Giant Killers

The Good
I've been interested in management games for a while. I like to think I know a bit about football but I'm no good at playing it either in a game or in real-life, so a management game should be the ideal option.

All other management games I've looked at seem to require an immense in-depth knowledge of the game and I've given up on them because the scale and depth of the game just overwhelmed me. This game didn't do that. I was able to set it up, select a team, twiddle with the controls and lose a couple of games in under forty minutes. It was so easy and intuitive to play that it didn't occur to me until I sat down to write this review that I'd actually played the game without really using the manual.

There are plenty of teams on offer so I could take over either a giant club or a lowly minnow like Woking who were my eventual choice. Whatever the team there are enough stats available so that I could influence the tea's performance and effectiveness relatively easily. I could see that the team had a very low level of overall expertise and so I went shopping for a goalkeeper, made a bid which was accepted, and played him in the first match.

The transfer process was straightforward, as was the team setup, and is a good illustration of how easy this game is to play. This made it a pleasure to play and I enjoyed dabbling in the transfer market.

The game teleprompter-like commentary was excellent and I liked being able to alter the level of detail provided. How many games I'd watch the commentary remains to be seen. I have noticed a few recurring phrases after only three matches, which makes it no different to the televised commentary in that respect, but in the last match I did turn down the level of detail just to get through the match that much faster because my team was losing.

There is sound in this game but not much. I remember noticing a tune with a beat when the main menu is displayed and there's the roar of the crowd during the game. Nothing that's intrusive or out of place and about what I'd expect from a game like this where numbers & tactics are the focus and where sound is not required to create an atmosphere.

This is the first football management game I've long enough to get through more than one match. The statistics on offer don't feel as complicated as other games I've tried to play but there's still enough of them for a novice like me to get to grips with. Having tried other games of this type I know 'Giant Killers' is a less complex game but I didn't feel that I was being patronised or that the game had been dumbed down to the point where its ridiculously easy. Whether I'd outgrow the game over the course of a season I can't say but I doubt it - there's that feeling that there's another level of information hidden behind the numbers and that if I persist a while longer it will all become clear.

The Bad
The game has an on-disc manual that was originally designed to be accessed via Internet Explorer. Not only is it not installed with the game but when I tracked it down and tried to access it I got a message to the effect that at the last minute a .pdf version had been substituted. No problem with that but with the way its been done. The manual is one of those small affairs which has been transferred in a form that shows two pages at once. However only some pages are numbered and the page sequence runs like this ; 3, 17, 5, 15, 7, 13 ... which makes finding information harder than it should be.

The Bottom Line
Easy to pick up.
Lots of game play - it will still take a long time to play through a season.
No action.