Football Manager 2020

Sports Interactive’s latest release, Football Manager 2020 (or just FM2020, for short), has quickly hauled football and business enthusiasts into their rooms and away from the world with its newest features targeted right at the most dedicated football club runners. It takes managing to a new level with its compelling ‘Club Vision’ feature and has significantly improved gameplay-something almost all the players have picked up on.

One particular feature we have all enjoyed in this release is how much the game feels like the real-life experience of running a football club. The scouting team is more professional and helpful, better assessing individual players and opposition feedback. The more useable layout makes analyzing the information and coming to a decision easier. When loaning in new youth for the team, this feature is exceptionally helpful for the less experienced players. The user interface of the Development Center allows for more convenient tracking and managing. Yearly reports on youth intake and outtake, smoother access to ratings and better feedback on the year’s intake are all in one place and more! This makes it easier for newer players to get used to the rather complex game.

Players on the field have better graphics of movement, a more detailed and advanced script and a more realistic play. The weather conditions also show with a lot more detail and realism, increasing the immersion (even though the game is more focused on business and planning than actual playing).

Perhaps the most exciting new key feature is the ‘Club Vision’. It is a dynamic feature that progresses and changes as you venture further into your gameplay, adapting to what suits you. It offers a five-year-plan, much to long term players’ delight, divided season-wise, to give a broader objective for the board’s vision. This offers more interaction with the board, something players often complained was missing from the previous games. The Club Vision also manages your ongoing objectives. All-in-all, management has become simpler and less of a hassle with the better organization features offered by FM2020.

Negotiation pathways with players allow better flexibility and communication between the manager and the player. This is achieved by making your objectives and terms clearer and easily altering their playing time according to how many hours you are willing to offer. With better squad control, more freedom of detailed communication with loan clubs and a better view of your long-term squad goals, this feature is another big hit with those players who invest much longer hours into the game.

Sports Interactive themselves have taken pride in the new release targeting the most hardcore, dedicated players. While it is a joyful experience for that part of the audience, newcomers may be overwhelmed by the game. It takes a lot of time investment and experience in order to fully grasp the game, something many players are simply not willing to invest. Struggling to get the hand of it in the first few hours of play turns many potential players off.

Overall, it seems the players have been very happy with the features since its release. It seems that Sports Interactive achieved its goal of catering as much as possible for their most enthusiastic customers.