At it's current form I can't recommend buying this game.

When your supposed to be the next generation AFL game and surpass the levels of AFL Evolution 1 and 2 and you play worse then both AFL EVO 1 and 2 and ALSO REMOVE them from the steam store page. You spit in the face of all AFL fans that want a more polished and quality game.

I want to love this game but when your tackling, marking, bumping and smothering (basically everything) feels worse then from the previous installments of games, you know your doing something wrong. And I won't comment on the graphics, that's something I can't blame the devs for as they aren't a massive company and it really doesn't matter to me as long as the gameplay is there (which it isn't sadly at the moment of this review)

Issues I have so far:
- You don't even have a proper indication for when you have to press the button to mark or flick the stick to tap in ruck / marks. How hard is it to make the circle indicator flash green when it's the optimal time to mark or tap the ball which was added in previous installments of the AFL series. (takes 10 seconds to make and without it, the game feels incredibly A.I sided and RNG based for if you win the challenges)

- Your teams A.I just sit there clueless or are completely out of position when defending, refusing to man-up (if thats how you set your tactics). They go man-to-man but sit so far away I feel like I'm watching a C grade youth team play against A grade seniors for your local footy club, they also refuse to chase the ball compared to the opposition A.I. I don't know why this is but only 10% of my players ever won the chase to the ball when it was on the ground and it wasn't because of stat differences, it's because they did their intended A.I controls and actually ran towards the ball at the same time instead of sitting there dumbfounded. And when you switch to the A.I who's closest to take the challenge and they're just 10-20 metres away from their man already it literally makes it impossible to ever get the ball unless the game actually lets your players stay on their man or run out on the lead for the ball.

- Commentators feel lackluster. Look, I can't blame them for this too much, it's hard to get proper commentating as a small developer team and AFL never had good commentating so it is what it is, but I don't feel like there has been that much of an improvement from AFL EVO.

- Career management lineup menu kinda sucks, I don't know why you'd have the players numbers instead of their overall displayed on the lineup management screen. I don't care what their number is from a gameplay perspective, I do care what their stats are though and when I have to actually hover over my player individually when I'm trying to compare with subs and other players out on the field (When there is 18 players on the field as well, It kinda gets annoying to look at all of them individually to check stats). So yeah, please change that in the future, I beg of you.

- Movement feels eh, got nothing bad to say about it or good.

- Crowd feels dead asf and most of the movement and life in every person looks so outdated for 2023.

Yeah there is a lot of issues and this game is not worth $99.95, Go spend your money elsewhere for now, AFL 23 is not in a state I'd recommend for even $35+. Go buy yourself a football and kick it out the back mate.


What I do like about AFL 23 though!

- The team chants at the end of the match if you win in the locker rooms. That's actually a cool touch.