UEFA Manager 2000

The Good
The first thing that catches the eye is the clear and professional looking interface, along the classical music pieces playing. In a time that ChampMan looked a "glorified spreadsheet" (still looks, some say), this interface scores points on usability. The lineup and tactic is accessed in a single screen (to change the position of a player it's just a matter of click and dragging his icon to the new position. Knowing what are his favourite positions is just a matter of clicking his position icon, with a heart for his favourite, and a tick on others he can play without losing morale. Other information (such as cup status, employment, foreign player status or injuries) are given in another tool-tipped icon right of the name. Can't ask much more about the game as far as the interface goes.

The 3D engine, although often resulting in hockey scores, works and looks fine and without any kind of clutter. I think it was also the first game the forced the player to send the players for the warm-up before putting him into play - a definitive plus.

The youth team system works pretty well, and with the right staff (trainer and scout), there will be decent players ready to join the main squad in the next seasons in no time.

One of the most common criticisms managing games get by mainstream CM fans is how overwhelming the financial stuff can become. If that's a problem for you, just sign a good accountant, and delegate everything you don't want to waste time with. Simple as that.

The Bad
The closer that the game could start showing bugs was if Infogrames packed a few cockroaches in the box. Seriously. When a game crashes on the autorun, you start having that funny "oooh sith, this is going to end badly" feeling. Then you start a game, and notice some leagues lack a proper license, and don't agree with some of the player ratings. "No problems, that can be solved" with some editing - after all, it has a "powerful editor". Which allows to edit club and player names and dates of birth. Think someone is overrated? Want to add a couple of "Easter egg" players or youth talent? Too bad.

Oh well, supposing you had the patience to edit all teams and players to their real names (not that hard if you have access to a database with DoB's like EUFO, only tiresome) and return to the game. Here's the second part of the surprise. What was a barely stable is now a crash fest, with every press on the "save" button in the editor taking a couple of days between crashes, until the game becomes too unstable. And this excluding the potential for a save game becoming corrupted. Which, as fans of the genre and believers in Murphy's Law know, will always happen at the worst time possible. Just like after a major European win, a key league match, or three months after the last save.

Excluding major problems, there are a few parts that required tweaking. It's nearly impossible to sell players rated >90, unless if they go in an offer for other player. Other managers make an incredibly high offer for him (over £100M, IIRC), but later their chairman pulls out the deal for obvious reasons. Games viewed in the 3D engine can get very unbalanced, with scores like 7-2 being common. Another minor problem is recovering players' fitness and the frequent injuries some players' suffer.

The Bottom Line
When compared to other games released at the time the game had a pretty good opportunity to shine. A license (albeit a not very complete one, mind), a good publisher, good ideas... but any effort is undermined by a sequence of bugs unsuitable for a game that was released in practically Beta status - and without patches to make up for it.

The game ends up receiving a relatively high score for a number of reasons: the AI is acceptable, it plays pretty well during the time it isn't crashing, the overall presentation of the game is excellent, with both flawless interface and a great classic music soundtrack. And I happen to like the game, bar the three major problems mentioned above.