The concept of buying a game based around one team seems a bit funny to us. Sure, getting unlockable photos and videos of some of that particular clubs defining moments is great, but even a real fan may want to see something different after a while. The inability for the player to switch to playing as a different team in some of the singleplayer modes is something a little off-putting. Gamers should be able to choose which team they want to play as from the options screen, not while shopping for a game.

The two main modes in the game are the Domestic and Super League modes and in both of these leagues the player is initially restricted to play as the team in the title of the game (in our case Manchester United). The Domestic League is made up of teams from around the same country, while the Super League consists of teams from around Europe. The Super League also features the ability to play as another team or in multiplayer mode once the league title has been won once. Both are very basic leagues not based around anything actual, and do not feature any advanced options prevalent in many similar sports games such as the opportunity for any transfers or club management. The Domestic League is also quite limiting in that only one league can be played in depending on which version of the game is bought. With our copy of Manchester United Club Football we could only play in the English league, and missed out on playing in the Dutch or Spanish leagues.

In the Domestic League there is a Custom Player feature. This allows a player to put themselves in to play for their favourite team. The Custom Player function is reasonably well done, with a good range of options to create a player to add to the team. However this feature is somewhat limited with only one custom player being allowed to be created for the team.

The other main mode in Club Football offers the players a bit more in terms of customisation. Custom leagues can be created to compete for a number of trophies, with multiplayer leagues possible. The number of teams available here is quite impressive. As well as the top echelon of teams from around Europe dozens of other minor teams are available and can be mixed and matched into a league. Also impressive is the fact that all the teams and players seem to be licensed. Codemasters have certainly done their homework in this respect. Also available is the ability to create a team of custom players for entry into a league. The only other feature we would have liked to have seen here is the ability to slot a custom player into an existing team. As it is a whole team of custom players needs to be created.

A game such as this, where fans of the sport are being targeted, needs to have a good game of soccer to complement the features available. Unfortunately the game does not live up to what a game of soccer should be. Movement is fairly sluggish, with players on the field moving quite unnaturally. Even just manouvering around the field seems to be a struggle, and the ball is quite often lost due to not being able to control the player well enough to evade the opposition. Passing is no better, with the player receiving the ball standing still for a moment to collect the ball. This is often enough time for the opposition to make a play for the ball. In other games players can quite often see the mistakes they are making and work to improve those. A loss can be taken as a learning experience. In Club Football the player will often feel that a loss was a cheap one, brought about by the sluggish engine.

The controls do not help alleviate the problems with the gameplay at all. On offence there seems to be a delay in passing and shooting even when a player is not running. This can lead to the ball being stolen cheaply. On defence the block tackles that seem to work well in other games appear to be fairly ineffective, leading to an over-reliance on slide tackles. The control setup is good though, with the default settings virtually identical to the Pro Evolution Soccer series, and fully customisable if necessary. The more advanced controls of that series are unfortunately missing, with no ability to do things like curving the ball for shots on goal or feinting.

While the control for general players is bad, trying to control the goalie is even worse. The goalie moves exceedingly slowly with the ball in hand and there is quite a bit of delay if any of the controls are used. Even something as simple as walking to the edge of the box can be quite frustrating and slow, and players will often find themselves pressing buttons repeatedly to try to get the goalie to do something.

One area where Club Football does well at is the set plays. For free kicks and corners a fine tune setting (controlled by the right analogue stick) is available for the player to choose how the ball is kicked. This then affects the type of shot and how it plays, and the game executes this reasonably well. The game also takes penalty kicks slightly differently, allowing the player more control over where to place a kick.

Control is only one part of how a game plays though. Other factors have an influence, and in a game of soccer AI is fairly important both with your own teammates and the opposition. Unfortunately in Club Football the player AI seems to be quite haphazard at times, even at the higher difficulty levels. While the opposition players seem well organised, the teammates on your own team seem to not have any sort of structure at all. Characters the player is not controlling will often wander around aimlessly, not seeming to be marking anyone or getting in a position to attack or defend. This is more pronounced when on defence, where the opposition will quite often be able to run into clear space regardless of what the player does. At times it seems that players on the field do not even realise where they are; more than once we have had the goalie throw a ball out to a teammate only for it to hit their back. By the time they have turned around to see what hit them the opposition have been able to rush up for a clear shot on goal.

Graphically the game is nothing special to look at. The stadia are modelled reasonably well and the players all bear some resemblence to the actual players, but there is nothing outstanding here. The crowd looks bad, appearing as quite static bits of colour. Commentary in sports games is rarely good, and this is no different in Club Football. Random comments such as "Leeds is using a 4-4-2 formation" can easily be heard several times throughout a game, including right before full time. Sadly, as with a lot of sports games, players will often revert to switching the commentary off. Other sounds within the game are fairly nondescript and unimpressive. The crowd do get involved to some extent with team songs often coming through, although the crowd seem to be quite partisan cheering the same for an away goal as a home goal.