Sensibile Soccer - Gameplay
HEXUS: So what will the game play like, considering that we’re in the age of FIFA and Pro Evo now? After all, when Sensible Soccer was first out all the hardware was capable of was a top down game anyway… Now we’ve got far more powerful machines how will Sensible Soccer compete against the might of the big two?
Jon: Well that’s the key point we’re trying to get across with Sensible Soccer… we’re not out to directly compete with the likes of FIFA or Pro Evo. Don’t get me wrong, both FIFA and Pro Evo play a great game of football but don’t forget that a lot of what you see in those games was done for the first time in the Sensible Soccer series.
We’re moulding Sensi to occupy it’s own bit of football space with a game style and gameplay style unlike anything else out there in the market at the moment. For a start, you’ve got far more control over your player with Sensi… it’s not just a case of getting your player in roughly the right place, hitting the ‘shoot’ button and hoping you’ll score. With Sensible Soccer you can aim your shot precisely with 360 degree control… so say you want to stick one in the top left hand corner of the goal with a little bit of dip and right hand bend then you can do that… or if you want to cut the ball back across the box and drill one home into the bottom right, you can do that too.
At the minute we’re still working on the headers and slides as this was always big a part of the Sensi games but otherwise everything I’ve just mentioned is in there and working now. Of course, we’ve got aftertouch in there, so you can loft, dip and chip your shots just like before and curl a long ball up the field to your wingers…
HEXUS: So you’re sticking with the top-down 2D view of the Amiga games then?
Jon: No, not at all. The original was 2D from a sort of isometric viewpoint with the pitch scrolling up and down the screen. We’ve gone for much the same approach this time too but obviously the hardware lets us be a bit more creative.
For a start it’s all in 3D as all football games are now. You’ve still got a fixed angle view up the pitch, but now we’ve got a very subtle intelligent camera that zooms in on the action at certain points, giving you a better view of what’s going on. Say you’re making a sprint up the field, the camera will pull out so you can see who’s around… but as you approach the box it might zoom in a bit to give you a better view of the goal and the defenders. It’s all very subtle so you don’t tend to notice the camera doing it’s thing, which is a sign of it doing the job properly, like a good ref.
Click for larger imageHEXUS: We remember the Sensi goalies being particularly tough basts to beat, are they as tough with the new version?
Jon: Well there was that famous ‘sweet spot’ where if you came in a particular angle and then shot at precisely the right time you’d beat the goalie every time and that was in the new version too… until we took it out. The goalies were tough in Sensi Soccer, but then goalies are tough in real matches too but our new goalies are much cooler.
You can choose to control their movement to some extent, or elect to let the CPU worry about them if you don’t fancy it. One cool new feature of the new goalies is when you’ve got a direct free kick in a shooting position. As you move the goalie about in the goalmouth the wall will move automatically to give him the best coverage… you can really annoy an opposing player by moving the wall right up to when he takes the kick…excellent stuff!
HEXUS: Any quirky stuff like streakers or bog rolls being thrown on the pitch?
Jon: (laughing) No, not at the moment! We’ve got a fully functioning replay suite and a number of very short rendered cut scenes for key match moments like injuries, sending offs and bookings, celebrations etc. but these are all skipable at a button press so the player can get on with the game. It’s all well and good having the official celebration dances and all that but after you’ve watched them five times over you’d just rather get on and play and that’s what we’re letting you do by keeping ours short and sweet.
HEXUS: We touched on the single player aspect a while back, will we be able to make our own team and take the Lower Scrotum Second Boy Scouts XI to the FA Cup Finals?
Jon: Well if you remember from the originals there was a custom team section where you could do something like that and we’re doing the same thing this time around only this time there’s a whole in depth RPG style team development side too.
You can create a team and customize how each of the 16 players look, their faces, their kit, their names, even their boots.
You can also select what sort of team they are, are they a defensive sort of team, an attacking team or perhaps a bunch of hard men who tackle anything with the ball? Once you’ve chosen all of that it’s time to start entering them into the 40 or so leagues and tournaments available too them. Obviously, starting off as a team made up of unknown, inexperienced players, you’ll initially get totally trounced in the European Cup, for example, but you might stand a chance in a less prestigious tournament like the Scottish League Cup.
The cool bit is this… every tournament you win you will get a trophy for your trophy cabinet and earn a skill upgrade for one of your players, meaning that gradually the quality of the team gets better and better giving you more chance of success in the more difficult cups and so on and so on until eventually your team of hardcore 10 star players will conquer the world.
As your players improve so your team is rated more highly until in the end even a jaunt down the Kings Road to play the mighty Blues will seem like a walk in the park.
Click for larger imageHEXUS: So can you get outlandish kits and hairstyles for your teams, like you can in Worms?
Jon: We’re doing a couple of those totally off the wall costumes you see in Worms, but mainly you will earn various unlocks for every competition you win when you are not using a custom team , some serious ones such as new pitches, stadiums and balls etc as well as unique custom team items like shirts, shorts, and boots. There are a few jokey things thrown in such as hairstyles and hats etc, but nothing too silly. It’s worth noting that the unlocks only come through playing with the ‘proper’ teams and not your custom team. Playing with the proper teams earns you unlocks and playing with your custom team earns you upgrades to increase the skills of your team.