Review: Football Manager Classic 2014

In the Real World^TM, I work in IT. Every day, I am inundated with pleas for help regarding spread sheets and formatting woes. As you can imagine, the last thing I want to see when I get home are form templates and tables loaded with figures and percentages. Yet somehow, the seductive mistress that is Football Manager Classic 2014 appears to have achieved the impossible in that regard. I genuinely look forward to getting the train home in the evening so I can find out how my team is progressing and complete one more step on the ladder to becoming the next Fergie (our American cousins may be confused by this reference, so I have included a link).

FMC2014 is the latest portable incarnation of Sports Interactive’s ultimate football management sim (as reviewed by Dom). However, unlike the Handheld version on iOS and Android, Classic adds a little bit more spit and polish to proceedings. Like the main game, you can choose between a standard Career mode – which sees you take on the mantle of your preferred team’s gaffer – and a Challenge mode – which places you in the boots of a manager in dire straits and forces you to work your way out. While the challenges are good to diversify the gameplay, to be honest, the game’s bread and butter is in its career.

For those who have access to the main title, FMC2014 allows you to import your save and continue your managerial journey on the go, and vice versa. The instructions make the process seem easy to use and very similar to the cross-save functionality seen in games wholly within the PlayStation ecosystem. However, I was not able to test it myself as I don’t own a copy of the PC version.

What I can tell you about though is the gameplay and this is where I feel FMC2014 earns its place in the pantheon of games any football fan should play. From the get-go, Classic’s game mechanics were like a swimming pool – there is a deep end, with seemingly endless possibilities and plenty for hardcore fans to sink their teeth into. However, there is also a shallow end which allows you to take a very high-level view of the game and avoid the nitty-gritty aspects of day-to-day management. Of course, there will be people out there who don’t like swimming at all, but there is very little the game can do about that (and there you have it – I just killed that analogy dead).

Included in the Vita version are the 3D vignettes of action that are available on the PC, Mac and Linux versions. While nowhere near the graphical fidelity of the FIFA or PES series, these sections act as highlights during the game, offering a more exciting view of what you are seeing on the ticker at the bottom of the screen. While many may see the lack of some licences as an issue for FMC2014, when you can barely distinguish between the players themselves, the jerseys they wear is even less important. The animation and detail is relatively lackluster and the lack of an audio commentary is odd.

Thanksfully, this is not what FMC2014 is about. The interface is where management sims can fall down, but Classic is clean and intuitive. Making tactical changes and substitutions is simple and achieved in one or two selections. If I had one complaint to make, it would be the implementation of the touch controls on scrollable menus. The movements are jerky and to be honest, I quickly reverted to using the analog sticks. However, selecting buttons and dropdown lists is far easier to get used to.

The improvements to the UI are most notable during a game. You will get helpful prompts to tell you if your team might need a change, either in tactics or personnel. With one touch, you are taken to the management screen and can immediately select your desired change. Issuing orders from the side-line is equally easy to do. There have also been improvements and additions made to the player roles in the game, giving you more options to make ever more extravagant formations – though that can be a double-edged sword, as my 1-2-3-2-2 experiment failed spectacularly.

One of the more promising aspects of games like this, that focus on management, is the interactions you can have with your players and staff. Unfortunately, it is a bit of a mess here. While it may work from time to time, every so often an innocuous comment you make can be taken completely the wrong way. While these overreactions may be funny at times, they can also have a detrimental effect on your team’s morale, and put you in a slump worse than David Moyes’.

Football Manager Classic 2014 is a gem of a game, though a little rough in certain areas. It is one of those games where you will get out of it as much as you put in. The improved UI and additions to the formula not only add depth but also make jumping aboard the management train far easier. I may have dabbled in the genre previously, but FMC2014 has convinced me to take a far deeper plunge.

Tags: Android, Football Manager Classic 2014, iOS, Linux, Mac, PC, PlayStation Vita, Sega, Sports Interactive