We Are Football review — A new approach to the beautiful game

The soccer simulation sub-genre has been monopolized by Soccer Supervisor for a very long time. The shortage of significant competitors has led to Soccer Supervisor rising stale and failing to make sufficient substantial enhancements for a while. Most makes an attempt to problem Sports activities Interactive’s administration collection are made by small indie firms that don’t have the sources to compete. Nonetheless, We Are Soccer is somewhat totally different.

We Are Soccer is a brand new soccer administration collection printed by THQ Nordic. THQ Nordic is chargeable for a number of common video games like Wreckfest, Biomutant, and Darksiders. This makes We Are Soccer the primary direct competitor to Soccer Supervisor backed by a significant writer since FIFA Supervisor 14. However can this succeed the place FIFA Supervisor failed?

Streamlined and simple

It’s vital to know that We Are Soccer shouldn’t be Soccer Supervisor. Sports activities Interactive’s Soccer Supervisor opts for an in depth, simulation strategy the place these much less concerned in soccer may simply get misplaced. In distinction, developer Profitable Streak Video games has put collectively a extra streamlined, easy-to-digest expertise.

Essentially the most notable instance of that is in regard to how participant attributes are managed. Soccer Supervisor makes use of a 1-20 scale for 36 seen attributes and 13 hidden attributes. We Are Soccer has simply six seen attributes and as a substitute summarizes a participant’s means in a single all-encompassing worth.

Technically, Soccer Supervisor additionally has a ‘Present Skill’ worth for every participant, however it could actually solely be seen through the editor. In We Are Soccer this means worth is accessible and visual on each participant’s info web page. This makes transfers and scouting easy and extra akin to one thing like FIFA profession mode than a devoted sim like Soccer Supervisor. But whereas the whole lot is simple to know, We Are Soccer basically lacks the depth that style followers are most likely in search of.

Though, evaluating We Are Soccer to FIFA could also be unfair. FIFA‘s profession mode is designed in a manner that almost anybody could be good at it. Even when Profitable Streak Video games’ try isn’t as difficult as Soccer Supervisor, it actually has extra going for it than FIFA.

There are nonetheless some complexities {that a} style connoisseur can get invested in. The coaching is totally adjustable, golf equipment have sure philosophies that you’re anticipated to meet, and you’ll mess around with the behind-the-scenes stuff like employees administration and funds. You’re really given extra management over your membership than in Soccer Supervisor. We Are Soccer is simply as a lot about managing a franchise and enterprise as it’s taking part in soccer.

An instance of that is the builder the place you may totally customise the membership grounds. With the ability to make investments funds into new coaching amenities after which see them in a 3D atmosphere is superior. It’s a characteristic that I haven’t seen in any opponents which gives an additional degree of immersion. It’s particularly neat if you’re build up a smaller membership and get to see your amenities progressively enhance over time.

A primitive match-engine

Describing the match engine of We Are Soccer as primitive could be beneficiant. Some gamers dislike how Soccer Supervisor has dated visuals and the way its match engine generally does issues that don’t make sense. However when in comparison with what We Are Soccer has to supply, even Soccer Supervisor is on a complete different degree.

Throughout a spotlight, you cannot see any of the gamers on the pitch bar apart from the participant who’s on the ball. Even then, you don’t see the precise participant, however fairly their identify together with a generic description of what they’re doing.

We’re speaking “Walker, lengthy move,” with an image of the participant and an arrow exhibiting the place the move went. That is by far the most important drawback with We Are Soccer. This nearly primordial strategy to match engine growth would have felt old-fashioned when Championship Supervisor 03/04 was launched. Over seventeen years later, it’s clearly not adequate.

It isn’t simply within the visible division the place the match engine fails both. The logic is questionable at greatest with motion in matches occurring that simply don’t make a lot sense. It’s bizarrely frequent for gamers to go the ball just a few toes from the objective, however as a substitute of taking pictures, they ship the ball flying backward for an edge-of-the-box lengthy shot.

The scouting interface is a specific spotlight of We Are Soccer’s UI. It pummels the cumbersome Scouting Heart current in Soccer Supervisor.

Additionally, the dearth of participant attributes causes the match engine to not know precisely who ought to do what. Tall middle backs typically take corners whereas full-backs will rating half of the objectives in a season. There’s no continuity or move in a recreation. As an alternative, highlights appear to only spawn out of skinny air. That is unnatural and actually doesn’t even play out like a semi-accurate depiction of soccer.

A constructive is that the interface throughout matches could be very straightforward on the eyes. Every menu is purposeful and handy to leap out and in of at an instantaneous. Given how typically you have to cease match play to make tweaks and modifications, that is implausible. Honestly, the UI of We Are Soccer as a complete is great. Its aesthetic and interface design are the 2 areas by which it genuinely outperforms Soccer Supervisor.

No license, no drawback

As with most sports activities video games, We Are Soccer has subsequent to no licenses. It’s because each league and participant licenses are costly and EA has all types of unique offers already locked up. Even Soccer Supervisor, a collection that sells tens of millions yearly, struggles on this division.

Fortunately, this really isn’t too huge of an issue. Alongside the discharge, Profitable Streak Video games bundled a devoted database editor with We Are Soccer. The editor can be utilized to vary the data of nearly the whole lot that’s loaded right into a save.

Having actual names and badges is good but it surely isn’t excellent. For instance, on this database, Shaqiri is considered one of Liverpool’s greatest gamers regardless of hardly that includes within the staff in actuality.

The neighborhood has already taken benefit of this and launched a pre-alpha license repair. It isn’t excellent, but it surely does repair the names of golf equipment and gamers in addition to add actual badges and stadium names. Credit score needs to be given to the builders for pondering forward and together with this characteristic alongside the sport’s debut.

Sadly, the license patch doesn’t repair the flawed logic behind the sport engine. If something, now that you simply really know what every participant ought to be capable of do it’d make it extra noticeable. Let’s simply say in my time taking part in I noticed just a few too many Andrew Roberston thirty-yard objectives for my liking.

There’s work to be carried out

To We Are Soccer‘s credit score, it’s higher than most video games that enter the soccer administration circle. Typically, they launch, fail to achieve any traction, after which die out with out undertaking something. That is already forward of the curve simply because it has gathered a decently sized playerbase from the get-go.

The issue is that We Are Soccer is taking part in a recreation of catch-up. Each Soccer Supervisor and FIFA have been round for a very long time. In that point, the competing franchises have refined and tweaked nearly each characteristic conceivable. As a newcomer, We Are Soccer lacks that chance and provides a uncooked expertise that doesn’t present sufficient complexity for my liking. If the counter-argument to that’s that it’s focusing on a extra informal viewers, then the lackluster match engine turns into even much less excusable. It is a respectable first try but it surely’s going to take years of labor to even start to shut the hole on the frankly superior Soccer Supervisor.