Football Manager Live is Sports Interactive’s latest venture for an Online Multi Management Simulation. At first glance you may think that it is your regular online football browser game but, along with a small subscription fee of £6.00 a month, you will find that it has a lot more to offer. Becoming a virtual football manager may not be new to you but putting it into contrast with the vast, live online network, creates a more engaging and compelling simulation.

To kick things off, the game starts of nice and simple; almost too simple as a matter of fact. Rather than taking a more conventional approach by picking from a number of real world teams, you start from scratch and have to create a custom character for you own club. This is an important fundamental feature of the game to prevent the thousands of players using the online database to all be using the same team and players. I think some originality is in order here. You are able to choose individual players for your team or if you prefer, you can go with the evenly balanced selection of random players from around the world.

In terms of gameplay, online competitions, matches and tournaments are always available. There are a variety of game worlds that the player is accustomed to join and after that he can become a member of the many different Football Associations. The Football Associations place their members into League competitions. A very effective and convenient feature categorises people into groups which are organised into the time of day which people are able to play online whether it be weekends, mid afternoons or late evenings. The more tournaments you win, the more money you earn to upgrade your stadium and promote your club.

Throughout the game you are able to develop your skills and effectively choose the style of play your team uses. Some serious players might find starting out at this basic level a bit tedious but it does help to even the odds a bit between players. Higher level skills take longer to acquire but the more you get, the more you will be rewarded by better standard of play and gameplay tactics.

So many dots and only 1 ball

In-game match play has turned out to be a little disappointing as the game still uses the basic and dated 2D overhead view. It’s a shame that the matches cannot be viewed in 3D view as they were in the recent release of Football Manager 2009. Watching 22 small dots scrambling around the field after the ball is not the most conventional way of playing in an interactive online football match in today’s world. Noticeably, there is also no sound or audio during the match which gives it a lack of atmospheric intensity. The only thing you will hear is the dismal incoming message alert tone. When it comes to player formations, you have lots of options and are able to choose where to place any players on the pitch. Spreading your players out does tend to work better than keeping them all by the goal as I quickly found out.

Never before has an online football simulation had such a vibrant gaming community than in Football Manager Live. Admittedly, it could do with some polishing up here and there but by no means does it lack football simulation authenticity. It is difficult to predict when the servers will start to lose capacity for this network based MMO but in the meantime it continues to make an animated and lively online environment.

+ Large online database

+ Simple controls

- Dated 2D match engine

- No Audio 

7.1/10