Lords of Football Review

We've seen a fair share of football managerial games over the last decade, all offering us the opportunity to manage a team and take them to the top of their respective leagues, winning cups along the way. Geniaware looks to take the football managerial sim to a new level with Lords of Football, where you not only manage a football team…but you also manage your players’ private lives. Can such a unique idea help Lords of Football stand out among the heavy hitters of the football managerial genre?

Gameplay

Your time in Lords of Football will see you watching over your players, pushing them in the right direction to help you achieve glory on the pitch. This is separated into three sections each day within the game: training in the day, socialising at night and of course match day.

Training keeps things rather straightforward, as your players have different areas that they need to work on. Now while there is a filter option to help you see which players need which type of training, this comes off a tad confusing at first as to how you can round up all of the players that have the same needs. While the trick is to have all the players with the same training symbols above their head within the same vicinity to collect them all, such a simple feature could have been made a little more straightforward.

Picking players up often looks like a scene out of Mission Impossible

Once training comes to an end, your players hit the town for some fun at casinos, restaurants and plenty of other activities that are oddly located right next to each other in an unrealistic manner. The lack of depth is no more noticeable then it is at this point, as your players essentially do the same once they finish training causing repetition very early on. Trust me once you've seen your players out on the town, you won’t be interested in seeing it again.

The little comedic moments such as seeing a party-crazed player doing a conga line with fans and then punishing that player by forcing him to play a dancing game (a la Dance Dance Revolution) for an entire training session, which while ridiculous are rather amusing when they occur.

Try partying now!

Match days play out exactly how you would expect, as you’re given the option to spectate your match and take a more active role in your team. If that’s not your kind of thing then you can always simulate the game, which never resulted in much of a difference result-wise when I did so. As for how the action plays out, for the most part it’s actually not that bad as you see players make runs and set each other up rather well, though expect to see some silliness in each game such as your players mindlessly dribbling into the opposition or missing easy chances on goal that even Fernando Torres couldn't mess up.

Graphics/ Sound
Graphically the game is rather mediocre, sharing a similar look to that of The Sims with some rather odd looking players. Zooming right in to view your players makes you wonder if there was somewhat a missed opportunity to add a little more individual personality, as the players don’t look or act in any way that helps them to stand out above their teammates. On the plus side, the detail inside buildings, whether it be the training grounds or the town are pretty solid, with clubs, casinos and pubs looking bright and lively. Graphics wise it's a good enough start for Geniaware, that I'm sure they will look to expand upon if they continue on with the series.

Sound certainly seemed like it may have been an afterthought for Geniaware, as the only real sounds you hear during the game is generic music that sounds like something you would hear when arriving at a holiday resort and the usual, if not slightly distorted sound of the crowd during matches. As a result of this, the player doesn't get as immersed in a match as they should do as a manager, making the option to simulate the match a more likely choice when it comes to match day. Again if Geniaware plans on developing another installment of Lords of Football, then a better focus on the sound is going to be essential to getting players more interested in watching their teams play.

Design
The interface is kept rather simplistic and again will remind players of The Sims interface, hell I wouldn't be surprised if Geniaware used The Sims as a blueprint when it came to working on both the graphics and design for Lords of Football, as the similarities are evident and you will be constantly reminded of that.

And to go along with the previously mentioned filter system, the overall design doesn't fit the game as well as it should. It just feels like the designers could of done a lot more to make the aesthetics of the game more appealing without making navigating the game too confusing (which the filter system already is). Spreading out the options available to the player a little more would be a good start, as while the player has a nice amount of the screen free to view the training ground/downtown, it isn't necessarily needed.

Final Verdict
Simply put, Lords of Football is an interesting idea that doesn't provide the smoothest of experiences. The problem is that there isn't enough depth which results in a lack of interest after a short while of playing, as telling your players to do the same drills every day before they go on to do the same activities every night becomes very tiresome. If you are a fan of what we usually see in football managerial games, then you aren't going to find much here to keep you occupied unfortunately.

Gameplay = 6/10
Graphics/Sounds = 4/10
Design = 3/10

Final We Know Gamers Score = 4.3/10