twatcabinet

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Sociable Soccer 24 is a reminder of what nostalgia can do for the average football fan. Yes, we remember the days of Sensible Soccer fondly. We remember those cheap football games you could get in boxes of cereal and in the bargain bin at the local shop. They had simple arcade play, adjustable difficulty and the ability to customise to your heart's content. Sociable Soccer 24 from Sensible Soccer founder Jon Hare's Tower Studios has none of this. Effectively a cheap and tacky mobile game ported to PC and Switch, expect the usual gacha/player card mechanic which is a grind to get any new players every time. The only advantage is every card is actually free - and there's seemingly no means to simply buy cards that you want on the Switch version. It means you're handed some random bloke, you've probably never heard of but thanks to FIFAPro licensing is apparently very real - and you can either add him to your already threadbare starter squad and absorb him into an existing player in the same position. Either way, the result really doesn't add much. One of the things that annoyed me (and this is picking but it is a review after all) is the fact you could have multiple players in the same starting line up - with the exact same number. Why?! Why not just have a mechanic where the number would alter if someone in the squad already had it? The gameplay itself seems to be typical mobile phone game fare. Effectively, every match plays the same and regardless of the stats of the other team - you tend to either wipe the floor clean with them a la mobile game - but the next team with a lower rating absolutely kicks your ass. And we're led to believe this is a real game? The biggest insult from Jon Hare is the price tag. At launch, Sociable Soccer 24 was a fairly reasonable £**** so I thought. Playing the game and realising how threadbare this is - Jon Hare is ripping players off massively. This should have just been released on Android and Apple Store for nothing more than a fiver. Trust me - it's that bad. The biggest concern is all of the positive reviews. It only leads me to believe Jon is investing that cash back into reviewers rather than his diabolically thin excuse for a game. In short - if you like football games, there may be an element of this in a five minute window, you'll pick up and enjoy. The fact they've been able to get the licence to use real players is a plus - but that comes up short as well. There's plenty of teams in the game with fake players. Lionel Messi at Miami for instance......apparently Luciano Motta. This is a game I honestly wish I hadn't parted cash for. If you want a game that is a bit rough around the edges but has everything you need - you may as well just shell out the full price for FC 24. I never thought I'd say that!