Football Manager 2022 Review: 8 Ups And 2 Downs

1. The Matchday Experience Is At Another Level

As alluded to elsewhere, it feels as if Football Manager 2022 may end up splitting opinion amongst some franchise fans when it fully makes its way out into the wild.

It may well come down to personal preference, but this writer gives FM22 a huge Up for how close it feels to real-life football.

Football Manager - and Championship Manager before it, for that matter - can have a habit of becoming somewhat cyclical in how to play it. Find one base set of tactics that work on one FM game, and it's likely those tactics will be work just as well on the next release, and the next release, and the next.

Here, falling back on your old FM21 habits will only get you so far. For the first time in a long time, it feels like Football Manager is a major challenge once more. That's not to say previous entries weren't enjoyable and didn't bring their own challenges, but FM22 is challenging because it requires a thorough eye for detail, a want to always be thinking of new approaches, and those who tend to find one solid idea and stick to it run the risk of being punished for their slackness.

Of course, some may find this off-putting on a first playthrough, but with every bigger challenge comes a bigger sense of reward.

Football Manager 2022 is released on 9 November.