Where FIFA is the game for football players, Football Manager 2017 is the game for the tactical geniuses. I started this game with an open mind, even though the critics on Steam were hard already. But now that I play it again, I understand them completely. I have already written a preview on this game. It can be interesting to read it before reading this article.
The screenshots on the Steam page show one thing. Boring graphs and screens. But I guess when this is your thing, you will enjoy it. The game goes very deep into the tactical side of football. You can analyze literally everything. But if you just want to relax a bit, then this game is not for you.
Football manager isn’t welcoming to newcomers. There is a tutorial, but it lasts for such a long time. But I guess this is just how the game is. It goes incredibly deep. So you can imagine as a newcomer to the franchise, I didn’t play well and was a bit overwhelmed by all the things I could see and read. That is if you consider reading graphs and emails as playing.
This game does not even try to be exciting. You start up the game where you are welcomed by ad screens that don’t adjust to your screen ratio. Next up we have silence. Pure silence. There is no music. How am I supposed to read all those graphs and tactics without my music? (Spongebob reference intended). But I guess it is hard to make a game exciting when it consists of 90% reading and 10% watching your team fail miserably. That is something I didn’t get as well. I started with Bayern Munchen, but all my star players where already injured. Normally I love character creation. But it is just so boring and serious without music. A bit of music would change the atmosphere so much.
Though I have to say there is not really anything wrong with the game itself. It is just the finishes that are bugging me. Because visually this game looks really good. But I don’t get it. The main screen looks really nice, but then the football game itself looks like an insult.
I am sorry dev’s, I know how much work it takes to make a game, but this game just is not finished yet in my opinion.
I just personally think this game, even though it goes incredibly deep, it is a real letdown. The little changes could do so much more. . This game is not worth the 54.99(!) Euro. I think this is a problem of fans that are too loyal. These are the kind of games like Fifa and NBA2k that have yearly releases. FM just doesn’t seem to care because people will buy it anyway. The only good things I found were the details. Sometimes during a press conference, you could run away mad and that kind of stuff. Oh well if you are into this go ahead. But I sincerely hope the developers change the game because it does have the potential to be a nice and cozy game.
