Soccer Manager 2018

About

Soccer Manager 2018 is a single player sport game. It was developed by Soccer Manager Ltd and was released on December 22, 2017. It received neutral reviews from players.

The most diverse FREE 2 PLAY football management simulator in the world. Take on a top flight club and test your management skills against the best or help a struggling, lower division team fight for glory.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

56%

Audience ScoreBased on 108 reviews

humor3 positive mentions

story1 negative mentions

Free to play with a large selection of teams and authentic licenses for leagues, clubs, and players.
Simple and intuitive gameplay that offers a fun football management experience accessible to casual players.
Improvements over previous versions including added features like stadium expansion, new facilities, job offers, and a more engaging management system.

Gameplay and match engine are often unrealistic with random outcomes, poor AI, and player stats having little impact on results.
Many bugs and glitches including frequent injuries during training, broken transfer and youth systems, lack of tactical influence, one save slot, and poor interface design.
Heavy presence of pay-to-win elements and microtransactions which can frustrate players, alongside limited depth, repetitive content, and lack of meaningful long-term progression.

gameplay
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
54%
23%
The gameplay receives mixed to negative feedback, with some users appreciating simplicity and improvement over earlier versions, while others criticize poor coding, overlapping buttons, lag, and lack of thoughtful design. Visual and functional issues detract from the experience, making the gameplay feel clunky and frustrating for many.
- “The graphics are basic but the gameplay is much better than SM 2020.”
- “Simple mechanic, very intuitive.”
- “Nice gameplay.”
- “Your tactics won't be used in the gameplay which is so poorly coded that you can see buttons overlapping other buttons!”
- “The creators tried to make a more complex game, but in the end they weren't even capable to make gameplay graphics that were normal in the 2000s.”
- “Tl;dr, they made the menus more complex for no reason, made the graphics of the game plasticy and unenjoyable for me, and didn't put proper thought in putting gameplay at the forefront of the game.”
graphics
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The graphics are generally viewed as basic or even a step backward, with some describing them as outdated or plasticky. While attempts were made to improve visuals, many feel the changes detract from the overall experience, making the game less enjoyable and more complex without meaningful enhancements.
- “The graphics are basic but the gameplay is much better than SM 2020.”
- “Only graphics improved a bit (at least, it seems...), the rest is even worse than 2017.”
- “They tried to make better graphics while taking out the basic, fun part of the game.”
- “The creators tried to make a more complex game, but in the end they weren't even capable of making gameplay graphics that were normal in the 2000s.”
- “This game not only has the interface and graphics changed, arguably to a terrible look, but it also doesn't display information that would be really useful like an 'overall' stat or proper defensive and aggressive stats in its base form.”
- “Only graphics improved a bit (at least, it seems...), the rest is even worse than 2017...”
optimization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game lacks clear explanations and detailed analytics on how player stats and team strategies impact overall performance, limiting strategic depth. The match engine offers minimal insight into player performance, and visual data tools common in similar management games are absent. Despite boasting a new 3D engine, the game misses opportunities to enhance immersion and performance optimization through features like animated crowds.
- “I love dealing with charts and visualized data of my team's performance like in many other management-based games.”
- “The game can run smoothly even if the match audience were 3D modeled and animated, having little impact on performance. Why wasn't this included in the 'brand new 3D engine'?”
- “It is impressive that players on the screen make up about 1/20th of the screen, yet you can learn everything about them to understand their in-game performance.”
- “No idea how the stats affect the performance and you cannot search for players according to them.”
- “There is no detailed description of how team strategy will affect your team's overall performance, so you don't know which players to boost for overall team success. This basically kills any strategic play.”
- “Match engine does not give any insight into players' performance.”
story
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The story aspect received negative feedback, with users criticizing the gameplay, story mode, and career mode as poor and unsatisfactory.
- “Poor gameplay, story mode, career mode, or whatever this is.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in this football manager game is perceived as lacking or unintentional, with users finding the financial aspects unrealistic and not amusing. Overall, it fails to deliver genuine comedy for most players.
- “A funny football manager game.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Users find the in-game music repetitive and unappealing, with some experiencing issues such as the music playing over a black screen. While the menu design is appreciated, many suggest adding a wider variety of songs or allowing players to disable the music in favor of external sources.
atmosphere
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere is noted as lacking originality and feels very similar to other games with the same theme, resulting in a less immersive experience.
- “Lack of atmosphere.”
- “It really has the same atmosphere as another game with the same theme.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers little to no replayability, with limited incentive for players to revisit after completing it once.
grinding
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users indicate that grinding in the game requires an additional life or attempt, suggesting it can be time-consuming or demanding.
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the ads around the playground somewhat annoying and suggest reducing their frequency, while recommending the inclusion of more fake ads to enhance realism without disrupting gameplay.
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including bugs that cause discrepancies between match outcomes and displayed results, leading to a frustrating experience.