Football Manager 2019 – Review

Name: Football Manager 2019
Developer: Sports Interactive
Publisher: SEGA
Released: 02.11.2018
Platforms: PC
Reviewed on: PC
Acquired: A copy of this game was provided by a publisher for review purpose

Okay, so my beloved Stabæk isn’t doing too super in real life (they’ll probably be relegated this weekend) – so when I got the chance to try out my skills and beat Henning Berg’s lousy average points, I couldn’t let the chance pass me by. But how much does Football Manager 2019 change up from last year?

Graphics

As usual, you can’t expect the best-looking gameplay in Football Manager 2019. But once again, this isn’t a big problem – the graphics aren’t a reason for playing FM19. If you’ve played earlier editions of Football Manager you know what to expect. Sure, there has been some minor updates and general fixes, but all in all the graphics are the same procedure as last year.

What I do wish for though, was more licenses. I totally understand that this is a difficult (and expensive) thing to acquire, but it would give me a lot more if the kits were genuine and the logos were real. It’s not all that fun to take over Manchester United when the kits are “standard red” and the logo is just a standard in-game logo. Luckily, the mod community has got you covered, with logos/faces/kits etc.
7/10

Gameplay

Now, here again, the game is very similar to last year’s edition. It may not come as a shock, but as a manager, you have to focus a lot on setting up different tactics and match plans when different scenarios happen.

Once more, the developers have focused on making the tactics even more extravagant. There are more options than ever, and there are even more menus to choose from. Unfortunately, I must say that for my part it all got a bit too complicated. Having to choose different set-piece tactics for each formation started becoming annoying after a while, and even though the game features a load/save system for each set piece, it kept bugging out and resetting to the standard set-piece setup.

Football Manager 2019 keeps the Tinder-like scouting system from FM18. Last year I said I wasn’t sure whether I liked this or not, and although I still haven’t settled entirely, I am leaning more to the negative side, I’m sorry to say. By all means, it makes it easier to get a first impression of the player, but afterward, I feel like the scouts can’t tell me anything useful about each player.

Basically, the gameplay follows the same safe path it has before, but it is broadening its horizon and becomes more and more complete for each year.
8/10

Controls

The controls in Football Manager 2019 are simple, as the whole game is controlled with the mouse. As I said last year; “it’s basically working in any other computer program.” Just as last year, the game focuses on having a menu on the left-hand side. However, it feels a bit more logical this time around, even though it’s more or less the exact same. 8/10

Replay Value

What Football Manager 2019 nails, as all the former games in the series, is the replay value. Every new playthrough has its own life, and although some players have a better chance of becoming world stars than others; injuries and playtime will affect their development.

Another thing that makes the game have great replay value is the sheer number of players. I don’t have the exact number, but given that just European players make a count of about 200,000, I would assume the total in the world to be around 500,000.
9/10

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