Snooker games don’t come along every day. In-fact until now the only way to play snooker on the Playstation 4 was to get the Snooker DLC for Pure Pool. While that is certainly a good DLC package to an already excellent game, it did feel a little thrown together and lacked any licenses or bells and whistles. Now, thanks to the team over at Lab42 we have the first fully licensed snooker game this generation. It comes packing the top 128 snooker players in the world and features all the major tournaments, complete with TV style presentation and commentary.
Snooker 19 is tough and unforgiving. It is a game aimed at hardcore snooker fans and that is one of the reasons it is so good. You can be playing against the lowest ranked AI players and if you mess up they will punish you. This may put some off, but this design choice adds realism. There are difficulty options in the form of the aiming aid. Amateur will have longer lines on each ball showing their trajectory. As you move up to pro those lines will shorten and if you brave master you will still have a small line showing where the ball you are attempting to pot is going but nothing to indicate where the white will end up. There is even a no aiming aid option, but honestly unless you are an actual snooker pro I wouldn’t recommend this. It could be fun online or in local co-op, but not against the ultra accurate AI.
Gameplay itself is excellent. Personally I get the most fun out of playing with either the amateur or pro aiming aid as the challenge is always there thanks to the AI players mimicking their real life counterparts and you still get to feel like a skilled snooker player. AI players are broken up into Hard (Rank 1-20), Medium (Rank 21-60) and Easy (Rank 60+). The power gauge is operated with the right stick, but it is a more controlled execution than the likes of Pure Pool. You push the stick up to start the gauge moving and then down to stop it when the meter is at the power you want. This makes it easier to play the perfect shot. Even with aiming assist at amateur you need to be flawless to beat #1 ranked Ronnie O’Sullivan though. I just attempted the ‘Rank 1 Amateur’ trophy which requires you to beat O’Sullivan in a quick match with amateur assist on. I got a total of ONE shot, where he had left nothing to pot and he then proceeded to clear the table with a break of over 120.
For me, career mode is where I have and will continue to spend most of my time. You have the option of a ‘Pro Seasons’ where you choose one of the top players in the world and take over their career or my favourite, the ‘Rising Stars’ mode where you take an up and coming snooker pro, start at the bottom and work your way up to the top and hopefully the World Championship in Sheffield. Unfortunately no create a player exists here as it would have been nice to make a player in your own image.
No game these days is complete without an online mode and Snooker 19 comes packing ‘Online VS’ and ‘Online Tournament’. Here you can test your skills against others in the community and the game will track everything from games played, won and lost to highest break, best win streak and even your most used player. This mode will obviously flourish or wither based on the popularity of the game, but I do feel there is certainly a crop of people, myself included, who will be playing for a long time to come.
One of the highlights of the overall package is the TV presentation. Once you have lined up your shot and determined the amount of power you plan to use, you will get a nice TV style camera angle while you execute the shot. Commentary as well is a nice touch and although there are times when it trips itself up and thinks you are going for a safety when you clearly are in the midst of lining up another black into the bottom left, I like that it is there and it adds that extra layer of realism.
Every game has it’s negatives and Snooker 19 is no exception. While the graphics can look great at times (the table and balls in particular look excellent), the player models leave a lot to be desired. Thankfully most of the time your eyes are fixed on the table, but then you see the low res face of Higgins next to the excellently rendered tables it does stand out. Another niggle is the menus. At times they can be unresponsive, occasionally forcing you to press X up to 3 times to advance to the next screen. Lab42 seem committed to supporting the game though and I’m sure issues like this can be tidied up in a patch.
Snooker 19 comes packing a platinum trophy but the team over at Lab42 certainly aren’t handing out any participation awards. There are plenty that will come with practice. 50+ break, 100+ break and even getting a 147 will happen in time. Defeating Ronnie O’Sullivan with master aiming difficulty on the other hand will take some real skill. Then the list descends into madness, with ‘Need for Speed’ and ‘Rocket Fuelled’ tasking you with clearing the table… in one visit… in under 10 and 5 minutes respectively. No-one has obtained either of these yet and ‘Rocket Fuelled’ especially seems borderline impossible.
Overall, this is exactly what I would want from a snooker game. Lab42 have absolutely nailed that adrenaline rush you get when you sink a ball and manage to put the white exactly where you intended for the next shot. It’s also a rare relaxing game that can be fired up alongside a podcast, TV show or film that you want to watch if you are one of the growing list of people who likes to multitask while you game these days. There are aspects that could be improved upon that I have outlined above, but even as it stands this is the most complete snooker game on the market and a must buy for fans of the sport.
-Craig 🧐
A review code was provided by the publisher. This game was reviewed on PS4 Pro.
