Gameplay
The board of your favorite team await for you to lead them to the path of glory. You are not just the manager but the ultimate boss responsible for training, tactics, transfers, proposing stadium expansions and many more. .
In terms of gameplay the basic philosophy, or the winning formula as many like to call it, doesn’t change. Your goal is to help your team improve, in the pitch and out of the pitch. With the right movements your team can win not only the national championship but bigger trophies like the UEFA cup and the Champion’s league.
Speaking of tactics these both in the classic and standard mode give you can create any tactic is more suitable according to the players you have at your disposal. If you buy the right youngsters, there are hundreds as usual from every corner of the earth, and stick to your tactics, even after a run of bad results, then after 5-6 years if you pick a first division team, you may find your team challenging Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man Utd and all the other legends in order to become the no 1 team in the world.
If you found the training schedule in previous versions of FM confusing then you’ll be more than glad to find out that training is done through a much simpler way. In FM13 they have dived training into general training and Match training. Individual training is a separate training schedule, where your players focus on refining special aspects of their game to develop himself. Matches are more interactive and feature many more options for you to alter the course of a game than in the 2012 version. Throughout each encounter your assistant provides tactical hints in the form of Twitter-like messages in a new sidebar. These messages range from observations about which opposing players are looking dangerous to notes about which of your own players are looking tired and whether or not your long ball strategy is working.
However as we said above the most noteworthy of all changes is the introduction of the all-new Classic mode. This new mode brings faster load times, something that was missing from FM since 2009. Now in FM 13’s Classic mode you are through the day in about 5 seconds, while the news you receive are about transfers, injuries, and small basic information. During a match only the key moments are displayed, while you also get the chance not to play a match at all, just by clicking instant result. In the classic mode a season can end in about 8 hours and even less if you press instant result more than often.
All these sound very good on paper, but the truth is that classic mode is still not for the gamer that after 2009 thought FM was too much to handle. Sure it’s a simpler stripped down version compared to what we have come to expect from Football Manager but those who were expecting a FM that will remind you of 2009 should be prepared for many headaches, and not because your team is not performing well. The match engine is pretty good overall, and it really is fun whether your managing your favourite top flight team or getting stragglers off the bottom but can occasionally be inconsistent with results when the result should be a win to your side, and sometimes the game wont let you win a certain match regardless of players tactics etc.
Another addition that many fans of the franchise were awaiting was the inclusion of challenges in the game that come in the shape of pre-made scenarios and asking you to achieve a certain goal. There are four types of challenges, Easy, Normal, Normal long challenge and Hard. You can choose every team you like but what you should be aware of is that the circumstances remain always the same. This shows that the mode was somehow rushed.
Conclusion
The global success of FM is based on the high level of realism this game provides. If there is a talent to watch over the next couple of years than most likely the FM scouts have seen it first. It comes as no surprize that major premier league clubs offer Sports Interactive a big amount of money in order to be the first who’ll get their hands to the year’s updated players shortlist that features more than 400000 footballers. This happens when you have thousands of spies in every field in every corner of the earth watching almost every game played even in lower divisions.
Football manager is one of the most addicting games created, and one of these games that even when you are away from your computer gets you thinking about tactics, signings, next opponents and so. It succeeds in every aspect and makes you feel like a real manager, as you watch your players mature into world beaters, watching club legends retire, forging relationships with other managers and moulding tactics.
Football Manager 2013 promises to be the culmination of a 20 year experience, and in many areas it succeeds so well that many will state this is the best FM ever. What we believe however is that those you wanted FM to become even more realistic will state that this game is moving to the right direction and is the best version ever created, as this year you’ll need to work harder in order to prove that you are a succesful manager. If this is what you are looking then this game is just for you.
The good news now is that those who prefered the simpler interface of previous versions won’t have to return to their more familiar 2009 version where your main concern was basically the match day and then the finances. It’s s breath of fresh air pumped straight into the lungs of Football Manager.
Football Manager franchise is an unusual case of a game with a large, devoted fanbase who don’t like to call themselves gamers, they’re obsessed with Football Manager and will follow the game in whatever direction it takes. The good news is that seasoned players who thought that FM found the winning formula in the 2009 and 2010 versions can now share the same ambition. It’s not an easy task to keep both sides happy, but is has just proven that this is possible. Sure there are some flaws, bizarre AI, poor goalkeepers, etc they don’t manage to ruin the overall experience of having the best job in the world.
Gameconnect Rating: 9.2
