong point but im very glad at the gameplay improvements and hope they can keep developing more

(I'm french but my review is in english so you Big Ant people get my message) "As a big fan of rugby and rugby games, I wanted to give Rugby 25 a chance given the progress made since the early access phase, and despite the majority of negative reviews. I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece, but my disappointment is still huge considering the gameplay experience I’ve just had. First, the positives: - It's clear that effort has been put into the graphics quality and animations. - The number of teams available is staggering. - The game itself simulates rugby correctly on many points, and the action can be fluid and almost realistic once you start mastering the basic controls, like simple or directed passes. - Overall, the foundations seem solid at first glance. - Frequent updates from the developers are a message that the team is dedicated to improving the product But... Where it hurts: - The rucks are poorly managed in the sense that it seems almost impossible to win a turnover, even when you have 2 or 3 more players than the opponent. And when, by chance, you win a contest, it’s hard to understand why or to prevent one of your players from doing a pick & go at that moment instead of calmly retrieving the ball with the nine. It's extremely frustrating because it gives a feeling of helplessness. - Numerous offside calls against me when I have the ball and am attacking. WHY ?? - Many offside calls after the ruck, because my player is automatically put in that position as soon as I press A to take possession. - Many rugby rules are either not considered or seem to be bugged. - Grounding the ball in your own in-goal after entering it = goaline dropkick for the defense instead of a 5-meter scrum for the attack. - I managed to execute a 50-22, but the opponent gets the ball to throw in the lineout. - No player repositioning in terms of normal positioning of forwards and backs. Instead of keeping the forwards around the ruck like in real life, players don't reposition, which can lead to situations where your right prop ends up on the wing facing a winger, whether on defense or attack. - Overall, AI players react with a big delay, whether it's with: Defensive lines Support runs Ruck clear-outs (3 players floating around instead of coming into the ruck, despite me repeatedly pressing the B button). - Numerous stability bugs. Soft lock on a lineout that doesn't trigger, forcing me to quit and restart the match in career mode. Crashes (at least 2 in 5 hours). - Useless kicking gameplay. - The UX is really not great. We can't even save changes to the team lineup or arrange the squad to sort players by position, so we don’t have to spend 15 minutes looking for players to put on the match sheet. - The player fitness management is quite ridiculous in career mode: Players take 3 weeks to get back to full fitness after playing a match, as if that were the case in real life. This creates situations where after 3 or 4 matches, all your players are half-dead before the match even begins. All this to say that despite my desire to support this game and Big Ant's effort, the disappointment with the state of the game and the frustrating experience I had led me to request a refund, and this is the first time this has happened to me on steam. I will go back to Rugby 22 if I want to have fun and will wait a few months before trying Rugby 25 again, and only if it's on sale. At $49.99, I’m sorry but it’s definitely not worth it."