Football Manager 2020

Football Manager 2020 is the new installment of the famous football manager simulator. You are in charge of your club: sign players, hire staff, buy equipment, take care of the training, and lead your team to victory! Download Football Manager 2020 for PC, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, or play it on Google Stadia and show ‘em how to rule!

Graphics 4/5

Football Manager has always been rather an intellectual game, with decisions and consequences behind the stadium. Yes, pictures and backgrounds are brighter now, menus are better adapted for high-resolution screens, and the games you watch are way more spectacular. But don’t expect solid stadium experience: the game is mostly about thinking and processing data. Managing, for short.

Gameplay 5/5

It’s a complicated game for real football fans, knowing all about tactics and training, psychological compatibility and financial indicators, deals and contracts, fouls and goals, and stuff. Most of the time, you deal with tables and notifications, news and reactions. Should you sign a new player, or an old one that still has potential? What tactics should your command select against a certain opponent? What should any player focus on? And so on.

As you build your team, you watch the games it plays and then come to conclusions. Replace players, change the tactics, adjust the manner, and so on – it’s up to you. Unlike simulators, this game doesn’t let you manually control players. You create the team and see it play, and then adjust your decisions.

The game has always been considered a hardcore experience for diehard fans, aware of every slight detail ion their idols’ bios. Now the game has become a bit simpler (especially in Touch edition), but still remains a challenge.

Controls 5/5

The original game looked rather like a spreadsheet editor than like a game in the previous installment. Now it’s still mostly about choices. And that means you won’t have to learn various combos, attacking and defending tricks. You are to sign papers, and your wrong signature can outweigh all the club’s victories. In Touch version it’s a bit simplified, but not dramatically.

Replay Value 4/5

That’s where the game benefits from being complicated. Its loyal fans follow the series since 2005 just due to its richness in nuances, where every little decision may matter. There are lots of parameters you can change, from rosters to tactics, and each move impacts the result; luckily, you can replay it. The real situation changes, and the game reflects it each year. Still, there are fans of the older version, and there are those who will ditch FM20 for FM21.

The Bottom Line

Football Manager is still the game. This time we have more teams and clubs, and players to select from or to oppose, and the roster is updated, according to the real-life 2019. Though the game now has a touch edition for tablets, there isn’t a dramatic change – rather lots of minor ones. Tricky, nuanced and deep, the game will be a joy for fans, though some won’t accept its inevitable simplification.

• Graphics 4
• Gameplay 5
• Controls 5
• Replay Value 4

Pros

Updated rosters and leagues;
Now available for mobile devices (Touch edition);
The basic mechanics preserved;
The games are now more spectacular.

Cons

The gameplay is a bit simplified;
It may painfully discord with the real life.