Rugby Champions Reviews

Good rugby game for cheap! Graphics aren't to die for, but definitely has some replayability. I wish you could have an expanded tournament mode with retirees and new players, but the different difficulties make up for that.

I know what you're thinking. "Graphics are bad, looks like a mobile game". I happened to think the same thing, until I watched the trailer for the second time and said to myself this might be better than it looks. I bought the game simply out of boredom for lack of Rugby Games...and it landed up being well...great. excellent, exceeding all expectations. Behind the plain graphics and lackluster animations there lied an ultimate Rugby simulation. The feel of passing down the line feels how it should, AI acts extremely realistic ,and teammate support runners are smartly by your side unlike many other rugby games. Players feel like they have weight, the passing feels like it has weight , you have to be strategic with how you play just like the real game of Rugby. No game feels the same, and no opponent or player feels the same. If you love Rugby and have been waiting for the perfect sim then for the price there is no better video game to support than this one. Developers will be adding to the game in the near future, and depending on the support will be able to create the closest thing it comes to perfection relating to sports games. Rugby Champions is far from polished but the developers have nailed the most important thing , and that is the feel for the sport of Rugby. I personally am looking forward to dynamic changes like improved graphics, more customization, and a variety of modes , stadiums, and weather conditions. With the increase of Rugby's global popularity , it is almost inevitable that we will have a fantastic polished rugby game sooner than expected. But I believe we should all start with Rugby Champions, see it as an investment and a building block for the future of Rugby gaming. We as Rugby Gaming fans have been far too deprived , this game is for the real Rugby nerds and it's only going to get better with time. That being said, this is a must buy and if you're a fan of the sport but are complaining about graphics and other sh*t then suck it up buttercup this train is getting ready to take off . This will be the PES of Rugby Games...remember this review

This game has what is probably the best engine for a rugby game is a very long time, while the graphics aren't good don't let that put you off as the engine saves this game and it feels like it flows in a similar way to a real match with good realism. It is a good platform to build on and I'm excited to see what they can do with it in any future games. It seems to be well supported and has already received an additional tournament in the 2-3 weeks I've owned it. The controls are a little tricky and take a bit of time to get used to. I got it on special but I think it's worth the normal price too. Definitely recommend it!

The best rugby game i've played since rugby 08, the thing that this game lacks is to be connected to rugby union team manager games. If i could only played this game with tactics and all the structure that RUTM brings, that would be the only rugby game i need

A very good game considering the budget these guys had.I feel that they had a much better AI than most of the bigger rugby games with bigger budgets.they executed the basic principals and rules of the game to best of their ability and really outsmarted some of the bigger game developers.Well done...Regards The Rugby Guru!!!

Takes about 5 hours to get used to but once you got going there is no rugby game like it. Also the AI is great ive played 50 hours and still cant play on max difficulty unlike all other rugby games

Copy and paste this game developers, bought and played them all but this is by far the best,great AI its editable and there is a lot of replay ability rucks make sense not a lot needed to make this a top title great effort come follow it up PLEASE

the best rugby game out there. best game engine in any rugby game. not many options in terms of game modes but the gameplay is so good it never gets boring. plenty of customisation options and able to mod the game. obviously the graphics arent great and its not licensed but gameplay makes up for it massively and its so easy to customise teams and players

This really is a fantastic game when you get used to the controls, which doesn't take that long. It's by far the best rugby game I've played and as a professional rugby coach, I've been playing them a long time! Smooth passing, great evasion moves, tactical and addictive! What's more, they've added a Super league for free already, and plans to release more leagues. Love the new transfer feature where you can sign players, including youth team players. This has all the makings of the big time. Be a pro mode would be amazing, as would more leagues. I'd love to see grassroots to pro rugby, start with a terrible team in the lower leagues and work your way up to the top. I'm asking a lot I know but this has so much potential. Devs are very responsive too, for a two man team you would never know they achieved this.

Graphics (7/10): The graphics are adequate given the price of the game, it is good enough to allow the user at all times to be aware of the action, but it is not at the level of high budget 2019 games. Sound (5/10): This is an area that I felt is a bit lacking, while there are music in the main menu, in the games there are only limited sound effects, and it reduces the atmosphere of the game. For the price of this game, commentary cannot be expected, however some music or more crowd noise, cheering after breaks etc would add a lot to the game. Gameplay (9/10): Rucks (9/10): The rucking system is very good, one needs to gain momentum in the tackle, i.e getting hit behind the advantage line is likely to lead to a turnover. Getting attackers isolated is also likely to result in turnovers. You can control the number of players entering the ruck, and players quickly join the ruck, it is not overly complicated like a lot of games tend to be, and requires smart play to win turnovers or retain possession for multiple phases, rather than button smashing. This is by far the best system I have seen in any rugby game. There are two things I would like to see. 1. Ability to preset the number of players to join the ruck, rather than pressing to increase by one, if you want to play a high ruck number game, be able to set it high and then press to increase or decrease from there. 2. Once you have increased the number of players to join a ruck, if you realise it is no longer worth it, i.e ball already lost, be able to cancel the order so more players don't join the ruck late. Setpieces (7/10): The setpieces are always a very difficult aspect the model, most other games uses in my opinion very annoying mini games where player skills become irrelevant and it is all down to master this one mini game, it also then tends to ruin gameplay as once you master it you can pretty much starve the opposition of possession. In Rugby Champions setpieces are automated and rely only on player skills, this is a decent compromise to avoid that situation and until someone invest a truly fun and accurate way to simulate setpieces this is a good option. I would however like some control over it as follows: Scrums: Option to wheel scrum, Option to pick up at the base of the scrum Lineouts: Decision where to jump or compete, i.e front, middle, centre. Option to keep possession in the lineout and form a mini maul or ruck, rather than passing to the halfback. Kickoffs, penalties: (8/10) Kickoffs are done well with control over the kicks and pretty much any option. The aspect that is lacking is upon receiving a kickoff players are always playing individually and this can either lead to an immediate linebreak for the receiving team or disjointed defense that the kicking team can exploit. Here I would like to see support players joining to lift the receiver, take the ball cleanly and a mini maul forming. It is something that I would like to see in GRM as well, but it is more frustrating in Rugby Champions as due to direct control over the kickoffs one can exploit this with every kickoff. Penalties are done well, with it being a challenge to take the kicks, but not an annoying timing mini games as most other games. Generally for kicking an improvement would be to have wind affect the games. General gameplay (9/10) This is the best aspect of Rugby Champions. The ai is truly great with option taking and you need to play the situation with the ai running lines that gives you options. A really cool situation that I had was after a few rucks the blindside was open, so I made a break with the halfback and then the cover defense would have caught us, but instead of staying on the outside the wing moved across as an inside option giving the option to beat the cover defense on the inside. A lot of these options depend on your own decisions, straighten the line and you can create an overlap with good passing, run across the field and you can do switch moves with other players, it is all about reading the situation and using your support players well. Options such as breaking tackles, fending, chip kicks, side steps etc are also crucial to beat the defense, i.e can't just pass for overlaps or run and attract multiple defenders etc that is possible in most other games. Defense is also straight forward, the ai, generally maintains a good defensive line and smart play can trap the opposition behind the gainline by rushing up, however mistime it or if the ai reads it and they will exploit the gap. The option to run a cover defensive line after a linebreak is also great. Kicking is done well, but I'm not a huge fan of the slowmo mode, it enables pinpoint kicking, but I would prefer it at normal speed with controls enabling you to get kicks away within the time. All in all the gameplay is the best that I have seen in any rugby game. Game modes (5/10): There is only a rugby world cup mode, which makes the games get a bit repetitive, and this is where the game is lacking the most. Given the price of the game once cannot be too harsh but adding a world league and Be a pro mode would take this game a long way. Overall (9/10): Given the quality of this game, very much bug free where every other rugby game released in the past 5 years pretty much needed a patch to make it playable, great gameplay and ridiculously inexpensive price (I'd guess that rugby 20 will cost at least 5 times more), this game deserves a rating of 9/10 and improvement on a few areas, most notably game modes and this game will set the bar for rugby games going forward. PS Another small thing that could add to the game, is showing the most crucial controls in a specific situation on the screen, for example in slow mo mode showing the different kicking options, I sometimes get confused and then end up with a chip where it should be a grubber etc.