WE ARE FOOTBALL

Sorry but I've given this about 10 hours now. This is just a bad game.

We are Football is this combination of things that are too easy and things that are too complicated. Not "difficult" complicated but just made unnecessarily complicated by the interface and the utter lack of information that's given you.

So first it's easy to get players via transfer that are far better than anyone on your squad. The game itself isn't hard to win at, which I can live with. Sometimes I don't want to play a game that stresses me out. Sometimes I want to play a simple game where I win most of the time and pound the opposition senseless once I've built my team up.

It's the lack of info and extra clicking that gets me. The interface is such that you can miss important things because they're buried under a mass of buttons. The game would have been better served using drop down menus like OOTP Baseball, but they chose instead to use a 1990's style interface where you have to kind of dig down. Sometimes the information itself isn't clear. You look at a player's position and go, "DF... ok, I guess that's a universal defender? I've seen that abbreviation and it means that in other games."... no, it's a defensive forward.

You're told Team Spirit is vitally important but there's nothing in the instructions at all that breaks down why you're getting certain minuses and pluses. I win more than I lose, and with a weak team at that, but my team spirit is at absolute rock bottom and all my players hate me. Why? No idea. There's nothing that tells you why. The feedback I get when I talk to my players is always positive. Just now, I won a game against my rivals 3-1 and my team spirit dropped as a result. Seriously, wtf? Is it bugged? No idea.

I did a psychiatry evaluation on my team and found out I have 22 "difficult" players. Which ones? No idea. It won't tell you that, of course. Why on earth would I expect that, right? There's no way to look at the personality ratings and know what makes a difficult player. There's no events which hint at who has a bad personality and who doesn't. There's nothing which tells me what the relationships are between me and the player or a player and other players. So what's the point of the evaluation then? Why have personalities at all other than to troll me?

Even the settings... you set your assistant manager to handle substitutions and the end of the game arrives and he made none and you get criticized for not making substitutions and you're like... Ok, I guess that doesn't mean what I think it meant. What it actually meant is, he's going to pick who your available substitutes are BEFORE the game, and then in game substitutes are handled by you. Actually I don't know. That's my guess. I'm just going to turn it off.

In match you have no idea why you're doing poorly or well. You get a list of the form of each player in the game. As far as I can tell, that's completely random. You get no inkling of whether your strategy and formation is working or what effect it is having or if it makes any difference at all.

I think *some* of the problems come from translation as this is aimed at a German audience first. They also make it harder than it is with poor interface design. I've owned a few THQ Nordic games and they're all like that. They're usually not bad games but they refuse to take UI design seriously and it sticks out in the modern era.

That's some of the problem but the real issue is that this is simply not a very good game. It's the weakest game I've ever seen from Nordic.

Oh, and they've also got this really weird obsession with climate change. So they've got all these different upgrades to your stadium to make you carbon neutral and you'll get in-game news posts telling you something like "The temperature of the Earth has risen by .1 degrees". Which OK, that's newsworthy in the real world but I am playing a sports simulation where I am the manager of a 4th division football club in Northern England. Should climate change really be a focus of the game? What's it doing in here?

Even if somehow this is your game, the price is ridiculous for a game as simplistic as this one. Don't get it for less than 50% off even if you really want to try it.

Honestly though, you don't really want to try this. Just stick to FM, or if you want something simple get Football, Tactics, and Glory.

I have put a ton of hours into this game. It's not easy to deduce a lot of things and the help available is okay at times, but for others, non-existent. Like, you can build youth camps all over the world. Once I realized this, I started having tons of talented youth coming up my ranks. Is it documented anywhere? No. It would also help to have numerical scales for things such as morale, etc.

Still, I must enjoy it if I'm still playing it.

A very enjoyable game not to be compared to Football Manager. As a game in its own rights it is great, yes its rough around the edges for example the gimmicky things are not needed like sabotage of a match, building things like directors house in facilities and such these things are not needed and make the game almost childish. The game would really benefit from a 3d match engine although saying that the stadium view and facilities need a graphical overhaul, stadiums at the moment just look all out of perspective with the stands and corners all massively oversized but the roof not getting any bigger as the stand grows.

this game has been made great with the edition of mods to update team names/badges and updated league positions. having randomly generated players hasn't bothered me in the slightest.

i think if there are any newer versions in the pipeline then they should take influence from the FiFA Manager Games of years gone by namely the EA SPORTS FA Premier League Manager 2002 game which was by far the best in this game type. the range of building and stadium types you could build were fantastic and something i would like to see this game develop into.

Tactically the game feels good and it feels like the decisions you make influence a game, team talks for me seem to a be pointless task tho. moving players freely around the pitch is great.

overall i think they have made a great game that is FUN and not a second job like other manager type games, season can be quick but but also take time with all the facility/stadium/sponsors and such that needs attention. i hope this game keeps going with new releases and more improvements in the right direction going forward. i know i will purchase newer versions if they come along.

(would like to see English Lower Leagues added as well :) )

used to love this game, however since recent updates it just crashes everytime ive played, ive tried contacting the developers but they say not there problem and since i played alot when first came out i get no help off steam, so was a waste of money

I really like this game. It has its issues - some bugs to be fixed and features that are missing - but I really enjoyed this direct competitor to Football Manager and found several aspects that I would love for Football Manager to take note of and possibly add their own twist to. This review is really more of a WAF vs. FM22, so I'll structure my biggest points as to which things I preferred from each game.

Things I Feel WAF Does Better:
- Negotiations in general are more fun and hands on. FM22 is certainly more granular when it comes to all the possible options for contracts and transfer offers, but at the cost of being a bit too opaque for all the but the most hardcore negotiators. Negotiations in WAF feel more like a minigame.
- I really enjoy the passage of time in WAF, and how you need to balance your time and thus pick and choose which items you're going to address in a given week.
- WAF gives you the ability to add and negotiate with sponsors directly, and I loved having direct control over this aspect.
- I love having full control over both the training grounds and the stadium. In FM, your training area is a hidden number between 1 to 20 that controls how well your players train, but in WAF, you have all manner of buildings and fields with specific bonuses. Likewise, choosing when and how to expand your stadium is left up to you in WAF vs. oftentimes infuriating back and forth with your board in FM.
- The UI itself feels much more accessible in WAF. While there are plenty of great skins in FM, all of them fail to achieve the kind of openness and intuitiveness that I found in WAF.

Things I prefer in FM:
- Attributes. For both staff and players, the single most important attribute in WAF is basically a "level" between 0 and 15 that is indicated by the number and color of stars. On the one hand, I love the simplicity and it does generate some excitement when a player or staff gains a star...but on the other, there is next to no indication of what staff/players are good at on any kind of granular level outside of a handful of skills they can unlock.
- I feel much more connected to the games themselves on FM. WAF has the ability to see the stadium and plays during games, but I quickly turned it off once I realized it was just going to show me diagrams and not actual gameplay.
- This is an area I hope will improve as more people play WAF, but while both games suffer from a lack of licensing, FM has a MUCH larger collection of add-ons to be able to mimic real-life teams, leagues, and tournaments. WAF has a great database editing tool that allows you to import custom databases, so I was able to play with real teams in roughly the correct league structure, but I still felt pretty disconnected calling the English leagues "1st Division", "2nd Division", and so on and without any of the correct cup titles.
- Coaching licenses, work permits, cup registration restrictions, finance rules, and I'm sure plenty of others that I'm forgetting about. FM is ridiculously accurate when it comes to its depiction of the leagues, and everything I mentioned above is missing entirely from WAF. This makes WAF a bit easier to approach, but is still a net loss for those of us that appreciate really feeling like we're managing a real club.


All in all, I really enjoyed my time with WAF, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys the genre, but after a week or two, I found myself back on FM22. I'm hopeful that this marks the beginning of a rivalry with both franchises pushing each other to be better. I definitely have room in my life for more than one football management sim.

While I have enjoyed this game, and will probably continue to play it for a while, I wouldn't recommend it in its current state. There are several issues with it, and I will go into some detail about issues I have found. Keep in mind that I have played about 10 seasons in different leagues and in different nations (with different players, of course).

First of all, matches certainly seem to be stacked against the human player (not surprsingly). Regardless of the skill of your penalty takers, you will miss most of your penalties during matches, where as your opponents will almost never miss. 90th minute goals from opponents (that have never been in the match) abound, stealing wins or even draws away from you. Opponents will score on their first attack about a third of the time, your team will likely score on less than 10% of its first attacks. Red cards (or second yellows) are given for ridiculous things, like "re-entering the pitch without permission", which I'm not sure I've ever seen a card given for in my lifetime. There also seem to be commonly-used formations that do not work at all.
Outside of match play, there are other issues. Recently, while playing as a English Championship club, I was able to win the League Cup. In real life, this win comes with a spot in the Europa League the next season, which is a huge plus for a Championship side because of the money that comes along with it. In this game, I somehow did not get entered into the Europa League, nor any continental competition. I realize that this is a German game and centered around German football, and I was playing in the English league, but the German League Cup winners also make the Europa League in the same manner, so this issue doesn't exist because of a difference in the leagues.
Also, with the winning of the League Cup came another problem. I was in the midst of playing 5 games in 15 days, and because of the importance of the League Cup final, I pushed my players hard in the match, which went extra time, then to penalties. I did my best to substitute tired players, but the match took a lot out of them. After the match, they never physically recovered for the rest of the season. No matter what I did in practice during the week for the remainder of the season (about 10 matches), my squad of 23 players came into every match absolutely knackered. I tried resting them all week, or using active recouperation all week, but nothing I did made any difference. Two months later, when the season ended, they were still just barely making it through matches, and getting absolutely destroyed on the pitch in every match.
A couple other issues I've found are having to pay for changes to club grounds on infrastructure that hasn't even been started yet (pay to "destroy" what doesn't exist, and of course, fail get the money back that you invested to place it in the first place), and not being able to ask for a raise during the length of your contract (I got promoted from League One to the Premier League during my contract, but was not offered a raise, and was expected to see the last two years of my £4810 p/w contract as a Premier League manager).

While this game has some great elements and ideas, it definitely needs some work. I do enjoy it to an extent, but there is plenty of frustration as well. It does scratch the itch that I have when it comes to allowing you to run a club from the view of a chairman and manager, so I will probably continue to play it. If you are still thinking about buying it, I would suggest waiting for a sale.

To play this game the way it is meant, you have to be able to read fast. Faster then i can at least. There are many timed questions with 4 possible answers. When im finished reading the question, the time is up.

Football Manager games should be relaxing, tactical.

Not a test how fast you can read a foreign language.

Please make the timers optional!

This is a very good alternative to football manager. Just dont expect another football manager because its quite different. Reminds me of football ltd from the 90ies. Limited tutorial and you need to figure it out, but when it comes it hits the spot. Nice work and I hope it will become a yearly product. Fan based real players to import.

If you liked games like Anstoss, Football Manager Professional or the like, this one is for you.

Is it perfect? No. As every football manager, it has some issues with KI, balancing and the like.

But it has evolved greatly since it's release, the developer is continuing to pump thought and energy into it and is constantly improving the game.

In short, it is the best current game of it's kind, imho the best since Anstoss 3.

This is the football game I've been waiting for.

I've played a lot of FM, but it is a manager/coach game where as this is an owner/manager game. With WAF I can make the decisions about whether to expand the stadium or improve training, if we don't have enough fans to justify expansion then I can choose how to spend resources to boost engagement. I also am really enjoying the skill tree for players, it is more fun and rewarding to craft a player in this way than how training works in FM. For a career taking a club from the lower divisions up to the top, I think WAF have the right game design that gives me the freedom to make investment decisions to support what they want to achieve while making the training of the next generation of players more engaging.

This game also feels like a game - it's fun, doesn't feel like a spreadsheet, and has lots of depth. Really looking forward to how WAF continues to evolve.

It is akin to the defunct FIFA Manager series (last of which was 2013). Compared to FM it is less of a manager (head coach) game and more of a club owner game. The developers of this game really do listen to feedback and make changes and improvements to the game. The game today had many QoL features and a few new fan requested additions than it had at release.

I'm leaving a positive review because I would like to encourage the development of this game and others like this one.

I have been a hardcore Football Manager gamer since it was called Championship Manager, and before that I used to play games like PC Fútbol (PC Calcio, PC Premier...) and Ultimate Soccer manager, so, been playing this genre since around 1995.

I haven't bought any new Football Manager games since FM2015 because I don't think the upgrade is worth it. It's essentially the same exact game every year and I'm tired of the super repetitive press conferences and all the flaws the game has always had. Plus, it gets boring once you kinda settle with your tactics and just keep hiring or developing the new best player for each position. FM series doesn't allow you to play the game in the rol of a club manager, so you have nothing to say about marketing, merchandising, finances, stadium, academy and so on, which are truly thrilling parts of football that were widely covered by PC Futbol, Ultimate Soccer Managers and other games back in the 90s.

To me, it is simply absurd that for the past 20 years we haven't had one decent game about football club management besides the Total Club Manager series, long dead since EA decided to kill it. So, this is what We Are Football is trying to fix, and that's why I bought the game in the first place.

As many other reviewers mention here, the game has the right idea, but it's still far from being a truly enjoyable game, in my opinion. I won't take too long reviewing it.

On the positive side, the game looks nice, is not hard to play, has an enjoyable and immersive music, and has everything that Football Manager is missing: you can build your stadium, negotiate with sponsors, hire or sell players, manage the economy of your club and so on.

On the negative side, the interface is just hard to manage. Everything is somewhat organized around your weekly schedule, which you have to determine beforehand. This is trying to give you the feeling of being an actual manager of a club, but I don't think this is a good approach, since club managers don't actually take care of every little thing by themselves. They are presented with different options and they get to decide, so dropping this scheduled organization would be a better approach for me, just like the old PC Futbol or Ultimate Soccer Manager did.

Besides, the match engine is very lacking. Most players won't mind having a 2D layout just like Football Manager had for years, as long as they can get a grasp on their tactics. However, in its current state, this part of the game doesn't even meet the basics and is just truly lacking. Also, since the games are quite dull and hard to watch, it feels even worse having to spend several minutes for each match just staring at what is basically nothing, simply waiting for the game to end.

Despite all this, however, I think this game could become something much better and is on the right track, so I'm hoping to play it again maybe a year from now and check on its progress. And I recommend anyone interested to give it a spin and keep an eye on it as a potential Football Manager alternative.

Don't pay the full price for this game, however. I bought it on sale for around €26 and it still was way too expensive for what the game actually is in its current state, which is what I have refunded it. Either becomes a game as enjoyable as Total Club Manager, in which case it would be worth €35, or is sold for the right price for what it truly is right now, which to me would be around €10.

it brings me back to the nostalgia of the mid-00's. It could be fun to watch your club rise through the ranks and enjoy a lighter, though still immersive, experience compared to FM. However, the clunky interface is very frustrating and needs a lot more work and polish to the overall game, navigation, and tutorial to be considered worthwhile.

I am having fun playing it. It has some flaws and can sometimes feel to easy or to diffcult, but overall it is a good football manager. Some funny easter eggs like in the Anstoss-Games. Decisions feel impactful and when you make mistakes, you will feel them. The game doesn't punish too hard as well, what makes it easier to get into the game. Probably best for players who are new to football managers or advanced managers. Maybe not the best game for football-manager-experts, even tho it has some depths.

I advice buying when on sale. Some things could be better, but maybe it is the best manager on the market at the moment.

Most bugs have been fixed in the last 4 big updates. Patch 5 with a focus on the transfer market is coming soon.
Game is a lot of fun.

Note, this is NOT a Sega Football Manager "Clone". You act on a higher level in WaF. You are more in the shoes of the clubs manager, instead of the actual player managing trainer. WaF focuses on multi season development instead of micro management for each game,

This game has the right idea, but is in dire need of patching. There are some baffeling design choices that are unexpected from such an experienced team, and there are some additional annoyances that are easy to fix.

1. Let me start with this: The game is easy. Very easy. Sadly, it is easy for the wrong reasons.
Having a more accessable and therefore easier management game is not bad, but maybe the only way to challenge the more complex managers out there. But there is a basic truth to these games: Balance is important. The game gives you tools, and you use these tools, that is what a game like this is all about. If the game overpowers one tool and makes others useless, then the game becomes far too easy once you understand which tool is the only one you need.
That tool is the transfer market. It is downright funny how easy it is as a 4th league team to get players that would be in the best 3rd league teams. They are cheap, they are willing, they are far better than the alternative. Said alternative would be to develop players - but forget about that. Training is just there to raise fitness levels, and young players shouldn't be trained, they should just be bought cheap from other teams.

2. Player availability is something that is also a big problem, because... there are just too many good players. In this game, all countries are generally at the same strength level. As English team, you will find great first league players everywhere. Russia, Switzerland, Turkey - and not just a few, but many. The whole league is full of them, wherever you look. And some of those players will be on the transfer market, so you can buy them for 40% of their value. Which is by the way the same vaue for every league - players from a lower league in Austria will be priced identical to first league players in Italy, so do not think that you can make a better deal in smaller countries. Every country is just the same, only names are varying, but the numbers won't change. And while you can get a nice team going very fast, you do not feel happy doing that, you do not build a connection to your players, because they are not rare, it is not an accomplishment to get them. They are just numbers, and you will sell them the moment a opposing team offers you 300% of their value (which happens not as rarely as you would think when you keep in mind how many identical players are on the transfer market at the same time).

3. Some small things that are annoying: No explainations about some of the features in the game. Why is my manager stressed even though he only works 8 hours per week? Why can't I scout players in a country, why do I have to scout league specific? Why does a game that wants me to play it fast paced and with the bigger picture / long term goes in mind all of the sudden have me answer press questions that I could not even answer if I would analyse the match I just played for half an hour (What do I know if the catcalling of my supporters was justified, I did not see more than some moving pictures and even those I skip half of the time! And no, I have no idea how hard the fouls were, because again: I cannot see them, I just see the amount of cards given and even those I do not keep in mind because interviews are only onced every 10 games!). Interviews feel like surprise exams, and I am out of school since more than 10 years, so no thanks, I want to play games for fun.


So - how to fix things? Well, here are some ideas:

1. Leagues need to get some simply variable that makes them weaker / stronger and lowers prices / wages for players.
2. Players need to develop faster and more, talent needs to have more of an impact. Young players have to be weaker than they are, but need to get stronger fast, otherwise I will just always buy very strong young players.
3. Development needs to also happen in lower leagues. It cannot be that a player buys a young, talented team and then watches how all those 17-20 year old players do not get stronger at all for the whole year because they are only winning every game in league 2 (doesn't even change much in league 1 though, cause: Development is soooo damn slow and unfulfilling!).
4. Transfers need to get harder. There must be a middle ground between the AI saying "I only sell this player for 400% of the market value" before having a stroke and selling it 2 month later for 40%. That is just weird to watch. And again: It amkes development useless! I will not wait 5 years for my 18 year old youth prospect to reach a level that I can also just gain by buying some random dude from Greece for nearly nothing.

I hope this helps the developers. I want this game to succeed, and like I said: It gets the idea right. The market needs a more casual, but fun oriented football management game. But right now, things are too chaotic for me to recommend the game to anybody.

Train a player in a new position? Nope
Call up a player from my reserves if I get an injury before a game? Nope
Get an explanation on what each weekly focus does? Nope
See your team on the pitch? Nope
Hire new staff or get rid of current ones? Nope
Remove release clauses from player contracts? Nope
AI will bid on your transfer listed players? Nope

Negotiations limited by a few negotiation points and thus you cannot do much? Yep
Completely unrealistic transfer marker? Yep

This actually hot garbage right now. I expected so much more and I have been let down beyond any measure I could have expected. This is a very weak attempt at a sports management game.

I’ve been playing football management games all the way back to the original Football Manager, through the Championship Manager era and right back to the current iteration of FM. Throughout this period I have fond memories of games such as Ultimate Soccer Manager, LMA Manager and FIFA Manager, and to me these were always good stable mates to the more tactical approach of the FM series.

Recently, I’ve burnt out on the FM series, I’ve hardly played it this year to be honest so I was really excited that we may have an alternative, something a little more casual and less of a time sink. So far this This Is Football is nicely filling that gap for me, and I’m really pleased I took a chance on it. It’s a great change of pace and I think that as a first release of a new franchise the devs have done a good job. Basically, this game focuses more on the building of an entire club, through the building of club facilities, sponsorships, looking after the fans etc. rather than just heavy tactics.

So I’ve seen multiple reviews berating parts of game, but in my opinion anyone expecting a new football management game to be ‘perfect’ on day one is not being sensible. There are so many moving parts and simulations that interact that I fully expected that to be the case. Even the current iteration of the FM franchise has to issue multiple balance patches every year.

What I think we have here is a very solid foundation of a franchise that sits very nicely as an alternative to Football manger, and competition is important to drive both franchises forward. I truly believe that the devs can build on this create a really strong product.

But the most important thing is I’m having fun with this game. I’ve had a terrible couple of weeks due to the loss of my mother, and this game has successfully provided moments of respite. I’m happy with my purchase and hope this review helps you decide if this game is for you.

A few things for people to consider who may be thinking about a purchase:
• The UI is confusing at first, but after spending some time with it I think I know where everything is. It certainly gives a fun throwback vibe to some of the other games I mention above.
• I really love how you can literally just drag and drop players anywhere on the tactics pitch and enjoy the more simple way the player rating is shown.
• The teams and players are not real, however it can very easily be patched with one download. Its very simple so it’s not really an issue.
• The match engine is very different to FM, I suggest watching a YouTube video if that matters to you. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but it’s grown on me. The devs have said that they are looking to develop a fully 2D/3D engine.
• Some of the German to English translations are a bit weird – it can make things a bit difficult to understand at first.
• There are a few minor bugs, nothing major or game breaking that I’ve seen. I’ve had no crashes. The worst one is an issue with young players asking for way too much money when signing a contract.

the following bugs me:
* transfers: boring, nothing happens, no offers, my players are stuck on the transfer list forever
* employees, can't sack, why? no employee training
* game: a red card for the opponent is jump starting them, are almost always scoring immediately and winning the game, terrible mechanic
* youth: are always signed immediately, why no option for next season?!

if that gets fixed, my rating goes to positive, but with those massive downsides i'm disappointed for having spent the money

All you see during matches are some 'pictures' of players 'shoveling' over the terrain :(
No really actions, amusement 1/10 :(
For that price they should have done a lot more !
Hope they will change that soon or it's a no go.

With the existing patch of FM Zocker (there on Day 1!), it is such a nice experience. I like the remote play option and it feels like back in the A3 days, but with a nice UI.
Started with my buddy already a season and I guess we will spend lots of hours in this game! :)

Edit after some more hours:
Yes, there is stuff that could be tweaked (e.g. market value, transfer behaviour, tweaks in the game display), but still. It is pulling me in for "just one more game day!" :)