Fans of EA’s other football franchises who didn’t check out the first Arena Football title should be pleased to know Road to Glory plays almost identically to the company’s other franchises. Those not accustomed to the AFL will learn the nuances of the league’s differing rules quickly, thanks to constant reminders and a number of tutorials. While the difference in rules is enough to make the title a slightly different play experience, the implementation of simultaneous quarterback and receiver control is yet another addition that gives players full control over what is happening on the field.
While the feature can feel rather awkward, especially at first, Road to Glory allows players to switch to a receiver before the snap and control the quarterback with the right analog stick. The combination of controls allows players to have full control of the current play but on the same token it takes away a number of useful quarterback controls such as leading and directing passes. Regardless it’s not a necessary option and can be used as a take-it-or-leave-it experiment.
Unfortunately for football enthusiasts, the AFL titles will have players taking to the air for a majority of the game. Even in short range situations, the nature of the game allows for defensive backs to regularly punish runners rushing through the line. A number of different pass plays feature short range options, though, acting as a better alternative to sucker in the defense and give running backs some breathing room and yardage.
Much like the Madden cards and challenges, Road to Glory features a number of criteria that unlock classic (though obscure) AFL teams when met through in-game play. This year’s entry also implements the classic creation features that allow for custom players and teams.
When you toss in the AFL’s developmental league, the af2, Road to Glory’s set of features definitely beefs up quite a bit, but still most of these features have seen the light of day for quite some time and fail to really spike the replayability and value of the title. Even with the injection of novelty, including a field goal challenge, the title still lacks a number of potent features packed within other football titles from even five years ago.
Article comments
1 - David
Good article,
I'm a big football fan and I love playing the video game version of the sport as well. I remember playing the first John Madden Football for SNES and Joe Montanta talking football for Sega Genesis. I even remember further back playing TecmoBowl for the original Nintendo system. I don't mind watching Arean Football on television, but honestly, I'm not sure how much of a market there will be for it in the video game industry. I don't think there are enough differences in the technical aspects of the game to warrant a different title altogether. The rules, the field and the playing conditions are slightly altered, but not to the point where a seperate video game would bring a different gaming experience. It will probably be the same game engine with a few tweaks. With something like college football as oppossed to the NFL it's a little different because both leagues have individual teams with legions of devoted followers. Arena Football is still a little too young in its history to bring the legacies of historic teams and players to the table. Did they ever make a video game for the XFL? I can't imagine that it sold well if they did, and I would think they should expect the same kinds of results from a release like this. Personally, I think the industry should focus more on adventure, action and strategy games. They seem like they are milking the sports game genre dry here lately, when there are only so many spins they can make on the same approach (ie. Madden, NFL2K, NCAA Football, NFL Blitz, Arena Football etc.). At least in the earlier years they tried to put a novel approach on it (ie. the "talking" aspect of Joe Montana football, The "Mutant League" titles for Genesis etc.). Most of the football games these days seem pretty redundant. There just seems to be much more room to work with in coming up with new and fresh adventure, action and strategy titles -- yet the major sports continue to get multiple releases each year, most of them lackluster. Look at a games like Zelda for example. They stand on their own, and have carved out their own niche in the video game world. I wish programmers and coders would take more initiatve in creating stand alone games and titles like this instead of rehashing whatever the popular sport is at the moment (see: Tony Hawk skateboarding, Professional Wrestling, and XTreme games). I got curious and did a little poking around online trying to find out more info about the kind of games I mentioned earlier and I came across a couple of interesting articles like this one that actually goes over the history of the genre itself. Pretty interesting if I do say so myself. Check it out if you're interested in that kind of thing and have a few minutes to spare. Great post though by the way, I just wish the industry would begin to focus a little more of their resources on other genres. Keep up the great blogging!