Its the best rugby game available on any platform!
Downside is that Its RC3 with a few tweaks, so £40 is a lot for not much improvement if you are an RC3 owner. That said, the EA franchises with FIFA, NBA, and NFL do that every year with frankly even fewer improvements.
There are definitely still some of the gameplay balance misses, and som are so obvious, and so impactful, its a bit insulting to the fan base to have released as a new game without addressing them albeit the most extreme are only in the "be a pro" mode which is a bit niche anyway.
RC3 was previously the best rugby game out there. It has reasonable set piece systems, running lines, collisions are good, kicking options good, rucking/mauling/contest systems is good. RC4 does offer a few improvements from RC3: a) graphics better; b) player movement is smoother; c) a set play option to mix up your attack (finally); d) players fatigue through the game so you do see the subs bench being important.
I have frustrations here that there are still so many obvious flaws that, 5yrs on from RC3 nothing has been done to fix. The biggest are these, some of which can't have been that tricky to fix: i) can still get some stupidly unrealistic passes (a blind 15m pass over your head at full sprint THROUGH 7 or 8 assorted attackers and defenders? Pretty much the same success rate as a stationary 5m pass to the guy next to you); ii) players gravitate so heavily to the ball that the tight is always jammed and the loose always wide open, which woudl be realistic and fun save for iii) defences however can run sideways as fast as you can pass, and with all but instant full speed (destroys most of the realism about where you would find space - an 8m gap in the defence or a 3 man overlap typically evaporates through the above); iv) no concept of player momentum or weight in tackles (full tilt with Billy Vunipola into their scrum half? Scrum half will knock you backwards pretty much every time - yes you can fend or side step, but only ever one defender and there are typically 2 that can cover you because you slow down to side step the first (another irritation) so the 2nd will nail you everytime. The collisions have a good range of outcomes, and good graphics, but those outcomes are a bit random and it would be so much better if weight and speed affected collision outcomes.
Put altogether, there is little point composing a clever narrow then wide play, with flowing passes in the direction of your runs, utilising momentum from big players or finding the mismatch defender or the gap. The pass success rate is the same whether an easy pass or a superhuman unrealistic hail mary, the sideways speed of the defence will mostly beat your pass speed anyway, and your well worked momentum into a static defender ultimately irrelevant. A shame because the game has great collision graphics and a good variety of them. Just a shame the outcomes are random. Surely not that hard to add a basic rule where the weight and speed of the attacked and defender influence which it is? Surely possible to link pass success rate to pass length, if not direction and speed of travel? Would also be good if the rucks were adjusted based on gain line - you might nail the scrum half in possession 7m behind the gain line, which i can do 20%-40% of the time) and expect turnover - but ironically its the situation least likely to turnover as the defenders from the last ruck typically get there first despite having twice the distance to run - go figure).
The main game is though entertaining on balance. "Be a Pro" is where they really have made zero effort and is perhaps the biggest missed opportunity. Great concept, where you just control a single player, as you position and time your run for the gaps in the defence (far more relevant in rugby than in a football game). SOOOO satisfying when it works out. Unfortunately, as in RC3, it mostly won't. Some basics which illustrate the lack of thought: a) penalties are worth 2points (WTF?); b) conversions worth 3 points (see what i mean by basic errors?); c) if you play as a back, you can't control the set-piece, and watch your NPC team mates win a max of c30% OF YOUR OWN BALL (that's right focus - watch New Zealand lose 70% of their own lineouts and scrums against Scotland - not only totally unrealistic but totally sh*t gameplay); d) The non-player characters on your team are all converted to behave as if mad and run in random directions with random passes irrespective of where space or defence is (you can call for a pass yourself as first receiver, but if you don't they will pick and go 90% of the time - even where you have a 5 man overlap); e) your team will always commit max 3 players to a ruck, and late. Left to their own devices this means you get 3 phases max, whereas your opposition will likely have 15 or so, before a turnover. You can improve that by rucking yourself, of course you won't then have the ball in the open because you're in the ruck. f) your kicker will score c25% of kicks (yup, even if he is Owen Farrell). Put it all together and receipt of a timed pass by an NPC in realistic circumstances will happen once every 2-3 games.
I write this in the vain hope that somebody in the developer might read it, and realise that they have done 95% of the work for an awesome game here, and have achieved the best rugby game yet made. But that's a low bar and with a few of these basic balances/adjustments this good be a good sports game and not just better than the other rugby games. Pacman is better than EA rugby. And has an owner of all 4 of the RC editions, its really annoying that the developers just don't seem bothered to have fixed those when they were present in RC3 - its been 5yrs.
In summary then - for those that have RC3 this should have been USD$5-10 patch on RC3 in its current form. For those that don't have a rugby game, then this is the best one but its a long long way from most sports game for realism so you need to be a pretty die hard rugby fan at £40. Fix the above gameplay balance issues though and it'd be a different game.
