UEFA Champions League (PS2) review

By caballero on Fri, Sep 21, 2007 5:09 pm

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UEFA Champions League

Developer: Electronic Arts

In stores now

Format: PS2 (also available on XBox 360 and Sony PSP)

Rating: 6/10

As the tournament kicks off in Europe this week, Electronic Arts offers its extra-official adaptation of the UEFA Champions League.

Back in the day, I spent many an afternoon scouring the crap bin at Blockbuster and Funco Land searching for probably the most blatant and unrepentant cop-outs of any genre video game—the movie adaptation. No matter how ridiculous or unnecessary (Cool World, anyone?) the feeling of controlling the same characters I’d just seen kicking ass on-screen was irresistible; 20 minutes of blowing dust off the Lethal Weapon NES cartridge was worth it just for one chance to unleash Riggs’s blocky roundhouse kick on Gary Busey’s pixilated mug. Even if the game sucked, I’d remain sympathetic.

That’s the best way to sum up my reaction to UEFA Champions League, Electronic Arts’s shiny but ultimately weak adaptation of Europe’s premier football (soccer) tournament. My desire to play as stars like Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic forced me to try and enjoy this game, but weak game play and some terribly annoying features keep this one on the bench.

The foremost attraction here is obviously the opportunity to take advantage of the fully licensed Champions League features, which include all the best club teams from Italy, England, Spain and beyond. The game has Electronic Arts’s usual slick presentation, from the fluid menu screens to the TV-style game presentation. The game options are equally ambitious, giving players the opportunity to take a team through the Champions League alone or compete for the Treble—in other words, vying for the individual league title and league cup on top of the Champions League. Another cool touch allows the chance to relive famous moments in CL history, such as Manchester United’s stunning comeback in stoppage time against Bayern Munich in the 1999 final. Players earn points for achieving certain benchmarks which can be used to unlock more special features—think a simplified version of Iraqi politics.

But kind of like Iraq, things don’t go exactly as planned. Despite its attractive presentation, EA’s simulation is riddled with frustrating quirks and flaws that negate its ambitious design. Players are assigned simplistic skill attributes that make great players—particularly those with specific talents like David Beckham (free kicks) and Kaka (dribbling)—all relatively better or worse versions of each other. That lack of depth carries over to the pitch, where game play feels choppy and lacking the smooth touch of Champions League’s main rival, the incomparable Pro Evolution Soccer series. Balance feels way off too; all too often I found myself easily beating an entire defense without passing, only to misfire from point blank range on goal. Overall it feels too simplistic and unexciting to be worthy of the drama of European football.

The Treble mode also falters in delivering the goods. While the initial set up is appealing—the game recreates the high-pressure environment with incendiary fake headlines and behind-the-scenes dealings—CL goes too far. The game forces you to use certain players (at the behest of your perpetually pissed imaginary team owner) and make certain transfer moves that can often weaken your squad. If that wasn’t bad enough, the forced attempts at injecting drama are just stupid. The game might throw you into halftime with your team down 1-0 as a “challenge.” Maybe if they’d let you play the first half, you wouldn’t need to prove this point.

It’s unfortunate, because CL’s weak game play trumps the game’s novel features and you’ll lose interest before getting into the unlocked stuff. I wanted to like this game just like I wanted to like seeing the Doc bust caps in Back to the Future Part III on my grey NES box, but thanks to poor execution—and the looming presence of the aforementioned, vastly superior ProEvSoccer—I must resign myself to not recommend UEFA Champions League. Now, where’s my copy of RoboCop vs. Terminator?