Here's my full review of the new Sensible Soccer!

Sensible Soccer is BACK!

The eagerly awaited sequel to the classic football series is finally upon us but is it a Steven Gerrard volley from 40 yards that leaves the crowd in raptures, or is it a chipped Peter Crouch penalty that has everyone laughing, and saying, they should have done better?

In truth it's probably somewhere between the two.

Before we get out teeth into what it actually plays like, let's take a look at what's available to us and there's plenty here to keep you going for a while. All of the top European league teams are in there aswell as teams from their "feeder leagues" (Premiership/Championship, Serie A/Serie B etc), and there are also most of the competitions from each of these leagues available to take part in. Then there is an extensive list of international sides and all the relevant competitions for those aswell. The player names are all altered versions of their originals, so whilst it lacks some authenticity, you can still make out who is who. I give it a week after the release before someone's patched the names anyway.
There is no full career mode as such, but there is a career mode of sorts with the custom team feature. This involves creating your custom team and then taking on every competition in the game in order to improve your team, and eventually make it the top ranking team in the game.

OK, lets really start to get stuck into things, and lets actually play a game of football.

Before each match you will see there are a number of options. There are a number of (fictional) stadiums to choose from, and you can also set options such as the type of pitch you play on (about 12 unlockable pitches from icy to artificial!), the ball you use, the length of the match, and the kits to use (never a kit clash again!)

When you start a new game, you'll see we've got our usual team selection screen. I found this a little confusing at first, but it's not so bad once you get used to it. Tactics wise - it's fairly basic. You pick your formation and then put your players in it. Theres none of the fancy tactical jiggery pokery of SWOS, or even (to some extent) Sensi 98.

You'll start to notice here that Sensi 06 moves away from the traditional idea of "defenders, midfielders, strikers" etc and opts to give individual players more specialised roles such as "stoppers, generals, hatchers, poachers, playmakers" and so on. Each of these different player types have their own individual strengths and weaknesses. Whilst this does allow for more depth and variety, I found it quite difficult to work out who was what, and found myself constantly going back to the manual. You soon get used to it, but I must admit, I'm struggling to see much of a difference on the pitch between the different player types.

When we get into the game it'self you will be relieved to find that it's very much still "Sensible". Players of the old version will pick it up and instantly feel at home. Having said that, it has also moved on so much from the original that it doesn't feel outdated. In come volleys, sprinting, a second button dedicated for shots or long clearances, the ability to "jostle" for posession with the pass button doubling up as a interception tackle button, and the ability to control the keeper for one on ones. The ball has also become more sticky - by that I mean that it seems to stick much more to your players feet than in past versions.

The sprinting mechanism is ingenious. A sprint level bar shows you how much "sprint" your player has left, and this obviously reduces each time you use it (and goes back up a little after half time!). It's added a whole new dimension to the gameplay, as it means you can ping balls over the top, then put on a burst of pace to get onto it, or knock it out to your wingers and peg it down the line. It really does work well. It actually means there is a point in having substitutes too, as you'll find yourself needing to replace flagging strikers towards the end if you are desperate for goals!

Passing can now be done in full 360 degree circles aswell now (well, providing you play with a analogue controller - more on that later!), and you really can ping the ball about at some pace, just like the originals. Again Sensi wins with it's angled top down approach where you can actually see who you are passing to and where they are going to pass it next. This is great, and passing isn't like the other football games out there where a pass will automatically go to your player's feet, you need to think about them and place them in the right direction. There is now an arrow at your players feet which shows in what direction he is going to pass the ball. This works really well, as you can now run in one direction and then pass in another. This may seem strange at first, as your player won't necessarily run in the direction you are pointing, but you soon get used to it, and then you won't even notice it anymore. It really works very intuitively. The omission of after touch on passes seems a strange one however, as this worked so well in the original.

Speaking of aftertouch, this works a treat. Again, another Sensi winner over other modern day titles. You really can bend, swerve, loft and dip the ball in any direction you please. It feels like you have much more control over the direction of the ball than you do in any other footy sim.
Shooting is also much less of a lottery than in other modern day sims. The arrow at your player's feet means you know exactly what direction your player is going to shoot in. It doesn't take years of practise just to be able to shoot in the direction that you want. Holding down the firebutton increases the power of the shot, and the arrow extends to help guide you on this - another very clever idea.

Headers can be quite easily executed (although miss one at your peril - as in real life, if your defender goes up for a header and misses it he'll be stranded!). It does seem quite hard to get much power on the headers, but that may be my lack of practice in this area. It's also possible to volley the ball, although again, so far I've found this quite difficult -I haven't quite got the timing right yet!

The keepers are just about spot on. Obviously depending on who you are up against, it's certainly no walk in the park to beat them, and I haven't managed to find a "sweet spot" yet where you can always score. I haven't got the hang of controlling them in one on one situations yet, but I'm sure this will work really well!

The AI however is a disappointing (well either that, or I'm just very good). Having only played for a few hours I was happily beating Spain with Japan. The score was only kept to 2-0 by the fact the keeper had a blinder, and I started to showboat in the second half. The CPU seems to be useless infront of goal aswell. It seems to be forever blasting shots over the bar. I remember an occasion where I was playing Chelsea with my custom team - "Craspi" got through me three times, and with only the keeper to beat, inexplicably blasted it over, 3 times.
Whilst often confusing, perhaps a difficulty level wouldn't have been such a bad idea so you could ramp it up when it started to get too easy, especially when there's going to be a large number of "seasoned pros" who buy this game and, like me, start finding it too easy, too soon.

Graphically, the game has, of course had a massive overhaul, with the little blocky fellows from the original being replaced by nice 3d cell shaded dudes. It all looks much nicer, and the fully 3d replays and in-match snippets (like goal scoring celebrations, yellow cards etc) are really nicely done. The stadiums look really grand! Theres some nice animations when you win competitions too with your players parading their trophy around the pitch and wacing to the crowd.

The players themselves have real character too. Their resemblance to their real life counterparts is hit and miss and sometimes quite comical (deliberately I'm sure) - I love the fact that Beckham looks like a 70's porn star!
The pitches look lush and, well, err, green! The animation is good (way way better than it was in Sensi 98) - smooth and cartoony in it's approach. It would be nice to see the keepers dive a bit more often though. It's nice to see the net bulge and ripple when the ball hits it, and, even nicer when a particularly powerful shot rolls back out onto the pitch!

There are lots of other nice touches in the game to be honest. Creating a custom team is good fun, being able to give you player's a beer belly, a mullet hairstyle, a tiny head with huge ears and then dress him in a pair of union jack shorts is most amusing. There's also lots of cool stuff to unlock, like plastic pitches, new hair-do's, new footballs, stadiums and so on. There's a lot to keep you playing for a while.

Well, so far, so good, pretty much. But I've got to be fair and unbiased, and it's not all good unfortunately, there are a few things in there that just feel a bit sloppy. Like the fact that once you have entered a custom team - you then can't edit it. I spent half an hour putting the majority of a team in, then, when I wanted to go back and finish it off later on, I couldn't without deleting it and starting all over again.

Then there's the fact that there doesn't appear to be anyway of saving your preferred starting 11. Sure, you can change your starting 11 just before a match, but that doesn't appear to get saved - so, unless you remember to change it again, you'll end up having David James back in goal for England in your next match. Which brings me onto another point - the England starting 11 in the game just seems odd. David James in goal, Kieron Dyer on the left wing and Wayne Bridge at left back? Seems like a team from one of Svens dodgy friendlys. I'm not sure how accurate the other starting eleven's are, but I would hope for some kind of data update before the final release.
(edit- saving the first 11 seems to be hit and miss- it's only in certain circumstances that it doesn't work, but not quite certain what they are yet!)

Theres also very poor support for non-analogue controllers. I used a standard digital gamepad for most of my sensi playing (as my only other option is a very old joystick!), and found it limited my passing ability greatly, as it meant I could only pass in one of 8 directions instead of having the full 360 degree circle of passing options. It would have been nice for them to have put in an option which allowed compensation for digital controllers whereby the arrow moved smoothly round to the direction you pointed instead of jumping at 45 degree angles. This also made penalties impossible as your options are limited to - straight at the keeper, or wide of the goal!


Finally, there is the sound. Whilst there is the usual roars, boos and whistles when something happens, when there is a lull in the action, it feels like you are sat in the middle of another pointless England friendly. There is just no "atmosphere" which is a real shame.

So, if I'm being critical, there is a good few things wrong with this game, but, do you know what, it really doesn't matter. It's still a thoroughly enjoyable experience. It feels like the computer game equivalent of getting together with your mates for a jumpers for goalposts kickabout in the park on a Saturday afternoon. It's real strength is of course, going to be in two player mode. That's where it wins all it's points. It's all action style is perfect for a two player game. You'll find yourself screaming at the telly/monitor and having great banter with your mates with this game. It's a shame there's no online play, but I don't think it's the end of the world. It's one of those games you want your mates round on the sofa to play, not just someone at the other end of a telephone cable.

All in all still some work to be done to make it the world beater we hope and wish it can be but I think, considering the time and the budget on which it's been produced, the guys at Kuju have done an outstanding job. And, with a budget price tag on it, you really shouldn't miss it. Now, everyone, lets go out and buy it so Codemasters have no choice but to commission SWOS 2006, now that really would be something.....

Overrall - 7/10 - I love it, but it does have some flaws

Taking the price into account - 8/10!