Okay, this is my first review in this forum, so here's hoping it's popular:
It's amazing that nobody has even bothered to use the UEFA Champions League Licence untill now (Forget about the God awful attempts by Eidos back in the late 90s). The Champions League is a name synonomus with the highest class of European Football available. Typically the World's best players grace European pitches for some of the World's biggest clubs. Now EA Sports has got the License to this major sporting event and want to whole world to be playing it (Selling it in the US may help with World Domination). Does the game have the grace of a World Class Defender or does it fall over like a Sunday League Donkey?
Graphics - 8/10
Yet Again, EA Sports impress with the Graphics. The match screen now has Black Borders to seperate the scoreboard from the match. This is to create the illusion of actually seeing the match on TV and it works extremely well (Some other game uses black borders, some racing game
) The animations are crisp and what we expect to see from EA Sports and their motion capture department have done their jobs so the animation is crisp. Now, player faces are the only bad thing about the UEFA experience. Most of the players are good, but some are very inaccurate and considering the time EA Sports had to improve likeness from FIFA 2005 to this game that is slightly disappointing.
Sound - 8/10
Now this is where EA Sports have a huge advantage. The Commentary in UEFACL is provided by Clive Tyldesley and Andy Gray. It is an excellent addition to the game. The commentary flows very well and at times you'd be hard pushed to think that it was scripted. Match sounds are another good part of the match experience. Manager shouts, real football chants and even players shouting have the user feeling ever more immersed in the experience. The menu music is good, EA have decided to go down the route of using fairly obscure artists, but there is a selection of Artists that all will enjoy.
Gameplay - 6/10
It's all well and good having the Sound and Graphics, but does the game flow well? I'm sad to say it doesn't. EA Sports just haven't got the hang of creating a gaming engine. The match doesn't flow at all with each tackle and pass just feeling like a seperate event. Pro Evolution Soccer 4 control system helps the game flow, EA Sports doesn't. Despite this, the AI of the CPU is very good. If the match is CPU Vs CPU then the game flows like a proper game of football. If one team has the advantage then they will strieve to keep the ball in their opponents half. During the match the game will show replays of previous important parts of play, this is helpful to create the Football on TV Atmosphere.
Lifespan - 7/10
The game has typical EA "Play Now" and Network functions. The main part of the game is Season Mode. You take up the mantel of one of Europe's elite (and Coventry) and try to get them to become European Club Champions. You can create your likeness in the game as manager and you appear at the sidelines during your teams matches. Also an addition is EA Sports Talk Radio, this appears to mimick the Radio Phone Ins. It works to some extent, but the calls are way too repetitive.
Overall 6/10
It's a good game, but it suffers from a poor match engine. If you have Pro Evolution Soccer 4, this game would be a good companion. If you have FIFA 2005 this game is not an advance so don't buy it.