You have laughed at the performance against Glasgow Rangers, now buy the game. Which is a roundabout way of saying "what is the idea behind these football licences"? We have already had a host of Manchest United games (Manchester United & Manchester United Europe), a Liverpool game, an Arsenal game...
The fans of the club in question might go for it in a big way, but what about everybody else (and that is going to be at least 95% of the football following public)? How many Manchester United or Bradford fans can you see queueing up to buy a game covered in white roses? It is not as if the whole country is going to be behind the Peacocks in their brave challenge for the European Cup. Not now they are not in it anymore.
So, bearing in mind that large numbers of people in the West Yorkshire area will be buying this game whatever it is like, and even larger numbers of people would not go near it if Winona Ryder was using the box as a changing room, how does it shape up?
For a start, there is no arcade action at all. The Liverpool game was an arcadey, the Manchester United games were a mixture of arcade and strategy, but Leeds United is entirely a management game. You won't even spot any sprites of footballers during the match sequences, just a clock, details of scorers, and a black bar with the words 'attack, 'midfield' and 'defence' zipping across it.
Sounds off-putting? (A decent match sequence is a vital part of a management sim, after all). Don't worry. The simply, speedy way the black bar illustrates the flow of play, combined with a steady stream of information (goals and bookings), is a lot more nerve-wracking and exciting than your average sluggish, predictable when-will-it-end animated match sequence. Oh, and you can interrupt at any time to make substitutions.
It is very playable, you will soon be hooked
Here comes the section of the review where we list the niggling flaws:
Flaw one: The 'training' element of the game is best ignored. While it is much easier to operate than most management sim training bits, your players are more likely to get worse if you train them (as the training reports confirm). Do CDS know something about Leeds that we don't?
Flaw two: It is too easy to begin with. In order to generate climbing-up-the-league challenge that management sims like, Leeds United (the only team you can be, natch) start off life in the Fourth Division. If this might upset some of the Leeds die-hards, they'd be even more upset if their team made a habit of losing to teams like Doncaster and Wrexham. Consequently, they don't.
You'd have to do something really stupid (only fielding six players, for example) to lose a game in Division Four. Things get harder as you progress up the league of course, but a bit more challenge from the kick off would have been nice.
Apart from that, it is all pretty decent. It is user-friendly, you are not swamped with information you do not want, and there is plenty of scope for getting tactical. Which is exactly what you want in a game style based on getting tactical. In short, it contains a lot of things that are good, and a handful things that are dodgy.