Pure Football Review

If you’d read the title then you might have expected a contender to the annual FIFA vs PES debate. Pure suggests clarity, refinement. The videos that have accompanied Pure Football have been of good old Steven Gerrard dedicated Real Madrid… sorry Liverpool player and Captain speaking about how realistic and lifelike games were becoming and hence his involvement with the title. It’s strange then that Pure Football is acres away from the traditional 11 vs 11 gameplay that you may have expected. It could be argued its a wise move as while many fans may be too entrenched in their brand loyalty to entertain another ’serious’ alternative, but is there room for an arcadey experience, especially in a World Cup year? Ubisoft certainly hopes so!

Graphics:

Pure Football is not lacking sheen, from menu screens to black and white cinematic when you score the game has definitely received a good spit an polish. The in game characters are a mixture of caricature and realism with all the stars you would expect being instantly recognisable. The football pitches are futuristic in style with lasers and pyrotechnics going off in the background. All these aspects make the game feel fun rather than a simulation and this continues throughout the game. A nice addition is the inclusion of legendary teams with the likes of Pele being eventually available.

This is a game clearly aimed at the World Cup Fan or the casual fan who will no doubt get the World Cup bug and want a game that provides an immediate level of action.

Critically though the pitches are devoid of atmosphere, with only the time limit making the games tense. The pitches feel overly large; perhaps intentionally to allow for a more free flowing football, but the lack of a crowd or a more confined pitch does remove the tense atmosphere that a football game can deliver.

Gameplay:

Pure Football’s gameplay is amazingly similar to the PS2 versions of Fifa Street. Due to the lack of Licenses Stadiums are instead fictitious locations. In all fairness it suits the fantasy, gamey feel of the game and so you will play across various locations and each location has four game modes contained within it such as first to score up to a certain goal number, win by two goals or more through to a more standard five minute game. Winning games will unlock players with all 230 players being ‘real’ player there’s no Wayne Rodney here! In addition to this your winning performance will be awarded points which can then be used to upgrade your team captain’s skills. People who have played FIFA Street will spot the similarities, but this doesn’t hurt the title in any way and really confirms that there was a lot of good elements in FIFA’s initial exploration into arcadey football.

You are also given the option of online play, quick game and campaign mode. The campaign mode is especially good as you have 28 days in which to get your team to top spot, ensuring that the gamer feels a level of importance to your proceedings.

Shooting, passing crosses and through balls are extremely easy to execute, however they are tricky to master due to the way each players use a swingometer to do these actions. as you press shoot for example an arrow swings behind the player and the gamer has to try and stop it on the ’sweet’ spot that each player has in order to hit the perfect or pure shot. These spots differ from player to player and its a simple mechanic to highlight differences of skill between players.

The downside to the playability is that tackling is almost non existent or rather ineffective. It’s always end to end stuff which makes for a fast paced match, but it begins to feel like Kevin Keegan was in charge of defensive options within the game. Rather unfairly is the relentless fouling that goes on within the game, computer AI will regularly hack you down; and while this is initially humerous it does wear thin eventually.

Overall:

Pure football is a worthwhile game to pick up and play and may satisfy gamers wanting an interim game before the big boys of PES and FIFA offer another yearly update. It offers fun and frustration in equal measure, a key ingredient for an arcade style game. The balance is struck perfectly between ‘That was brilliant’ and ‘ I can’t believe it did that’ ensuring the one more go element which is central to Pure Football’s gameplay. Pure Football is certainly worth a look and if you want a game for younger children or one you can play for the odd 30 minutes it is ideal.

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