After many years in limbo, the Football Manager saga has returned to Xbox with the new installment for this season. After years in which the saga was not lavished too much on consoles, finally since the end of last year we can enjoy Football Manager 2021 on the Xbox console, it is also a game that arrives optimized for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.
Soccer is the king of sports in all existing formats and Football Manager 2021 exactly fulfills the premise that made it great in the saga, but with a great adaptation for consoles as we are going to tell you below.
Technical section
The game, as we have explained in the first paragraphs of this analysis, comes to Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, in addition, optimized for the latter. As is evident, it is not a game that demands too much on a graphic or technical level, but it is worth saying that SEGA has taken the trouble to launch the game taking advantage of the hardware of the new machines.
Visually we have a game in which what rewards the most is management, what’s more, it is a management game in which we can control all sections of a football club from the position of coach. With this premise we have some graphics that do not stand out too much because in summary they do not need it, the simulation of the games is designed so that you can start all your facets as a manager and the most important thing is that everything works smoothly and without visual problems that hinder our work.
Talking about graphics in Football Manager 2021 is a bit unnecessary, but we can highlight that in the simulations of the matches we can choose between different cameras to be able to see the plays or the matches from different views. This visual level is more than enough to be able to execute the end of the game itself, which is none other than directing, but perhaps to put a, but, if the matches were somewhat more visually realistic, perhaps it would achieve greater immersion in some moments, but it is something that in the end is not a priority
Gameplay
Football Manager 2021 is a huge management game, we will have in our hands the possibility of controlling all the levels of a football club from the coach position. If you have already played previous installments you should know the depth that the game offers at all levels. From the moment you start your journey in the club that you decide, you will have the possibility of doing and undoing whatever you want from the club. We have numerous options at our fingertips, from the creation of the squad, the personnel, the transfers, the sales, the press conferences, giving accounts to the club leaders and even retiring, Football Manager 2021 leaves nothing to the air.
One of the things that Sports Interactive put the most emphasis in developing the Xbox version was the optimization of the controls and its interface. The game has numerous screens and prompts that we can get lost in at first, but once we understand how it works, it will be much easier and more intuitive to play. The controller offers limitations in this type of games with respect to the keyboard and mouse, but the development team has been able to offer us with the Xbox pad enough options and the possibility of handling everything intuitively, although you will have to play several hours to learn everything what it offers.
In the game we have the possibility of playing with two different types of controls, on the one hand we can do it with the crosshairs and buttons of the remote control and on the other hand we can choose the “mouse” mode in which you can play with a free cursor as if of a mouse it will be. In this way we have the possibility of playing as if we were on a PC, but with the Xbox controller, an intermediate solution that offers possibilities so that we can play as we feel more comfortable.
Football Manager 2021 offers possibilities to enjoy the management of a football club with almost unlimited possibilities. The adaptation is more than remarkable in terms of playable possibilities as long as we are clear that it is a simulator and the fun of it is not playing the games as we would in FIFA 21, but being the ones who choose the alignments, the changes, the harangues , medical care and all the functions that a manager and his technical team can provide when training a soccer team.
If we had to improve something this would undoubtedly be the setting for some moments of the matches, as well as some music for when we are managing from the menus. Licenses are also missing, but in general we have the names of all the players and in that sense it does not take you out of the game at all, at all times it is committed to being a realistic simulator and it achieves it without major problems.
Duration
In seasons mode you can be playing for as long as you want or as long as the club leaders allow you, which obviously can end your career prematurely if the results are not as expected by the club leaders. For everything else, it is an eternal game that offers you numerous options and possibilities to stay glued to the controls for many hours.
The Xbox version in this sense is exactly the same as the PC version, so the time we want to dedicate and play all the available competitions. The seasons also happen in real time so we can play as long as we want.
conclusion
The return of Football Manager for Xbox is the return to the origins of Xbox that I have enjoyed for years in this saga. The game has arrived very well optimized for console and almost all the options of the PC version remain intact. We appreciate the work they have done when adapting controls as complex as those of Football Manager 2021 to the Xbox controller, the game works and nothing is left in the way and for this reason we consider it to be without a doubt one of the best games you can find of this genre for consoles and the beautiful game, football, directly the only one.
We thank Cosmocover for the material offered to carry out this analysis.
–
