Recent reviews by Nexxus Drako

Very fun game, been playing it since I was a beta tester. Ignore the lack of hours, I've played it a lot more offline.

UPDATE APRIL 2024: Yeah no, this got bait and switched with the mobile port 3 years ago. It plainly sucks now.


This is one the the best new football IPs to come in years!

Very indepth and detailed game. Worth the money and is definitely a worthy successor to the king of F1 Manager games "Grand Prix Manager 2".

This game is what would be born if Football Manager and Chess met in a bar, started a relationship, got married and had kids.

In all seriousness though, the game is an absolute joy to play, the developers have a long history of updates with true content and features and the community on discord is amazing.

I highly recommend the game.

This game, while having it's quirks and limitations is actually a very good football club director simulator. I say director, because there's very little management in the traditional sense. It focuses more on the business side of things, while keeping a level of simple, distilled gameplay akin to that of the DOS games of old (Football Limited jumps out as an example).

The game only features the German leagues, and quite unrealistically too, as there are 8 divisions down to what is known IRL as the Kreisliga (aka City Leagues) but strangely, the game features a completely 1 to 1 linear structure, not the pyramid football fans are used to.

The match engine is almost non-existent, with opaque number crunching happening behind the scenes and small highlights appearing every chance or goal, but nevertheless it's solid enough to make the business side of things fun. One gripe I have is that the engine seems to make a big deal of underestimation, where if you have a vastly superior team, your team has a chance of completely being swept aside, although I have noticed that upping the win bonus to about 5000 euros and higher offsets this somewhat, while also giving you an edge in closer matches.

The facilities building feature is great, you get to pick what parts of your stadium and grounds you want to upgrade, and it gives you a birds eye view of the area, where you can slowly build the crown jewel of your footballing empire. Of course, it's mostly in 2D but it's a nice touch anyway. Adding crowd capacity is easy, as is upgrading them from standing room, to seating with roofs. VIP boxes are also a part of the game, and you can even add catering, TV systems and service.

The transfer market is quite iffy though, you can only buy players in January and July, with no ability to offer in the off-period and get them when the window starts. The negotiations are simple and to the point, as the game will tell you how close you are to them closing negotiations by shrinking their happiness bar. Contracts are pretty much the same.

You may obtain sponsors, usually a main sponsor with bonuss based on wins, matches, promotiona and avoiding relegation, and as of update 1.42 you can get other sponsors which just pay a certain fee every month. Also of note is merchandisng, which you must stock for an entire season before July 15th or risk not being eble to sell anything. It's an exciting system which is certainly more fun than checking every so often to restock on a permanent basis.

You may buy player insurance which pays you when players get injured, I personally haven't used it, but it's a nice touch. You may also speculate on the share market, which I haven't done either. Also of note is socking money away as ban investment and getting it back a 1 to 7 years later with interest. The longer the term, the higher the interest rate.

Actually setting the formations is a chore that is confusing as hell, which is why I say it's more of a business simlator, it's so deep in business but lacking in actual management. No tactics to speak of, but I guess that's what makes the game so simple and fun. Usually, I just hire an assistanr manager to do both training and squad picking.

There's a plethora of stats screens in this game, which is a nice touch. I also love the found a club mode, reminds me a lot of the days when I played FIFA Manager religiously, back when it was actually good.

Anyway, I guess I should close this review now, so let me outline the pros and cons.

PROS:
* Good football club business sim
* Stadium and ground building is nice
* Financial options are plentiful
* Plenty of stats
* You can hire staff to do the actual football stuff

CONS:
* The actual football side of things is sorely lacking
* The transfer market is confusing and restrictive
* Formations are hard, especially with no tactics
* 30 dollars/euros/pounds is a bit much, prices aren't currency converted either.

OVERALL:
A good game for the tycoon guys out there with an interest in football. If you like football management games but find Football Manager too hard and complex, this could be good for you. If you're a diehard football manager, keep playing FM, you might not like this. If you love both tycoon games and football, you'll love this game.

I have been following this game's development since December 2012 and bought the game in mid-2013, I was inducted into the beta testing 3 weeks ago, which explains my high amount of playtime at the time of writing.

I have enjoyed every second I have played of this game, whether it be creating engines, cars or doing the scenarios. I can really let my imagination go wild. I am also an active member of the IRC channel (Name there is Nexxus), and the forums (NexxusDrako).

This is one of the only Early Access games I have played, enjoyed and have never felt burned or scammed by. A true gem!

10/10, HIghly recommended.

Just buy New Star Manager. This game is ancient at this point and doesn't reflect the developer's ability or style anymore.

Also, Simon, mate... take this game off sale, it's doing you and New Star Games a disservice. Though please keep the servers up so we can keep playing.