Football Manager 2014 Review

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Reviewed on PC
→ October 30, 2013The FM series is a strange beast, in that without ever actually having any gameplay in a traditional sense, it manages to get under my skin like few other sports games can. True to form, albeit with refinement rather than the wholesale changes we saw last year, Football Manager 2014 had me animated and exhilarated. I shouted at my screen, swore at my defence, rued chances missed, and celebrated last-minute winners almost as passionately as I do with the real sport.
As always, FM allows you to take the helm of any football club in the world, with nothing but your wits, people skills and tactical knowledge to lead them to glory. The standard Career is the deepest it’s ever been, allowing you to tinker with the tiniest facets of your club, and thanks to its absorbing nature I spent much time here. Once again, the Inbox acts as the hub of your club, but minor enhancements have been employed: Categories are now handily colour coded, certain types of information are grouped together in one post where possible, while the layouts of more detailed screens are cleaner and easier to read.
Systems introduced in FM2013 return in much the same format, but have been adjusted to make for a more user-friendly experience. Should your backroom staff have a suggestion for training sessions, you don’t need to work through several screens to make it happen; you can action it directly from the inbox. Your youth team manager thinks a kid should get a pro contract? One click and you’re in negotiations. A scout suggests players to watch? One click and it’s in process; it’s easy to navigate.
Meetings are a prominent aspect of FM now but - if, like me - you’ve found them disappointingly repetitive before, you’ll find little respite this year. The first action you undertake is a meeting with the chairman to discuss budgets and targets for the season, and regular meetings follow with backroom staff, players and press. Though you’re able to pick from a number of responses and demeanours, the discussions still begin to repeat themselves very early in.
Transfers and negotiation systems see new options, though it’s not quite an overhaul. Offers are still made, fees are agreed or rejected and contract talks take place, but more realistically now thanks to the way player/agent personalities shrewdly play their part. The new clauses nicely mirror those now common in modern football; the immediate loan-backs, for example, are an excellent method to secure promising talent while allowing them to gain match experience until you actually need them. Meanwhile, SI’s interpretation of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rulings mean you can’t just pick Manchester City and play fantasy football; this is a good move.
Here’s where you need to be careful, though; every action you take has an impact on your side. Even something positive like a new signing can upset the balance if your new player’s hard to get along with. If you increase training intensity, players may improve their game, but then might tire quicker or complain about their workloads. Play mind games with the opposition and it could backfire and rally them. It’s a delicate but deeply engrossing balancing act, and one FM continues to do well.

Play mind games with the opposition and it could backfire and rally them. It’s a delicate but deeply engrossing balancing act.

Of course, all that truly matters are the results on the pitch, and besting your opposite number is still a rewarding experience. You can change your team’s mentality, formation, and positional instructions at any time, but the interface for team instructions now sees every change you want to make on one drop-down, rather than two levels deep. Each option has a hover-over description that tells you exactly what it will do, while contradicting instructions are flagged, so you can easily understand your setup a glance. Handy!
A.I. managers still adjust their tactics depending on how a match is going, but do so far more effectively. Once you find a system that exploits weaknesses, you can bet that the opposition will spot it and swiftly plug the hole, so you need to tinker to keep control. A few times I found myself 2-0 up and coasting, only to walk away for a few moments and come back to find the score level and my team under pressure.
Assisting in spotting your team’s weaknesses is your Assistant Manager, but now his recommendations are actionable from prompts. If he thinks you need to man-mark opposition strikers and you agree, then it’s achievable without ever leaving the match engine.
The 3D match engine has seen moderate improvement over recent years, and it’s certainly at its best here. Lighting and player models look far better than the minimalistic polygons seen before. There are some awkward animations when players turn or tackle, and you are still forced to watch when a player walks across the pitch excruciatingly slowly to retrieve an out of play ball, but it’s remarkable how closely it resembles real football when the ball is moved around.
The Classic mode returns and is a magnificent option for those with less time to be knee deep in stats. This streamlined career cuts a lot of the fluff surrounding the core mode; there are no meetings or team talks, and only rare interactions with the press; even the design is cleaner and the mass of information simplified. This leaves you to focus on what really matters, and speeds up game time considerably so that entire seasons can be completed in several hours rather than days. On match day, you can even opt to take an ‘Instant Result’; a great feature when paired against teams you should roll over easily.
Both career modes can be played online, in addition to one-off matches with your single-player sides. To its credit, functionality is identical to offline, except timers can be applied so that someone going for a cuppa doesn’t hold up advancement, though players can drop in and out as they please.
The Challenge mode offers a fun distraction with superb scenarios in which to battle through adversity. The amusingly titled ‘You can’t win anything with kids’, for example, has you helming an inexperienced team with which you need to win silverware. Others might give you half a season to fight out of the relegation zone, go a whole season unbeaten or work through an injury crisis – and more user-made challenges can be downloaded through Steam Workshop.

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