The duplicitous practice of selling the same game to consumers multiple times has become so pervasive that most people aren't even inclined to acknowledge it anymore. It's a low-cost, high-reward approach to game production, and its effectiveness is evidenced on the quarterly financial statements of all the publishers who actively employ the tactic. Sequels and rehashes come so fast and furious now that gamers may have trouble keeping up. UEFA Champions League walks along the edge of this precipice, with gameplay that feels entirely unchanged from FIFA ‘07, but with just enough tug from the UEFA license and the new Ultimate Team mode to keep from falling off the edge into utter redundancy.

For the uninitiated, the UEFA Champion's League is the premier soccer club championship in the world, playing host to the best European soccer clubs in a widely televised multi-tiered tournament. While at first it appears to be a simple recasting of the mold made by FIFA ‘07, UEFA actually does a pretty good job of capturing the spirit, intensity, and fan fervor of the real league. Booting up the game for the first time, you're greeted by the authentic Champion's League song, a truly rousing score for long-time fans of footy. Delving a bit further, the game includes a mode called UEFA Champion's League Challenge, which puts you in the driver's seat during a number of historically significant situations in UEFA history. The inherent fun might be lost on casual players, but for genuine fans, it provides a terrific thrill.

The game also adds another nuance beyond the authentic flair in the form of the card-trading Ultimate Team mode. The idea of including collectable cards into a sports game isn't exactly unique - there have been a number of games that sought to capitalize on our inherent desire to accrue large amounts of otherwise useless shiny bits. What's different about the CCG element in Ultimate Team mode is that it actually provides both form and function for the greater gameplay. You start the game with a single bronze pack of cards, providing you with just enough players to scrap together a really crappy team. The more you play, the more credits you get to purchase additional bronze packs. Pairing players to maximize skill potential, minimize nationality conflicts, and monitor chemistry considerations provides most of the challenge here.

Just like any other CCG, there are also consumable or functional cards that you can play to boost stats, affect development, and even influence the outcome of games as you participate in them. You can change the speed of the game clock, influence referee calls, or temporarily boost your squad's stats in tight situations. The cards are all tradable online. It's a nice feature to include, though one has to wonder how many people are going to have friends with whom the trading feature proves fruitful. As you get further along, you get access to silver and gold cards which have increased effects or which represent higher levels of player ability. It is a fun and surprisingly engrossing system, and the interactive elements really differentiate the game from what could have normally just been another vanilla fantasy dynasty mode.

Unfortunately, the game itself isn't nearly as fun to play as the CCG. UEFA suffers from pretty much all the same faults FIFA ‘07 did when it was released a few months ago. In many ways, trying to play a match of UEFA feels like you're watching a game as much as actually participating in it. The on-field combatants are unresponsive to player feedback. Trying to challenge someone for the ball is, unbelievably, a passive process. You simply hold the button and the closest player will run a bit faster to try and edge in on the ball carrier for a steal. Slide tackling isn't a terribly feasible option because players are nearly impossible to control correctly. Instead of analog control, they only really run in eight directions. When you're trying to execute a precision maneuver like a slide tackle, where a slight misstep will cost you a foul or worse, this flaw becomes particularly glaring. The shooting mechanics are just utterly broken. You have little input into the location of shots, and there's no real room for nuance. Mapping the shoot button on the same button you hold to challenge players on the defensive side of the ball seems like a cruel joke, as even players who are intimately familiar with the series will find themselves inadvertently blasting balls over the net when they were only trying to regain possession.

For what it's worth, the presentation in the game has gotten even more polished, with more realistic stadiums and television-style broadcasting. The player models aren't quite where one would expect them to be, but the animations are pretty spot-on, and that's all you'll generally see from your vantage point high up on the pitch. The audio is pretty good as well, with energetic play-by-play and color commentary, and fairly decent crowd participation in the goings-on of a given match. Played in high-definition, you might even fool a buddy or two into thinking you bought a subscription package for the real tournament.

What the game really boils down to is that it's simply not different enough to warrant a purchase from players who already have FIFA ‘07 (or Winning Eleven, for that matter) on their shelves. For its own sake, it's a very solid package, with the rewarding Ultimate Team mode providing the bulk of the gameplay experience, but when you take FIFA '07's recent release into account, it's still largely redundant. It's certainly a better game than FIFA '07, so if you're dead-set on picking up a new EA soccer game, this is the one. For the rest of the gaming population though, UEFA isn't worth much more than a rent.

Apr 19, 2007 | 0 comments
Chris Chester