FIFA 2000

"Football never got it so bad..."

FIFA 2000 is not your typical football game. As we know that in real life watching a game of football you'll be very hard pressed to see a scoreline of 14-0. As it turns out FIFA 2000 is one of the football games that promises to be ultra-realistic but actually ends up eating it's own words as soon as you play the game.

Gameplay 0/10

So how does the game feel? Well to be honest awful just doesn't sum it up. You have a range of difficulty levels to choose from hardly need be said that even my 2 year old nephew can play on hard level!

The controls are basic and easy enough to get used to and you'll be playing like a pro without any trouble as soon as you pick up the pad. However this is when it all goes downhill. Whenever you try to tackle the ball you'll find the opposition suddenly jumps in the air before your player even goes for the ball meaning it's amazingly frustrating to get the ball through a sliding tackle. At times when the opposition player doesn't leapfrog into the air you'll send him crashing down almost half way across the pitch and the referee who obviously needs glasses will wave play on. Even fouls that Roy Keane wouldn't be able to get away with are easy to perform in this game without getting a warning! When you do foul them it's often for a mere tap of the shoulder.

The second type of tackle is a conservative tackle mainly you just run after the player step in front of him and somehow probably by pure invisible force win the ball off him!

Passing is easy enough. There is even a passing indicator that tells you whenever it's safe to pass green meaning a good pass, yellow meaning caution and red meaning the obvious dangerous pass or bad pass. Surprisingly because FIFA is basically a game where you expect a score line of 14-0 passing doesn't do anything in this game. The passing indicator is usually no help at all being red at around 90% of the time and only turns green when you are practically right in front of the player you want to pass to. Thus you'll often find yourself running with the ball all over the place to try and get anywhere near the goal.
When you do pass however they usually always find their target and so passing isn't even any use in this game unless you seriously want to convince your half blind uncle that the game is realistic.

Shooting… Now shooting is almost totally out of this world. Yes seriously I'm saying that by the end of the hour of buying the game you'll be scoring from the half way line. Goalkeepers rarely ever pull off a save. Shooting from any range usually sees the ball go from the player's foot the head to the corner flag make a few circular motions then suddenly end up in the back of the net. The aftertouch was obviously not given much attention by EA at that point. The ball often curls across half a field and usually goes at unimaginative speeds into the net. That being said you'd have a hard time NOT scoring in this game.

Lob passes are easy enough as well. It's pretty sweet to lob a ball into the air to another player. Likewise however you'll often find the ball curls insanely like shooting at times. This isn't made helpful by some shoddy heading and in the air controls. You can header the ball with a tap of the respective button usually you'll win the ball most the times or just completely miss it. Heading the ball is often not even good enough in this game. Volley's and jump in the air and give it a good kick moves are executed with a double tap but often finds the ball heading into the net or the opposition winning it before you get a touch to it.

Sounds and graphics 2/10

Sound effects are pretty decent enough. The music on the menu is good depending on your personal taste of music. Robbie Williams pops in for a nice tune but really I find myself turning the music off after a while.

The graphics… Back in 2000 they were hyped up enough to get the game good ratings but please… It's an eyesore. Player's faces often look like something out of an Alien movie at most times and game's played under snow are usually too blinding to even see what's going on.

On the back of the box it says ''celebrate in style'' and while the player celebrations in this game after scoring a goal is stylish for back in the 70's these days just don't cut it. Not exactly anything brilliant to look at and not exactly brilliant to play.

The graphical areas gives itself a knock on the head when if you pay attention you'll find the ball is somehow glued to the player's foot. The player can run through the whole pitch and not touch the ball once. Likewise when you pay even more attention it's a great sight to see an Alien Ryan Giggs sprint down the left wing but even more shocking to see that this ''alien'' incarnation doesn't even keep his eyes on the ball. He practically looks at the other side of the pitch the whole time not even paying enough attention it's surprising he doesn't bang into another player or likewise lose control of the ball at all. EA pay attention and change this.

Replayability 1/10

Well after leading your chosen team and playing as Watford for the 109th time beating Arsenal 10-0 once again is just boring enough as it is…

The REAL deal?

As far as football games go FIFA 2000 doesn't cut it. It's too unrealistic. Don't believe any fanboys who dish this game a 10/10 and say it's so realistic simply put a game of football that ends up with a 10-0 scoreline time after time even on hard difficulty just isn't realistic. A good game with your mates when half drunk yes… A good football game it's not.

To Buy or Rent

Neither.

Overall score 1/10

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 07/01/02, Updated 07/01/02