Lords of Football Review

Bored of your normal everyday football management simulation games? Want something a little different? Want something that steps outside the boundaries of your traditional games like championship manager? Well then go thank Geniaware because with their latest game, Lords of Football, comes a new take on the traditional football management game. Think football manager meets The Sims, with a dash of New Star Soccer and a small pinch of Pro Evolution. Gone

are the normal restrictions you may find that see you limited to how much involvement and influence you have with your team, and in comes a fresh new take that Geniaware call ‘God Mode’, which allows you to have a more in depth relationship with your club to the point where you can customise your teams badge and influence your players lives off the pitch.

Now the problem with trying to put a new spin on an existing genre is that sometimes it doesn’t quite pull off. Especially when it seems the game shares particular aspects and other similarities with that of others, that are then stitched together making it feel like some kind of a computer game Frankenstein monster. Luckily for Geniaware what they’ve put together is quite good; the concept of the game is decent and has a lot of potential even though from my view it seems like everything has been taken from somewhere else and merged into one.

You’ll first notice the similarities to the Sims as you start your new career in God Mode; it’s as if you were starting a new family, and to some it will be like starting a family because a football badge isn’t just that, to some it’s a family crest. Anyway you pick your team (change the name if you wish) and customise everything from your kit to your players, just like if you were creating yourself and your loved ones on the Sims. If you don’t wish to create your own team you can use the basic set up, which is where the game reminds me of Pro Evolution as it doesn’t have the rights to use the correct team names or players. Therefore you end up with teams like Manchester Eagles or Liverpool Griffins that have players such as El Pistolero and Mr Fantastic.

So as you can tell the game already seems much more in depth from the usual football management game. Nonetheless it doesn’t stop there as Lords of Football not only allows you to manage your team on the pitch, but also means you have more input to the training routines your players go through and what activities they get up to once they clock off for the evening. This is an additional region that I feel has been copied from another footballing game in New Star Soccer. So how do these games match up? Well the way you have different activities for training to enhance certain abilities like passing or shooting is similar, though because you have a squad you can focus to enhance certain players physical attributes while you can develop the mental abilities of others to increase creativity on the pitch.

The game also shows resemblances with the fact that you can control the player’s lives off the pitch as well as on it, which can be just as important as training so you’ll have to make sure you keep a careful eye on players otherwise you could see them possibly get addicted to gambling, partying or alcohol which can then go on to affect your players on the pitch. What happens if you see them getting out of line? Well what happens to players in the real world…you’ll have to put them in to rehabilitation or even punish them. Lords of Football obviously does this on a larger scale with the whole squad so it is much harder to keep track of than New Star Soccer where it was more like the be a pro mode on FIFA following one players path.

As for the management side of the game it is similar to any other football manager game; you can pick your team, set up the formation, select their style of play, choose whether to be aggressive off the ball and select your set piece takers. Where it gets different from other games, and which I believe is one of the best bits about the game is how you can affect things in play. Usually you can inform players to attack up the wings or maybe shoot on sight more, but with Lords of Football, you can take control of players and make decisions for them. That’s right you take the game into your own hands, choose whether to run through the defence to get a shot off on goal or pass the ball to a player on the opposite side of the pitch to switch play. This is really effective if you go a goal down to poor defending and you want to get your team back into the game. It is important to remember as well that certain actions will have an effect on the teams moral so don’t go making stupid decisions that could cost you the game.

As for the graphics of the game they aren’t the greatest in the world, but then again they aren’t really important in football management simulation games. The matches and out of game activities are all based on a 3D model that is easy to navigate by moving the mouse around the screen and using the arrow keys to zoom in & out and scroll left & right. The menus are really easy to navigate and again remind me a little of the layout from the Sims. What is really useful is when selecting players you can open up the menu to show your team and select specific groups of players, allowing you sort them by position on the pitch (GK, Defence, Midfield or Forwards) or position in the squad (1^st eleven, subs or reserves) which makes it easier to pick players when planning their training routines.

Overall Lords of Football is a good game at best. I enjoyed playing it and yes it is different from your usual football management game but for me it wasn’t brilliant and at times the graphics felt dated. Nevertheless I believe the game can go on to be a massive success but it will take Geniaware a few more years of development before it becomes anything spectacular that will have gamers all over the world talking about it.

Buy lords of Football here http://store.steampowered.com/app/230650/?snr=1_7_15__13

Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.