Contrary to what you might think, Fuller FM is not a blog solely dedicated to the Football Manager series. Every now and then, I will also cover any other football management computer games – retro or modern – that catch my eye.
This is the first installment of a new, occasional series in which I will review a pretender to Sports Interactive’s virtual football throne. I’ll look into the background of each game, explain which features I liked or didn’t like, and then give a star rating out of 5. The top Champions League-quality games are awarded 5*, and the hapless Sunday Leaguers only get 1*.
Today, I will be looking at a free game that I have been playing on-and-off over the last few weeks. I think Rock Paper Shotgun summed it up pretty well when they labelled it “a scrappier and slimmer FM”. Welcome to Soccer Manager 2019.
BACKGROUND
Some of you might be familiar with the Soccer Manager online game, which launched in 2005. The game – now known as Soccer Manager Worlds – has become hugely successful, largely because of its free-to-play model and the ability for you to ‘sign’ real-life players for real-life teams. It has been translated into many languages and has housed around 25 million virtual managers, over a million of which currently log in at least once a month.
The developers behind the game are Soccer Manager Ltd – a small but dedicated team based in Preston. In the mid-2010s, they started to branch off from their multiplayer game by building a single-player version that could be played in an internet browser. The first product from this new series – Soccer Manager 2015 – was released in November 2014, to a fairly positive response.
Having played the Soccer Manager multiplayer game since 2007, I was naturally very interested in the single-player experience. I played a bit of SM15 and also did some voluntary beta testing for its sequel – Soccer Manager 2016. After closely following the series’ development over the next couple of years, I was intrigued to see what Soccer Manager 2019 would be like when it came out in late 2018.
SM19 is available to download for free on PC (via Steam or Facebook Gameroom) and on mobile devices (via Google Play or the App Store). I will be reviewing the Steam version of this game.
STARTING OUT
When you load up SM19 and start a new game, you’re given a list of 33 nations in which you can potentially manage. You can select a maximum of four nations, which seems pitifully low, especially as there’s no cross-save feature that allows you to play the same game on a PC and a mobile device. Also, selecting a European league prohibits you from selecting any leagues from Asia or the Americas, and vice versa.
The second step is to choose your club, and the third is to… well, that’s it. No fancy manager creation options here. You are required to give your manager a name when you first boot up the game, but you can’t design their face or give them a fancy suit. (Going by some of the monstrosities that can be made on FM, that’s probably for the best.)
Once the save has been generated, the next screen you’ll come across is the one above – promoting SM19’s in-game shop, where you can buy virtual currency for real cash! I guess a free-to-play game with long-term appeal needs to make money somehow. Anyway, I’ll discuss that in more detail a little later.
Seasoned FMers will be at home with most of the features in this game. The user interface is generally pretty easy to use and follow, though the player search function can leave plenty to be desired.
Players are rated out of 100 on several technical, mental and physical attributes, and then given an overall rating. A player’s profile screen also show you every relevant detail at first glance, such as their positions, height, weight, form, blood type and contract status. (Okay… maybe not their blood type.)
WHAT I LIKED
The user interface is generally attractive and easy to use, even if it is a bit grey for my tastes. You will also see real club logos and player pictures, which have been extracted from Soccer Wiki. Whether Soccer Manager can legally do that – especially in a free game – is perhaps up for debate, but I’m sure many users will consider that to be a big plus.
The tactics module is quite advanced while still being reasonably accessible for inexperienced players. You have several pre-set formations to choose from and various tactical options to set. One new feature in SM19 is the introduction of FM-style player roles, with each position having two, three or four different roles. Mind you, it is a little confusing that a ‘Sweeper Keeper’ in FM19 is called simply a ‘Modern Keeper’ in SM19.
When looking for new signings, there are handy transfer and loan lists where you can quickly see who’s available to recruit. Signing players is just a case of agreeing a fee with their club and then offering a reasonable wage. It is even easier to loan in players, as they’ll join your club straight away if their current employers agree to the deal.
Training works a bit differently from most other football management games. Every week, you can set up four ‘training drills’, which will randomly improve some of your players’ attributes in certain areas. It’s one of the more refreshing nuances about this game.
Matches can be viewed either in 2D or – for the first time in this series – 3D. You can choose to view either ‘Extended’ or ‘Key’ highlights at various game speeds. That means you have the ability to drink in as much – or as little – action as you can. Another good touch is that whenever there are long animations for substitutions or goal celebrations, you will be offered a ‘Skip’ button in case you want to quickly move to the next highlight.
WHAT I DIDN’T
Football Manager gets a lot of flak for the quality (or otherwise) of its player animations. If you’re one of those critics, I’d suggest looking at the 3D graphics engine on SM19. While there will inevitably be teething problems with SM’s first iteration of the 3D engine, some animations are so poor that they can’t be excused.
For starters, players don’t appear to run across grass pitches; it seems that they glide across the turf like ice hockey players on a rink. Player animations are also a bit off. You may also see cases of players looking in completely the wrong direction when running, and enthusiastically clapping like seals whenever they are substituted.
Spectators are literally static, resembling rows of flipped-over ‘Guess Who?’ tiles that wouldn’t have looked out of place on FIFA 97. As for the referee, he is nowhere to be seen – except when he is suddenly teleported onto a pitch just to book or send off a player. The animation where he puts a hand over one of his ears before showing said player a card reminds me a bit of when my little sister used to sing and dance to “I’m A Little Teapot”.
Speaking of red cards, it seems like it’s very difficult for a player to get sent off in this game. Even the worst-looking fouls are usually punished only with yellows, with the red mist descending almost exclusively for second bookings.
I’m not impressed with the incredible unpredictability of goalkeepers either. They’re generally like Martin Dubravka, in that they can produce an incredible save from an impossible position one minute, and then incompetently spill the ball to an opposing striker the next. Again, this might be related to the dodgy animations.
It is also surprisingly easy to be offered jobs way above your station if you even slightly overachieve at a modest club. My Millwall team were 15th in the Championship – with a quarter of the season to play – when I received offers from Internazionale, Manchester United and Arsenal. I took the Gunners job (obviously) and ended that season 3rd in the Premier League. If that happened in FM19, I would struggle to suspend my disbelief.
WE MUST TALK ABOUT
Microtransactions and in-game currency. They’re prevalent in many mobile games, and not even this PC port is spared from the stigmas associated with them.
The cash is self-explanatory, but I’ll quickly give you a rundown on the other two currencies. The gold SM Credits are mainly used as an alternative way to buy players. Everyone can be signed for a certain number of Credits – and every now and then, you’ll have the opportunity to buy top talents for huge discounts.
You can also use Credits to boost your players’ morale and/or fitness if times get tough. Has your star striker just broken his leg? Cough up some Credits. and then he’s right as rain again! Unfortunately, those Credits are very hard to earn just by playing, so they’re pretty much an option only for premium managers.
Then there are the blue Club Points tokens. These can be used to upgrade your training facilities, stadium, scouting network and youth academy to make them more efficient. You’ll get a few Club Points to start with, but extra points are earned only by increasing your Manager Level. You’ll get 25 points towards your Manager Level for every match win, so progress can be pretty slow in that respect.
But yes, you can buy extra Credits and Club Points – if you have more money than sense, that is. There are various packages available, with the £49.99 ‘Champion Bundle’ giving you 100 Club Points, 13,000 Credits and £859million in club cash. I think that’s the dictionary definition of “pay-to-win”.
SUMMARY
Soccer Manager 2019 is solid, inexpensive and easy-to-play as a mobile game, but that’s all it basically is: a mobile game. The PC port is too bare-bones to get much playability out of, and the constant reminders that microtransactions exist cheapen the experience even more. I apologise to the developers, but I cannot recommend playing this on PC.
FULLER FM RATING: 2* – National League.
If you have enjoyed reading this review, feel free to let me know your thoughts, either in the comments below or on Twitter @Fuller_FM. Maybe it has piqued your interest in Soccer Manager 2019, despite my many reservations.
Look out for more reviews of other football management games on Fuller FM in the not-too-distant future.
Fuller FM 
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