ManagerLeague Review (06/06/2008 04:14)

- Appearance (0 - 3)
- Introduction/Learning Curve (0 - 3)
- Game Play (0 - 3)
- Fun (0 - 3)
- Approval Stamp (Yes or No, equivalent to 1 or 0)
- Total score out of 13

I was browsing the internet when i stumbled upon a badly-layed out but fun-looking football game. i signed up thinking to myself there can't be too much harm in it. One of the first things i stumbled on was the forums, having no idea how to play the game. The community appeared to be quite amusing and there was a mixture of people. So when i eventually bore my knuckles into the game i had a good idea how to play the game, with a little help from the Help section and others on the forums.

I set up my team, assuming that the players with the best attributes were going to perform the best on the simulated football field. if i remember correctly i won my first set of matches and being in a predominantly bot-orientated league managed to get promoted. Well, since then i've been hooked, playing 30 seasons each consisting of 4 weeks; matches being played at 3am and 3pm on weekdays. Since i have been playing there have been hundreds of minor and many major changes that have effected, positivley, the game-play. Currently there are still many more changes in the pipe-line and now there are national leagues for the different nationalities that play, with over 35,000 players indulging themselves in this game with many more joining every day there has to be something to this game that keeps people hooked, so i'm going to give each section of apperarence, the learning curve, the gameplay, and the fun a mark out of 3 and get to the bottom of why this game is such an addiction.

2.6
I'm going to look at Appearance and ease of navigation first. When you first log-in you are taken to a 'portal' of which your manager account is connected to. This 'portal' gives you the ability to write blogs, read the news of the game and take part in competitions and polls. There is a simple navigation bar at the top, and once into the main game there is a colour co-ordinated team-selection base with the ability to switch the background from black to white. The colour-coordination and ease of relating colours to players with the navigation bar at the top all adds to the appearnce, which forces me to give the game a highly respectable 2.6 for appearance, missing out on the .4 due to the lack of custimisation that is currently available in the game.

2.8
As you first play the game its simple to set your team up and play them, and this in itself is reasonably amusing. However if you wish to progress to the better leagues you are required to spend more time on the game editing such things as tactics, and playing friendlies. Once you've settled in you understand that not all is what it seems. the best players are not necessarally those with the best attributes, and the best teams are not those with the biggest stadiums noor with the largest teams. There is a great deal to learn and after 120 weeks of playing this game i still cannot get to the bottom of it, not to say that i can't, simply that i do not have the time. With that in mind, i must assosiate the age-old quote with this game, 'easy to use, hard to master' giving it a suitable 2.8 for the learning curve, perhaps this game has too many things to learn.

3
3
The gameplay is subtle, although you never get the experience of actually being a true manager, it is possibly more life-like than any other game on the market, even those that you have to fork out £40 for. The ability to spend money is not lost however, you can fork out as much as you wish on credits while not annoying those who play casually.You can pick your own formation, build your stadium up from scraps, employ your staff and deal with little details too such as weekend excursons to help your players with their morale or penalty shoot-outs. You can spend anything from 5 miniutes to 5 hours on this game depending on your lifestyle, as of such this does reflect your position on the league table, but chances are if you don't have much time to play you will stick to a reasonable table with people around you who are of the same skill and are possibly on at the same time as you are. You can buy and sell players and even make a profit training them or you can buy them to use them, sort out your youth club and chat with other managers. This adds to the fun and the gameplay with the abiliy to do things and sort the game out around your life, or as the case may be allowing your life to revolve around the game, adding to the ease of the gameplay and ability to have fun. In this case im going to give both gameplay and fun a full-score of 3, with nothing missing as the game is constantly evolving with something new to look forward to every season.

1
So if you want to know whether this is a game to dedicate your time to,  whether it be a few miniutes or a few hours, it most certinaly is. with the ability to look down to the smallest detail or just deal with your team at the highest level it's a fun game to play regardless of the fact that you like football or not. i'd give the game an outstanding yes to at least take a look at the game and i promise you'll get hooked!!

As a total score i have given it a 12.4, it may sound too good to be true, however you will be surprised when you finally get started, good luck and don't forget to offer me a friendly when you finally get on!

Written by Staircase United (Benjamin Neal)