For all the fast-paced action of football, it’s always impressive that a series like Football Manager remains one of the best ways to experience the sport in a virtual format. Developer Sports Interactive has done a tremendous job of transferring the tactical and formation flexibility of the beautiful game into a strategic sim. Now, Football Manager 2024 provides players with the latest entry in the franchise.
Football Manager 2024 is once again a comprehensive tactics-based sports game, with players taking on the teams of their choice as a skilled manager and trying to lead them to glory. Featuring a huge list of leagues from around the world, including the Japanese J1, J2, and J3 leagues for the first time, it’s yet again one of the most mesmerizing video games about staring at spreadsheets.
Strong Squad Improvements
Football Manager 2024 brings a few additions to the previous entries, to try and bring a bit of variety from other years. Perhaps the most immediately impactful of these is a new marking and set piece system that gives players more control over their setup, and turns something that previously felt a little perfunctory into something far more important. It's a good choice to focus on, and gives an extra dimension to play, especially for those who go for physically strong teams.
That’s not the only change that Football Manager 2024 brings, either. There are other good improvements in place, from small but useful additions like being able to port over a Football Manager 2023 save through to elements that impact on gameplay in effective ways. Tweaks to the system for transfers, making targets for players, and a more organic approach to board expectations all bring improvements.
All in all, it helps make Football Manager 2024 feel far more real and more dynamic. The virtual game feels closer to the real thing, or at least what football fans might expect the real thing to be like from the outside looking in.
Visual Beef-Up
Sports Interactive has brought a fresh coat of paint out for Football Manager 2024. The bulk of the gameplay is spent in places that can feel quite dry visually, and so the changes to things like the game’s UI and overall design at least make Football Manager 2024 feel different from the last game. It’s very much a surface level change, but things do feel cleaner and easier to navigate.
Something more flash is the way that Football Manager 2024 has seen updates to its in-match visuals. The shift to 3D animations and representations of matches has been a painful one for some players who preferred the older, 2D options, but this year’s 3D representations are certainly the best that Football Manager has looked so far. It’s no FIFA, unless you’re looking at EA Sports FC on the Switch and its slightly downgraded graphics, but it feels less stilted than previous Football Manager games.
Of course, Football Manager 2024 isn’t a game that its fan base will buy because of visual upgrades. However, it is important to note that these changes do make a difference to the overall feel, and providing clarity in a game that is so heavily data-based is extremely important, particularly for those who might be making their first step into the world of the Football Manager series.
More To Come
One aspect to note about Football Manager 2024 is that it’s a game of small improvements rather than a large overhaul. Sports Interactive has noted that Football Manager 2025 is going to be something of a refresh for the series, and that will be where the big changes come in. Hopefully one of those changes will be to stop the somewhat dystopian part of the game’s privacy statement where Football Manager 2024 will share data with an advertising company to provide “relevant ments” on the match day advertising hoardings.
As such, some players who are happy with their game in Football Manager 2022 or 2023 may decide to overlook Football Manager 2024 and wait to see whether Football Manager 2025 brings the future of the sports sim. It’s an understandable decision, as even though Football Manager 2024 does bring improvements, some might want to see more changes before they commit.
Nonetheless, Football Manager 2024 is still an excellent game. Those who enjoy the series and perhaps missed a year or two will find the best Football Manager game of recent years, and will want to pick it up. Meanwhile, those who appreciate the annual releases as a whole will also not be disappointed in what is on offer.
Our Review Score & Final Thoughts
Football Manager 2024 is a fantastic soccer strategy sim, with Sports Interactive g off on this era of Football Manager with aplomb. It’s an evolution not a revolution, a game based on small change rather than overhauls, so manage that expectation. But it’s still very, very good.
Source: Football Manager / YouTube
Football Manager 2024 is out now for PC. Screen Rant was provided with a PC code for the purposes of this review.
