|
After wiping out the dust
from my Saturn some time ago, the one of the very first
games I played was SWS 97' which I spent hours with
years before. While playing it now I realised I didn't
enjoy a soccer game that much for a long time despite
playing PES and FIFA games on my PS2 for past couple of
years. This proves that SWS 97' is at least a decent
game even when compared to the newest soccer sims.
The game features the following game modes: exhibition
match, World League, Worldwide Cup (with qualifiers),
Cup Tournament and P.K. Shoot out, all of them I assume
are pretty self-explanatory. You can choose from 48
national teams, no clubs here, if you miss that check
out the sequel, SWS 98' Club Edition.
SWS 97' is more an arcade title than a simulation. The
players really like volleys so you'll see a lot of
bicycle-kicks, scissor-kicks and other first-touch
moves. The ball curves even more than in FIFA series
which is quite an achievement. There are just two feint
moves- stepover/sidestep and a rainbow, the second one
is quite tricky to do but if you manage to make a
rainbow shot it looks pretty cool.
Pace of the game is rather average, not slow but also
not that fast. It's hard to maintain a possession,
there're a lot of intercepts, it's not that easy to get
run away from defender, sometimes you'll just have to
shoot from distance to have any chance to score (if
you're lucky you'll score from a half-line... with
goalkeeper! Once I even managed to score with a volley
from my penalty area). You can score in various ways
though the easiest and the most common one is just go
head-to-head with a keeper and shoot, the ball with go
through his body and fall into the net (or not).
The A.I. is not that bad, at the beginning it'll be hard
to win but with some practice even the hardest level
won't be that challenging, you'll probably outshoot the
opponents though it doesn't mean you won't end up with a
goalless draw. The CPU scores most goals with a header
or with some surprise shots but it's always able to
score once in a while and really, some games have a
problem with that.
Before starting a match you should always check your
strategy. There are quite a lot of formations available
(including my favorite 2-3-5), some tactics like
"offensive" or "counter attack" (and they really have an
impact on your players behavior on the pitch). There are
also 3 tactics you can enable during the match: offside
trap, man-to-man and pressing, all of them being quite
useful.
Of course the gameplay has it's flaws. The keepers are
sometimes dumb especially during the centers into
penalty box but on the other hand if they were better it
would be really hard to score any goal and they still
make some nice saves. I also found that controlling the
keeper works better in this game than in many other
soccer sims. AI, as I mentioned, should be a little more
aggressive, the opposing players rarely use dash to run
away from your defenders.
SWS is great as a multiplayer game (up to 4 players).
Thanks to quite simple controls you can always enjoy it
with someone who plays it for the first time. My brother
rarely plays games but we can still have some exciting
matches while playing together.
Graphics aren't that impressive but they deserve a
strong "7". The players animation is pretty good,
stadiums (3 kinds) are well-done and the are no
slowdowns during the game. Also I find the game menus,
tables etc. the best I've seen in any other soccer game.
Gary Bloom does a pretty nice job as a commentator even
though it gets repetitive pretty fast but despite this,
it's decent. The lines rarely don't match the situation
on the pitch. Thanks to team name calling the match
doesn't sound like a play between an anonymous teams
(like it does in PES or FIFA series).
The music in menus is ok, it suits the soccer
atmosphere. There's also an option to enable some BGM's
during the game instead of commentary (some average rock
tunes). You can try it if you're getting bored with
Gary.
Things that are quite important in soccer games are all
those little details that seem to don't matter but in
fact they really add a lot. Like short and funny movies
showed on the stadium's big screen after you score a
goal and after the last whistle. The crowd makes a
different noise depending who's the home team (Asian
teams have different chants than American one's), lot of
various stats, you can check how many intercepts did the
player make or how many shots did a whole team took
during the whole tournament, the "Best 11" and a MVP are
chosen after completing the season in World League and
so on. There's also a player edit mode where you can
change the names into original ones (no license here but
the team kits are just like they looked like in 96').
So, SWS 97' is a definite must buy for every soccer fan
that owns a Saturn. It'll bring you hours of great and
addicting (the "one last match" syndrome) gameplay. The
game's really cheap now so you just can't have it on
your shelf.
|
