By Joseph Murpjy at thegamingliberty.com
When Ubisoft announced Pure Football I made a mental note to appreciate how difficult the job the game had on its hands. Going up against the likes of FIFA and Pro Evolution is never an easy thing, especially when you consider how successful the two have been. As a result, there’s little room for any additions to the football genre let alone a brand new intellectual property. Ubisoft want in on the football fan base and ‘Pure’ is their answer.
The game’s premise is simple – keep the football basics intact but change it just enough to make it open, friendly and accessible to everyone. But by doing this, Ubisoft have opened up a world of pain and confusion.
Why on earth would you change a game (and a system of play) that has become a way of sporting life and couldn’t be more refined if it tried?! Pure is a strange game to say the least. Examples of such extreme changes are numerous.
Let’s start the breakdown with the graphics. When the game loads you may find yourself snigger at them, laugh, or even call someone over to collectively gasp at them, but in time you’ll actually grow to love them. I hated them when I started but after a few games the game’s “arty†look settled with me. The art style is slightly “cartoony†and the players’ proportions are not 100% accurate; distortion is an element here – not a bad thing but it does take some getting used to. The pitches, venues and backdrops are designed well – my favourite is the rooftop arena, which looks great.
The gameplay is where the game takes an almighty fall from grace though. Pure doesn’t operate in the way we have become accustomed to for football games. In fact, the change from the 11 players to five-a-side will be enough to cause doubts even with the hardcore footy fans. Pure does things differently and for this reason I came away most confused.
Instead of using a one button press to shoot, Pure introduces the “Pure Gaugeâ€. The gauge (when the shoot button is held) starts moving, and this comes with a steep learning curve for the young or impatient.
The gauge has three stages, the green (meaning a shot when released here will be a good shot, on target and strong), the pure (meaning the shot is struck well, extremely powerful and highly accurate) and the red stage (the shot was struck poorly and is off-target). When you start the game it’s hard to get into the natural rhythm of football as you continually watch the meter to time your shot – this breaks your concentration and bond with the current game and inevitably reduces matches to monotonous back and forth actions.
One extreme change is the way penalties are rewarded. Instead of earning a penalty in the box, Pure offers something that couldn’t be worse even if it tried. You now have a “foul gaugeâ€.
Tackle someone in an aggressive manner and the invisible god that acts like the puppet master of the match will add an amount to your foul gauge. Once your foul gauge fills – I have to stress it doesn’t matter where you are on the pitch – a penalty is rewarded. When the gauge is almost full, the match enters a horribly tense mode where you end up bouncing off the opposition instead of tackling them, in fear of giving them a penalty.
The single player “campaign†allows you to create, manage and upgrade your way to the top and this is where the game works best. Firstly, you have to create a character to act as a captain and then you can also create an emblem for your team. By using the rather impressive creation tool you become a captain of a team (named what you like). The players are an unknown band of brothers wishing to become No.1 in the world and they need your talent to help them achieve this goal.
Events within the single player game are interesting and plentiful. Events like mini-tournaments beat-the-clock type-events and other events are in place to challenge you – and these are for the most part very enjoyable. A very cool feature of the game is the challenges set per team. By completing these challenges you unlock a certain player which can then be transferred to your team. For example, imagine you are playing Italy and you see a player that you are fond of or whose stats are strong. Well, during that match (to unlock this player) you might have to score 5 ‘Pure’ goals, or not concede a shot on goal. By completing this challenge the player is now essentially yours – you can use him or just ignore him – it’s up to you. These challenges lift the game up from being just a generic football game to something more.
Online Mode
Pure Football’s online mode looks great but when played is more of a test of endurance and patience rather than an enjoyable experience. Firstly, the multiplayer is horridly lag-prone, meaning every single game I played was a mess of late tackles and wonky animation. The crippling lag is a prime example of multiplayer ignored during the production of a title and you’d do well to ignore it here.
There are some elements within the game that work really well, such as Pure’s music – which is surprisingly dynamic and not too intrusive. Ranging from the up-beat tempo of the menus to the in-game music, the audio works well as an integral part of the game. The players also utter some remarks to each other based on play and to the greater extent of things this works well. Comments like “nice save keeper†can be heard after a close call and these definitely add to the sense of a “team†on the pitch.
Pure Football will be hated by a lot of people though. It’s flawed in many ways, and with better football games on the shelves, you’d wonder why people might be attracted to it. Pure does have redeeming features though, and its by far not the worst game you could buy. Kids will love it, gamers of a relaxed nature would love it too but for the people that can’t see beyond the cartoony look and deep into the guts of the title, they will feel nothing in the end except the bitter sting of disappointment.
Format: Xbox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3; Developer: Ubisoft Vancouver
TheGamingLiberty.com is Ireland’s Premier Videogame Website.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Conor Sketches | Tiger Woods loves Ger Loughnane and cosplaying as Charles LeClerc
