When the announcement came out that a successor to SWOS would be released, I was excited. When Sociable Soccer came out and I played it, the excitement remained because it got the core gameplay right, player movement, aftertouch, responsiveness. However, the major issues back then were the AI, the goalkeepers, and the modes. They had plenty of time to fix them, but even by 2025, when I last played, nothing had really improved.
On the Discord server where I was a member, these improvements were frequently requested by many users, but unfortunately nothing changed. Perhaps the reason is the absence of Chris Chapman, who was responsible for SWOS’s gameplay. John Hare essentially designed SWOS, but he was never involved in the gameplay from a programming perspective.
I took part in the online tournaments they organized on Discord, and i can say the game is much better when you play PvP. The only major issue there was the goalkeepers, who couldn’t react properly to aftertouch, leading to very easy goals. And while PvP was good and engaging, the game modes seem designed for online play, yet in reality they are for offline. In the end, it hasn’t really satisfied either audience, the online players, nor the offline ones, especially with the absence of a proper career mode like the old SWOS. For offline play in particular, the game should have had much better AI.
Overall, the game also falls short in how player stats feel compared to the old SWOS. The problem is that there seems to be stagnation, with little interest in improving the core elements that would actually make the game more engaging.
On the Discord server where I was a member, these improvements were frequently requested by many users, but unfortunately nothing changed. Perhaps the reason is the absence of Chris Chapman, who was responsible for SWOS’s gameplay. John Hare essentially designed SWOS, but he was never involved in the gameplay from a programming perspective.
I took part in the online tournaments they organized on Discord, and i can say the game is much better when you play PvP. The only major issue there was the goalkeepers, who couldn’t react properly to aftertouch, leading to very easy goals. And while PvP was good and engaging, the game modes seem designed for online play, yet in reality they are for offline. In the end, it hasn’t really satisfied either audience, the online players, nor the offline ones, especially with the absence of a proper career mode like the old SWOS. For offline play in particular, the game should have had much better AI.
Overall, the game also falls short in how player stats feel compared to the old SWOS. The problem is that there seems to be stagnation, with little interest in improving the core elements that would actually make the game more engaging.