Lords of Football has a great idea behind it, but it's an unripe fruit. After enjoying it for some time, you will inevitably notice some gaps in the gameplay mechanics.
Lords of Football comes to live in the rare moments when your front man scores a goal at the last second thanks to your timely instructions. The rest of it is sheer boredom without licensed teams and any depth at all.
I really like this game. Simulation is very challenging. You feel like an actual coach, trying to exploit your team to obtain the best. Nightlife is fun. I like changing activity and see what happens to my players.
I also like real-time commands issued during a match, just like you were a coach shouting from the bench
Absolutely fun and cool, finally a game different from the usual games, not at all boring!! Fantastic graphics interface! Compliments to the Italian team!
If Molyneux's Bullfrog had pulled an all night coding session while watching re-runs of Eurotrash, this is probably the football management sim they would’ve made.
Even though Lords of Football has some interesting ideas, in a few hours the game becomes unbearably repetitive thing unable to challenge nor reward its players.
Always dreamed of a night on the town with a famous soccer player? The statistics from traditional soccer management-games are traded in Lords of Football, for cheeky brats who prefer to spend entire nights at the disco: real soccer players. The game sits somewhere in between Football Manager and The Sims, but is never as good or as expansive as either of these titles. When the humor wears off you’ll just ask yourself: why am I still playing this?
As a curiosity project for fans of the genre, I can only say that I’m glad Lords of Football exists; but as a full-price release it’s not something that can be readily recommended.
Lords of Football's problem is that there's a load of well-established games which fare much better in almost every aspect it tries to simulate. You want to test your mettle as a manager? Get Football Manager or EA's equivalent. You want to simulate the daily life of different characters? Get The Sims or even The Movies. Because, in the end, just throwing all of these elements into the same kettle doesn't automatically make for a good game.
You can jump in with only a basic understanding of how the game works and immediately start having fun. But with a little bit of practice, you’ll unearth the complexities of the game. The more time you spend learning the game, the more you’ll feel rewarded. This game is challenging and accessible at the same time.
Lords of Football is a good idea and a game with a lot of potential, the actual game looks quite nice and is fun, however the game can get quite repetitive after a while and sometimes it lacks originality with the in game "addiction" feature, although if you can keep yourself enjoying the game then it can be a silly mix of "Football Manager" and "The Sims" and a lot of fun.
Not terribly bad, but could use a lot of improvement if this game is to have any future depth. Training while interesting at first seems tedious after a while. For true fans of the sport only i would imagine.
Una idea original destrozada totalmente.
El pincipal gran problema, desde mi punto de vista, es la interface, diseñada sin pensar en lo mas básico, donde los fallos estan a todos los niveles: no poder hacer "pausa", invertir el "girar la cámara", la falta de todo tipo de tablas para comparar jugadores,... Actualmente sólo los que han diseñado el juego son capaces de jugar una partida sabiendo lo que haces.
Sin duda muchos parches y rápido tienen que aparecer para que este juego no sea un total fracaso. Una autentica lástima
Lords of Football has about as much depth as the puddle forming outside my window. Just go play Football Manager again.
Seriously, if you want a football simulation, play FM. If you want control over the matches, play FIFA. If you want to organise the day-to-day lives of the characters, play The Sims. Lords of Football tries to do all of those things at once, but doesn't even come close to achieving one of them.
Half of the game involves staring at a Sims-like city overview, where the day is divided into two sections: training and night-life. You are supposed to micro-manage your players' activities throughout this period, but there just isn't that much that the game lets you do. For a simulation game, the lack of control and freedom is quite astounding. I can't stress just how uninspired this aspect of the game is. Imagine the Sims, but where you have no ability to customise or interact with anything.
Apart from occasionally dragging and dropping a player onto a new training exercise/night-time activity, there is essentially nothing for you to do during these segments. There is no financial system. You can't build new buildings (you unlock facilities and new training possibilities through a generic achievement system). You can't play the transfer market (you make recommendations to your boss as to the type of player he should be looking for). You can't scout new talent. You can't hire staff. You can't interact with your players. You can't negotiate contracts. It is essentially just 5-10 minutes of watching the game play itself. I actually spent several of these periods scouring through every part of the game, because I was convinced that there had to be something more to it.
The other half of the game revolves around the actual matches. Unsurprisingly (when you consider the calibre and size of its competition), the game engine is not up to par. It feels buggy and unpolished. Far too many times my players, despite being under no pressure whatsoever, would dribble the ball straight over the sideline, or pass the ball directly to an opposition player's feet. The graphics, as throughout the rest of the game, are fairly good.
Far and away the most interesting part of Lords of Football is the control it gives you within a match. When the game is paused, you are able to give direct commands to individual players. For example, I could plot a run for my winger that cuts inside from out wide, while having my centre-mid play a ball in behind the defence that he will run on to. Once you've got the hang of them, these moves can be really effective and will often lead to goals. This is a mechanic which I would be interested in seeing developed further, in one of the better quality offerings out there.
Unfortunately, the innovations within Lords of Football begin and end there. Alone, it isn't enough of a justification to keep playing. There is definitely an interesting concept somewhere within the game, but its implementation here leaves everything to be desired. A football simulation game where I could actually control the lives of my players would be something that I would definitely play, it it was done right. This isn't.
SummaryLords of Football brings the everyday routine of football to life, simulating footballers' training to improve their skills and all the drama and real-life distractions that unfold during a normal season.