FIFA 2002: Total Control Soccer
Written: Dec 22 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Player, Team, and Even League Creating and Editing, Great Passing Enhancements
Cons: Weak Franchise Aspect, No In-Game Team Management
The Bottom Line: This game is a quality iteration in the series with great improvements in player control.
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| EdTeach's Full Review: FIFA Soccer 2002 for PlayStation 2 |
The world loves Soccer, and the world loves Electronic Arts’ FIFA series. It’s hard to imagine a sports game hotter than Madden right now if you’re an American. But FIFA outsells them every season.
Recipe for Success
It’s hard to determine the secret to the success of the FIFA line. It might be the name and the shear might of EA’s marketing machine. I’m going to suggest it’s more of a story of the title’s mass appeal. This title has always been a fun game. It’s captures the fast paced, non-stop action of the sport well. The cost of fun is usually the loss of simulation depth, which is the source for most of the complaints with this title.
This title has similar depth to most of their FIFA titles. You can play as any number of clubs or national teams. Those players are rather accurately portrayed; meaning the stars of the actual teams will rise as your stars when you’re playing as well. And if you’re tired of your players, you can trade or create your own. They even let you create your own team or your own entire league. I’ve never seen such flexibility in a sports game, and this definitely earns kudos. However the team management aspect of the game isn’t quite as deep as football titles like Madden. The economy isn’t sufficient enough to allow for a franchise mode.
You will have an opportunity to play all of the best players in the world, but most of these names will be foreign to most Americans anyway. They tried to reach out to American fans last year by focusing on the MLS, but mention of the MLS is very limited this year. And after losing the Miami Fusion this year, I’m not sure how interested I am in the MLS either. Just kidding, we need to support American Soccer.
Arcade Madness
What this title may lack in simulation depth, it makes up for in gameplay. The action is always changing and developing. Unfortunately they didn’t include the option to change your offense with quick button presses during the game. This is equivalent to calling plays in basketball or calling an audible in football. This was a nice feature in last year’s title and it helped to maintain that important game flow. Now you’ll need to press start, and go through the team management menus.
The game’s speed is relatively unchanged. If you play widescreen and use a distant camera, then it seems slower, but it really isn’t. If anything it helps you to select your players actions while the plays are developing. It has always been important to pass quickly and efficiently in these titles. One touch passing is important as are volleying and head shots. To execute these plays you’ll need to select the action of the player whose about to receive the pass while the pass is on the way to him. This will keep the ball moving and keep the defense on their toes.
The AI defense has gotten a little better when it comes to defending the lone gunman. Last year it was easy to take a fast player all the way down the field. You just needed the occasional juke move and a lot of stamina. Then a quick cross would lead to a header into the corner of the goal box. Well maybe it’s just my skills, but I can’t juke anybody this year. It even more imperative that you execute your shots and passes before the defender is on you, because you’ll get stripped if you try to take a shot as a defender moves in on you.
Thankfully all of the advanced offensive controls are still in the game and they’re as easy as ever to execute. You can still execute flawless one-two passes where you pass, get free and receive the ball back in a flash. The advanced juke moves have been broken up into various step-over moves. But they’ve changed the control of the through passes. A through pass is a pass where you pass the ball through the defense because you’ve got a player that’s about to make a run on the ball. This is effective, because the pass recipient already has momentum, but the defense needs to turn around. In this year’s installment they’ve accented the player making a run with a colored blurry trail. You can choose to have players execute this through run automatically, or you can control it by pressing L1. But when a player makes a run, you don’t hit a special pass button, you simply pass to them. Last year’s installment actually required you to press a through pass button which caused a player to make a run.
That’s the least of the passing changes. They’ve completely redone the passing targeting scheme. Most sports games pass at a target. You simply move the stick in the direction of the player to be highlighted. Then when you pressed the pass button, it would go straight there. FIFA was no different, until this year. They’ve removed the targeting scheme completely. The player with the ball is highlighted, and any player about to make a run is highlighted, but there are no targets highlighted. You’re off screen players will be indicated with an arrow if they have the ball or if they can receive a pass. But that’s it. So in this new title, you must carefully watch for players as they open up. Then you must aim your pass, either at the player or near them so they’ll move away from their defender towards the ball. Then you must control the force behind the pass by controlling the duration of the pass button press. Then you let it fly. This is much more intuitive, but it takes a good deal of practice to become proficient at it.
Colorful Visuals, and Even More Colorful Commentary
FIFA has been my favorite sports title when considering the graphical presentation. The models are terrific at any distance. Last years title was a huge step ahead. They really used the new horsepower in the PS2 to deliver a brilliant game. They improved on it this year but it’s not quite as dramatic. Maybe the step to the XBox will produce that big leap I’m looking for.
This is still the best-looking sports game out there. The stadiums are gorgeous and done better than any football game out there. Part of that is because the stadiums are viewed at a greater distance, because the dimensions of a soccer field and the outskirts are much bigger. Those huge fields are quite detailed even when zoomed in. You can really appreciate the grounds keeping when you go to a new field and see how they’ve but the grass. To add a little more realism, they’ve detailed the wear and tear of the fields in the goal box and around midfield. But they don’t actually change the field during gameplay.
The stadiums and great player modeling really put you into the game, but the audio seals the deal. The fan noise responds to the game perfectly. You really feel the crowd’s frustration when you miss a scoring opportunity. They’ve got the all-star commentating time back, but I question their effectiveness. Some commentary can actually help you during the game, but their comments are more to round out the experience.
Buy It?
This game is definitely just an stepped iteration on top of last year’s title, but it has enough qualities to differentiate it apart from its predecessors. I’d question the need to run out and buy this game, but it’s gameplay change (especially passing) might just put this title on the buy list. I really liked their changes after I adjusted, but I don’t know if they’ll become the standard amongst FIFA titles. It might just be an experiment, so I hope the general public enjoys their new level of control. I might have been a beter suggestion to offer both modes, and let them be set: a sort of “Total Control Passing.” Verdict: I’d buy it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
EdTeach
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Member: Ed Teach
Location: South, FL
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 7 members
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