Underplayed Gems

This Is Football 2004 (2004)

This Is Football 2004 cover
Developer
SCE London Studio
Platforms
PlayStation 2
Genres
Sport

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The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

It feels like a patient, slow-building climb from grassroots football to the top through careful management rather than fast-paced action.

methodicalmanagement-focusedlong-termgroundedmodest pacestructuredsports simulation

About

If there's one thing you can't fault This Is Football 2004 on, it's scope. While other PlayStation 2 football titles are happy to concentrate on national and international teams, here the beautiful game is taken right down to grass roots, allowing you (if you wish) to seize control of a local team. You do that as part of the best feature in the game: the career mode. Here, you really can go from the very bottom to the very top, and it adds a challenging long term goal to the proceedings. It's just one example of where the game differs from the opposition, and there are plenty more. For instance, you can also try and blatantly blag a penalty by diving in the area. You can get penalised for handball. You can even take it online and test your skills. In short, there's plenty going on.

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More by Sony

This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.