Wednesday, 15 August 2018 09:00

ESport Manager Review

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In the rising age of eSports, it was only a matter of time until an eSports version of Madden or NBA 2K was developed, and eSports Manager tries its best to deliver the same excitement and quality of those games. Unfortunately, despite the fresh and intriguing concept, eSports Manager doesn’t quite deliver on what you may have been hoping for.

FPS OR MOBA?

eSports Manager offers you the choice between forming either a MOBA team or a FPS team to manage. Both teams are made up of five players that you create, manage, and even pick a country of origin for. Once you have your team, you are taken to a player house where you run the team’s business by looking for sponsors and building a social media presence. Also, when need be, have them eat, rest, and even work out to make sure your players are happy and healthy. Then comes the actual gameplay.

GAMES WITHIN THE GAME

Much like how in Madden you get to actually play out a game of football, this game allows you to play out FPS and MOBA matches against other teams as well. Although you get to pick to go either the FPS or MOBA route, both games play nearly identical, allowing you to assign your five players to go to either the top, bottom, or middle lanes, and then also choose how aggressive their play styles are. Thankfully, there is also a well-appreciated speed option with three speeds that allows you to either breeze through each match or take your time to evaluate and adjust to what you are facing each game.

The objective to the FPS version is to capture and hold command post until you have accumulated 100 points, while the MOBA game picks its winner based on who can destroy the enemy base first. The MOBA version will allow you to pick from different sets of characters whose roles seem to hinder on offensive, defensive, and balanced. Aside from providing statistics, you’re not told much more about each character and why some may be more beneficial than the other. The FPS game, however, allows you to pick from a set of guns for each character to take into battle, with the pros and cons of each being much more clear.

A LACK OF VARIATION

Even though the objective and roles are clearly different between the FPS and MOBA games, you will notice how similarly they play when you get into them. Especially when you can simply assign all five of your players to play aggressively, run it down the middle lane, and win almost every game you play. Any sense of a challenge is removed. As you unlock more in-game perks for your team, these matches will also become easier and easier.

BACK AT HOME

Unfortunately, running the player house is not so entertaining either. Everything you do as the manager in this game mostly focuses around buying things to receive experience that allows you to buy perks for your players to use in-game. This includes investing money into social media posts, additional equipment and tools for the house, and mindlessly agreeing to sponsorships. No entertainment value is gained through these actions, as they just feel like chores to do.

AS A SIMULATION

What can be appreciated in eSports Manager is the amount of detail that goes into replicating what the role of an eSports manager would really be like, from making sure your players’ physical health is okay by forcing them to work out, to spending time looking for sponsors, to trying to build up a fan base. It’s clear that the life of an eSports manager is not so simple. Some parts still feel inaccurate, however, such as the fact that you’re stuck with the same set of players, and that there is no type of free agency involved, even though that’s a crucial part of real-life eSports.

4

The Verdict: Flawed

There is a lot to respect about eSports Manager and what it is trying to do, but it just fails to execute fully on a number of fronts. Entertainment can be had through playing the matches for your team, yet there is a level of ease that quickly comes once you’ve unlocked a few perks. Unfortunately, everything else feels like a chore.

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Conor Kennedy

Conor is a freelance writer who always loves to play games with his friends in his free time. A recent graduate from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Conor served as a member of the sports section at the school paper, The Retriever, for 2.5 years. His favorite games to play on his PC include League of Legends, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, and Civilization 5.

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