Soccer, or futbol, may be the world’s favorite sport, and being a huge fan will be the only thing that makes this game playable for an extended time.
“FIFA Soccer 11” follows in the steps of all of EA’s other sports games this year by offering a team manager mode and the ability to build your on pro. Both offer many customizable options, but both can also be incredibly frustrating.
In the GM mode, pick your favorite club from nearly any soccer league in the world — a very cool feature — and try to lead them to victory. As you advance, add premier players to the roster, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Landon Donovan. However, to get to this point, you’ll have to log many hours of play.
In build a pro, most likely the predominant mode of play, you start as a player on a small streetball team. Depending on how well your team does and how much experience you earn in the first season, your agent will be contacted by scouts from pro club teams. After selecting a club to join, you’ll earn more experience to improve your player — you can eventually transfer teams, working your way up the ladder to the most elite clubs while becoming the top player in the world.
Making improvements to your character is what drives gameplay. The game uses two different types of experience points to do this: regular points that can be spent to increase attributes, and fame points for completing challenges that unlock new equipment and other in-game items.
Streetball, a small five-on-five game, is used to introduce the game. While this helps you get more touches on the ball and learn the controls relatively quickly, prepare for your teammates to make some pretty boneheaded mistakes that will cost you games. If there’s any part of the game that will make you quit, this is it.
Once the game advances to real fields, it gets more tolerable. However, there is a distinct lack of many of the more entertaining features that were available on this summer’s “2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa”: precise control over corner kicks and free kicks, and easy-to-pull-off trick shots.
Fans of soccer video games will love all the options in this game, but many not be able to get past the inconsistent AI.
