Football Manager 2022 Review: 8 Ups And 2 Downs

Downs...

2. No Fresh Lick Of Paint

Article lead image
SEGA

Admittedly only a minor Down, Football Manager 2022 looks near-identical to its predecessor.

Of course, we FM players can very much be creatures of habit - and why change something just for the sake of change? - but on an initial load-up, you'd be totally forgiven for thinking that you'd accidentally booted up FM21.

The layout and skin of FM22 is familiar yet vanilla. Obviously you can move the various menu tabs around until your heart's content, yet this latest Football Manager release just feels like it missed the boat a little by not sprucing up its main interface - or at least giving players the option of an alternative, fresh layout.

There should be some slack afforded to Sports Interactive, mind, for the development of Football Manager 2022 was hindered by the global pandemic that's hit countless industries hard across the past 18 months or so. And while the main interface didn't get a face lift, more importantly, the ins and outs of FM's actual matches did - at least in an animation sense.

Advertisement
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.