Global Soccer Manager 2018
Some promising features and impressive player database are let down by poorly designed UI and search methods.
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[u]Rating[/u]
[b]5.5 [/b] ⭐️⭐️⭐️
[u]Gameplay Footage:[/u]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1T2c8Y0kYI
[h1]Overview[/h1]
Global Soccer Manager 2018 is a football simulator where you manage the team of your choice and try and get them as much success as possible. You must train the players, pick the squad for matchdays and delve into the transfer market. This is purely a management sim. At no point do you get to play the game of football as if it were FIFA or PES.
There are three modes; Normal mode, Fantasy mode and Classic matches. Normal and fantasy mode seem identical but classic matches lets you play one of games which were classic matches in history. There are only three matches available at the moment but more are promised.
Each year a new version of Global Soccer Manager is released. This is the third installment of the game.
[u]Gameplay:[/u] 🕹️
I don’t see a lot of difference from the first game back in 2016 apart from the addition of the Classic matches mode and the ability to train your team. There are lots of graphical improvements such as background artwork and an attempt to put players faces against their names but this does not change the playability of the game. I replayed Global Soccer Manager 2016 to try and get a comparison of where it stands now. In my opinion the franchise has gone forwards graphically but backwards in playability.
The transfer market is sorted by moving the mouse wheel over the identifiers. At first I did not know about this until the dev mentioned it in comments. Yes it does work but I am still not convinced it is the best way of sorting out players. I would look at CM9798 as to an ideal way of searching for players. It is so easy and intuitive. The game needs a simple interface that somebody can use without reading instructions.
The menu has been redesigned and although it looks a bit more polished than previous versions the text is far too small to comfortably read. The menu boxes and the text need to be much, much bigger. Apparently you can alter the config file to make text bigger but it should be bigger as default.
The squad selection page has also been redesigned for the worse in my opinion. It is too cluttered and important information like player skill ratings and positions are hidden behind filters. It seems unnecessarily awkward to change players around in the selection screens and you can’t even substitute a player during normal match play, only half time.
The match play screen text is too small again. I still play Championship Manager 97/98 and the text match play on that was genuinely exciting. The words were easily read. The text created tension and the goal celebrations were satisfying. In Global Soccer Manager 2018 the match play is dull and doesn’t create any excitement. The text is too small to read again and when a goal is scored it’s not always obvious who has scored. The text box flashes when you score a goal but it happens too fast and it doesn’t say which team has scored.
The game is very hard to win. I only won 1 game out of 10 as Manchester United who were the reigning champions. The amount of injuries I received were astronomical and certainly not realistic.
The contract negotiations are bugged and you often get two or three rejection messages for the same contract offer. This can get very confusing. When trying to buy a player who rejects your contract offer instead of negotiating again you have to approach the club again to buy him and then offer him a contract. This gets tiresome quick.
I really am not a fan of training either. This has been introduced since 2016. I would rather the game ditched the training altogether. You can automate the training so that your players receive a non-stop balanced training regime or you can alter it to shooting, fitness, handling (goalkeepers only, apart from Maradonna) etc.
Some of the achievements seem very difficult if not impossible to attain. For example scoring 100 goals in a season or undefeated in 50 matches in a row to name a couple.
[u]Sound:[/u] 🎵
No sound at all.
[u]Graphics:[/u] 📺
Very basic graphics which is fine for the game but the text is too small to read comfortably.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
If you want an in depth and complicated football management sim then this is never going to rival the Football Management series.
Personally, I would rather it stuck to the basics of a transfer system, squad selection and good match play. The player database is huge so if they just got the search and filtering options right and improve the match play screen it could be special. I love searching for hidden gems and buying a cheap player only to watch him become wanted by every other club. That the most satisfying part about these sims in my opinion.
If you start trying to make it too complicated it takes away the fun. It seems to be trying to get more involved and has got worse since 2016. I have always dreamed of a Championship Manager 97/98 being on Steam with an updated player database with the new European guidelines and achievements. I understand that this game cannot deliver proper names and teams and I can forgive that. I was excited after I played GSM 2016 and thought it would use that as a basis and improve.
Unfortunately, it has got much worse and until these problems are sorted I am saddened to say I cannot recommend it. The developer is active on the discussions board so I hope he takes my points on board and tries to build on 2016 rather than redesigning it. If changes are made them I am happy to revisit the review and work with the developer.
If you want to see all of my suggestions for improvements to the game you can see my thread here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/808420/discussions/0/1762481957312494349/
[u]Pros:[/u] 👍
Huge player database
[u]Cons:[/u] 👎
Text too small
Not very fun or exciting
