Cons: ...er... okay, the interface does have one tiny thing wrong with it...
The Bottom Line: Still_a_great_game_and_now_very_cheap! Er... you want more? Will work fine on most older systems. Not much point getting it if you already have the newer versions though...
I’ve had this game for quite a while now and have to admit that I don’t play it much anymore, but it lasted me for nearly a year’s solid playing and if like me you’re on a tight budget, you might well be more likely to snap this up (very cheaply nowadays) than pay full whack for the more recent editions. In addition, if you own an old computer with an outdated 3D card, you’ll be able to play this whereas some of the more modern versions will be unplayable on your system. So all in all, this game is still well worth reviewing.
(The other reason is that I know this one’s on the database – I just spent a fair while reviewing another old PC game without checking first… and guess what?!?? I really should have learned my lesson by now…)
Er… and do I need to tell you that this is a football game? (Soccer to those on the wrong side of the Atlantic… :-P)
First Impressions
Man that first game was hard, even though it was on “Amateur” level. It took quite a few games before I even managed to score a goal! (Yeah I know, it’s pathetic!) It does late a little time to master the controls, but once you have it becomes very intuitive. The time it takes to become good at the game is well worth it. It looked and sounded impressive right from the start (obviously it will be a little less impressive by today’s standards), and continued to be so.
Interface
The mouse-operated menu system is very simple to use and does its job well. The in-game system is, as mentioned, very intuitive once you get used to it, which doesn’t in all honesty take a huge length of time. (If you have a sidewinder there are a few more little tricks you can do, but nothing that would radically change the gameplay). The only thing wrong with the interface while playing the game is the “Run” button – you have to keep tapping it to keep running, holding it down would have been better. Player stats are very simple but implemented very well into the game. There is a transfer system (also extremely simple), which isn’t exactly realistic but then it wasn’t really intended to be – after all you’re playing the game, not managing the team!
Difficulty
There are 3 difficulty levels, which are gauged superbly. It will take maybe 2-3 months to master each level completely – and that’s if you’re playing I regularly the whole time. Even after you master the “World Class” level, it will still provide a fair level of challenge up to about a year’s time. The nice thing is that, if you can win easily and move up to professional level, you not only find that you have to start virtually from the beginning in terms of winning (though because of being familiar with the controls and gameplay, and having developed certain strategies, you won’t take quite as long as mastering amateur in the first place), you also have to find new ways of doing things. For instance, on amateur, you give the ball to a fast player (in my case, as I was playing as Liverpool initially, this was usually Vladmir Smicer – hey remember this was 2000…) you just keep tapping the “run” button (boy does that particular button take some battering) and you sail past practically any opposition defenders. In Professional mode his method has only very limited success, and in World Class it doesn’t work at all. In fact if you don’t pass the ball very quickly in WC mode you will be slaughtered, pure and simple. Overall the difficulty is measured perfectly, and in fact I might just re-install it and see how quickly I can beat it again…
Aesthetics
For a game this old, the graphics look surprisingly good even now. There’s not a huge amount of player detail, but you can tell your players apart at least. The animation is fluid and (mostly) realistic, the stadium looks good (okay some a little variety would have been nice but you can’t have everything…), and the sequences at the end of cup finals etc when you win and parade around or lose and sulk are very good. There are three modes of detail level and several other options, such as shadowing, that can be turned off if need be. Ye olde Voodoo 2 card (12mg) could handle the highest levels pretty well, although just occasionally there was a bit of slow-down when a lot of players were visible at the same time.
The sound effects consist of commentary by people whose names I won’t mention but who will be very familiar if you live in Britain, and some well-known (and generally very good) music tracks. These are excellent quality and play merrily in the background while you’re making your selections on the menu page.
Will You Still Be Playing it in 6 Months’ Time?
Definitely. There are many different leagues to play in, the World Cup to compete in, and if you get bored of those you can put together custom leagues and cups. If you like footie games I can pretty much garruantee it’ll take you a year to get bored of it, at least. (It's probably designed to keep you going until the next year's title is released...)
Is it Worth the Money?
Hell yeah. The only reason this I was going to give this a 4-star rating is because I’m sure it would pale in comparison with more recent offerings. But then I thought: "But this is now a budget title - surely that moves the goalposts (sorry) a little>?" Since at the time it was released it was definitely a 5-star game and is every bit as playable now, I've gone for the 5-star rating.
*****************
Final Ratings
Graphics: – 84% - looks surprisingly good for its age, great animation on the whole
Sound: – 93% - great music and the commentary is well done, it doesn’t really get irritating even after a long time
Playability: - 88% - very playable but will completely kill your no.4 fire button!
Longevity: - 90% - you’ll be playing this for a long time
Replay Value: - 86% - in the end it gets too easy, but the games generally don't get too repetitive or "samey"
Value For Money: - 95% - it'll keep you playing for ages - excellent VFM
Overall Rating: - 92% - as a budget title it's a huge winner. If you're looking for a cheap football fix or something that will work on your old and clunky machine and still look and play well (and you like reviews that chronically overuse the word "and"), you can't go wrong with this.
Any brain damage incurred from reading the following paragraph is entirely your own responsibility. You have been warned…
Now I’m not click-pimping here (well okay, I am) but I wanted to catalogue all of my game reviews (there’s only 11 of them) and have decided to do it here – so if you don’t want to look at any more reviews, you can ignore what follows! (Peggy feel free to comment on my unscrupulous methods once more, I enjoy having my faults pointed out to me! ;-D) Carl will also probably make some sarcastic (and childish – he just added that to stop him doing it – doubt it’ll work though…) comment about how he’s so high up in the Most Popular Author list for games and I should just about scrape in when it’s updated in a week’s time – all I have to say to you is, just try getting loads of page views from the meagre pickings available when all you have to review is old PC games… and (very maturely) – nyah nyah nyah… And, since I’m not an evil hat-wearer like you (yet… please CLs?), I have to really work for every PV…
And just one final thing - what the hell's a picture of "Field Steam - Ultimate Fishing Trip" doing up here?!? Is that the way they sold it in the States?!?!?
Update - 24.02.04
Yep, it works fine under Windows XP.
And the comment about a TR hat seems to have worked - I got one! (Not in games though - that's something to work towards...)
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