Great game except for the keepers!
Im a really big fan of Jon Hare and the whole sensible software crew. The games they published back on the Amiga system were and will forever remain in my gaming history as my favourite ever games. Cannon Fodder was simply amazing!
Having watched a recent interview with Jon i knew what to expect from this game. Its been rushed for the world cup, many features have been dropped for this reason and hence this is no SWOS so dont complain about it! They are going to make a new one so anyone thats thinking about buying this game should do as its gonna fund the next one :-)
Right, there are many things that i love about this game. It feels like the good old sensible soccer. The passing and the shooting is almost identical in every way and anyone can pick up and play this game. Playing the game in the outfield is a joy, quick passing and crazy slide tackles all over the place, very fast and fun. You now have the added addition of the sprint button just like Pro Evo or Fifa at which if used too often you end up with fatiuged players. I think this is a good move and adds something new that doesnt detract from the old style.
Ive been playing this game solid for 2 days now and there are a few major flaws with this game that force me to make my score FAR lower than it should have been. They really do make this game average when it should have been great and quite frankly they are so obvious that the designers and playtesters must have known about them. So boooo to you for putting out a flawed game.
Here is the main problem:-
THE GOALKEEPERS!
MY GOD! what have they done to the once fantastic flying goalkeeps of sensible world of soccer???? The animation is bloody awful. Most of the time the keepers save top corner screamer shots by just running over to them and tipping them, no diving at all hardly, no tipping it around the post or full out superman style dives like the original, its all gone horribly wrong. Not only that but they actually WARP themselves into position sometimes. This is unacceptable and makes it blatently obvious that this game was rushed and on a tight budget. They also seem to save all of your great shots and let in the simple ones. Ive passed te ball back to the goalkeeper before, just a normal pass back and they end up DIVING at the ball and parrying it away. AWFUL! They never move off the line if its 1 on 1 and the so called "goalkeeper control" feature doesnt work correctly.
The front end is very basic and is easy to navigate and get into a game so i dont have too much to say about it other than its not even as good as SWOS but that my friends, is all in the pipeline!
There are many competitions to play in and shed loads of teams to choose from. Each one of which unlocks a new feature when you win them, for example, winning the world cup would unlock a new pitch or a new ball style etc. A nice touch.
There is no management option to this game. That was SWOS main feature and it was awesome! Its more like Sensible Soccer - European Champions than it is Sensible World Of Soccer. Its been stripped down to the bare bones. Fear not however cos as i mentioned, its all on the way. This version of SS is concentrating on the gameplay not the management and dressing room options.
The graphics are OK but dont really do much to enhance the game as you spend 95% of the game looking from the good old sensible camera view of which you really dont need much detail as its quite a far away camera angle. It does zoom in and out nicely and gives you a good view of the action however.
The tactical options are very limited and the layout is very confusing and not very clear when making a subsitution. Why the hell didnt they put the player names directly under the positions in the tactical screen??
The AI is crap and ive hardly been beaten since ive been playing it. In fact most of the time i loose on penalties because its so awful to control the shooting on penalties and the ball doesnt go where you are aiming even though in the actual game it goes exactly where your thunb stick is pointed, strange.
All in all, this game is about gameplay and what you are doing on the pitch. And that side of the game has been done well (except for the keepers!). I am having alot of fun with this game.
Played with a friend this game is great fun. Played solo it doesnt really have much life compared to the old amiga version from over 10 YEARS ago! but this is all to do with a tight budget and codemasters rushing the developers to get this game out for June 9th, world cup kick off.
Great on the pitch but on the whole dissapointing!
Great things are coming from this franchise, i can feel it!