This Review is on a 0-4 star scale. 0 is very poor (like the NFL’s Raiders in 2006) and 4 is excellent (like the NFL’s Chargers in 2006). My Packers would probably get 1 star out of 4 for their play this year… but that’s another story.
Graphics: ***
NFL Head Coach
is based on the Madden engine… that is to say, the in-game graphics are
basically exactly what you’d expect from Madden. What did I give Madden
NFL 06’s graphics a long time ago? Probably a higher rating than this,
but I’ve been spoiled since then by looking at next-gen stuff, and the
graphics no longer look excellent, but still pretty good.
Sound: **½
In this game,
your character, the head coach, will talk with other coaches on the staff,
the owner, and the scouting director. They don’t say much, usually just
small phrases or single words. Sometimes, though, if another coach on your
staff is not getting along with you, you’ll be able to tell from the tone
of their voice. An assistant, which you can fire at any time, will talk
back to you and speak in an angry tone. It adds some flavor to the game.
The game also has NFL Films music peppered in, which isn’t bad but is also
repetitive since there’s only about 7 tracks or so. The lack of a custom
soundtrack for the Xbox version hurts; you don’t get to add your own music,
which could spice things up more.
Difficulty: *½
Unlike Madden,
you can’t choose your skill level. It’s not incredibly easy to win games,
but it isn’t all that difficult to cruise through the season with a great
record and win the Super Bowl. What you won’t be able to do is run up the
score and put up ridiculous stats like you would in Madden. Problems with
the AI will make things easier on you if you learn to take advantage of
them.
Controls: ***½
This game is
all menu-based. There’s no skill required at all in maneuvering players
or anything like that. Sometimes the in-game menu will be a little confusing
to figure out, but otherwise it’s really a cinch to use the controls in
this game.
Gameplay: **½
The in-game play
works like this: you are in charge of calling all the plays for your team,
but when the ball is snapped, you have no direct control over the players’
movements. You’re actually watching the play instead of controlling the
play, which is a radical concept for a sports game. This is something that
may turn off a lot of sports game fans to the game, because of the fact
that you don’t actually control your players. Most sports gamers like to
be in charge of the action. This means that while RPG players may be used
to watching the characters battle it out, it’s not something that sports
game fans are used to. I have played both sports games and RPGs, so I don’t
mind watching the game take place.
This can lead to a whole lot of frustration, as you watch your players make poor decisions and play badly. As a Packers fan, I’ve become used to it over the last two seasons. It’s something that you won’t like if you like being in total control of the action. On the other hand, think of it as watching a football game, but with the idea that you can do better than the coach at calling plays, so you actually get to call them and see what happens.
But there’s a lot more than just calling plays and watching your players perform them. Of course you have to factor in clock control, as you choose when to call your plays. This, while maybe seeming like such a minor thing, actually is a problem. If you call your play with about :30 left on the play clock and get up to the line of scrimmage, but want to wait to snap the ball until :01 left on the play clock (usually when you have the lead), your players are likely to draw a false start penalty while you wait for the clock to run down. This happens at a rate too frequent for NFL standards.
What if your players are stinking up the field? Yelling at the screen may not help, but you can have your coach yell at them. If the player is on the sideline or if play is stopped due to some sort of a timeout, then you can choose to give a passive response or an aggressive one to that player or a group of players. A passive one would be some sort of encouragement, while an aggressive one would be some sort of fiery speech or even an insult. The player is affected either positively or negatively by what you say, denoted by a + or – that comes up over their head. One problem with this is that it’s pretty much completely random whether you affect them positively or negatively. At least you have the chance of improving a player’s play if they’re playing poorly, and if they’re already playing poorly, they’re probably not going to get much worse if they are affected negatively by what you say.
You can also somewhat affect how players play by giving them strategy. Maybe your quarterback is holding on to the ball too long and getting sacked. You can tell your quarterback to try forcing the ball into coverage instead of waiting too long, or to take off and run if there is a hole to run through. Of course, whether they listen to you or not is pretty much the computer’s choice, and sometimes your strategy will backfire.
But there’s more than just the games. You have practices, where you can train individual players at certain positions by running them through certain drills, and you can also train the whole team with full-team practices. Running certain plays multiple times during practice will make those plays your “money plays” during games, and your team will run them more effectively.
You also have to deal with your assistants, as if certain parts of the team are struggling, you’ll have the choice to tell them nicely that they stink, or flat out tell them that they stink. In the first case, their feelings will be hurt a little, and in the second case, their feelings will be really hurt, but they may gain some knowledge, which (if I’m not mistaken) helps your players’ ratings at whatever position they coach. Why does it matter that you put down your coaches and hurt their self-esteem? If they get mad enough at you, they’ll just walk out on you and quit, even in the middle of the season. Sure, you can get another coach, but they may not be nearly as knowledgeable as the old one. I had a coach walk out on me the day before the Super Bowl. It turned out that I was being fitted for a Super Bowl ring while he lost his chance at one, but it could have been costly.
You’re also in charge of all offseason moves, such as drafting players, signing and releasing players, and trading players. Not only is there a trust factor between your coach and your assistants, but also with other teams’ general managers (making them more or less accepting of to your trade offers, depending on trust level) and with players’ agents (making them more or less accepting of your contract offers). Lots of things you do will affect these factors.
The biggest problem is probably with the schedule. You have two time blocks each day to do various tasks, along with two other time blocks to do minor tasks. Many of these tasks, however, are locked into place, and you can’t get out of them even if they’re unnecessary. You also are limited to only doing one thing during that time period. For example, do you want to make a trade? You can’t sign players then, or release them, or fire and hire coaches. Or do you want to have your linemen practice? That means that your running backs and linebackers can’t practice then. There ends up being such a limited amount of time to do things that your players are almost always unprepared for the upcoming game, and this leads to players getting upset at your coach, because you’ll have to deal with the fact that their positions did not get enough practice. A more flexible schedule would be nicer.
Overall, the gameplay is pretty good, though it has some flaws, such as in the scheduling, and also so much randomness involved with the motivation and strategic factors that you don’t have enough control over your team.
Presentation:
**½
The game has
a nice presentation visually, as you get the feel of being in the coach’s
office, with other people interacting with you in person, through Email,
or over the phone. (Note: this is different from graphics, as I’m just
talking about what you see on the screen, not how good the graphics are
of what you see on the screen.) The text that the people say can be pretty
funny, especially when they’re mad at you. Sometimes an angry assistant
will say, “I look forward to you retiring so I can take your position.”
In real life that would never happen, but in this game, that that character
may be a good assistant or unfireable (as the scouting director is), or
you may not have enough time to fire them.
Problems with the presentation come in the menus… they can be awfully confusing. Finding out stats and ratings of players is a whole lot harder than it is in Madden, where it’s an absolute cinch. This has nothing to do with the game’s difficulty; this just has to do with confusing menus. Sometimes you’ll go to look at your calendar after receiving a phone call to change your schedule, and you’ll find the calendar in February when it’s October!
Finally, the game messes up some basic NFL stuff that Madden has been getting right for years. After going through one year with the Packers, my second season’s schedule is nearly the same- I’m playing the same opponents in the other conference as I did last season, which is completely wrong; the NFL’s schedule shifts each season so you play different non-conference opponents each season. Sure, this is very minor, but that’s something I expect to see in Madden ’95, not a game in 2006.
AI: *
The game’s artificial
intelligence is awful; the computer knows little about football, apparently,
and because of this, you can take advantage of it. That’s not a good thing,
however; I’d rather have the computer know what it’s doing rather than
act stupid. For example, if the computer has the lead and the ball late
in the game, and you call your defensive play quickly, the computer will
snap the ball quickly instead of running down the clock. As a result, you
don’t have to use your timeouts, and you can get the ball back quicker.
I used this to my advantage in a game where I was trailing by 16 points
in the 4th quarter and managed to drag out my resistance for a while (although
due to poor performance out of my offense, I still lost by 10).
The AI is also very poor at passing; that’s not just the opposing team, but your team as well, as of course you don’t control your own players. But if you realize this, you can take advantage of the computer by running the ball a lot on offense in order to not turn the ball over, and eventually waiting for the computer to throw interceptions, as the computer does throw a lot of picks.
Replayability:
***
One nice thing
about this game is the fact that since there is that goal of becoming the
greatest coach of all time (your coach has a ranking that can increase
over time with more and more victories and achievements), there’s a real
reason to keep on playing, other than for the satisfaction of winning.
Certainly that’s enough to keep me playing, and given the unpredictability
of how your players will play, games will end up being a lot different
from week to week in Head Coach than in Madden. That gives some variety
and spice to the season.
Fun Factor!: **½
How fun is it
to watch a football game? Of course if I’m watching a real NFL game, it’s
a lot of fun to watch. But when you’re playing a video game, watching a
game isn’t exactly as fun, even if you do have some control over what goes
on, as you do get to call the plays. I’ve had some great games in Head
Coach, such as a preseason game where Brett Favre led one of his last-second
drives to give me a one-point victory over the Titans. NFL Head Coach is
one of the few video games where your perspective on the game affects how
fun it is; if you want to be in control of the game, and to be right in
the action, you’re not going to like this game. On the other hand, looking
at it like a game you’re watching on television but calling the plays for
your team is a way to enjoy the experience.
OVERALL: **½
NFL Head Coach
is a mixed bag; there are some elements that are enjoyable, while others
miss the mark. Part of the trouble for the game is that the game doesn’t
quite market well to its target audience, which is NFL fans. Usually sports
fans want action-packed games, and this one doesn’t put you into the action.
At the same time, it’s a strategy game, but most strategy fans like the
war-related games such as Fire Emblem. So who is this game for? If you
can overlook the errors in this game, then NFL fans should enjoy it, especially
if they’re into the technical points of the game. I enjoy it, but I know
much more about football than the average person should. It’s an above-average
effort, but it can definitely be better. I hope EA Sports tries again on
a next-gen system and creates a better experience, but for being the first
3D football strategy game, it’s not bad.
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