The football genre has been dominated by EA's Fifa and Konami's Pro Evolution series; both focused on delivering a realistic simulation of the world's most popular sport.

It was refreshing to see another developer enter the race and also have a contrasting focus to deliver an arcade game style. However the barriers to entry are very high as Pure Football is up against two strongly established franchises that have spent more than a decade perfecting their formula on many of the larger and also smaller details; and this clearly shows.

Pure Football uses a 5 on 5 format, including the goalkeeper. Each player is designated as either a defender, mid-fielder or forward. The formation is automatically selected based on the composition of your team and you cannot make a player play in a different position.

The controls are what one would expect from a football game. They consist of regular passes, through-passes, lobs, shooting and sprint. Players can also use the right analogue stick to pull off various skills.

Crosses and shots on goal have meters with three colored sections. Green is safe and on target, and red is a miss. Between the two is a small white "Pure" section which gives crosses and shots a larger probability of success. This particularly works well when battling for headers.

The game also adds a couple of other welcome features. There are no referees in the game; however there is a penalty bar that fills up with fouling tackles. Once it is full, the other team gets a penalty shot. The bar depletes after a period of time. The bar is large enough to take down a forward from behind without incurring a penalty therefore it acts like a trump card. There is also a "Pure" bar that fills up with shots blocked by the goal keeper. Once it is full, the next shot is guaranteed to be "Pure".

The animation is blocky and there is a noticeable lag in response to the player's commands. It just does not feel as fluid when compared to its competitors. In addition the AI is not anything special with few team-mates making runs or trying to position themselves strategically. These aspects will be particularly annoying for people that have played Fifa or Pro Evolution extensively.

One of the major complaints I have with the game is that it feels too simple and straight forward. There is not much variety in the lobs or passes. The skills are also hard to pull off as they are often sluggish. It mainly boils down to quick and simple counter attacks or going towards the corner and crossing the ball in.

The graphics are cartoony and do not represent their realife counterparts accurately. There is no commentary; instead techno music plays in the background. Occasionally players will spurt out generic phrases, who by the way, all speak with a British accent.

To literally top it all off, there are only two camera choices, neither of which is really suitable. The camera I primarily used was the one that faces the opponent's goal. The second is a sideline camera, which is too flat and doesn’t display depth well.

Campaign:

The campaign mode has a user created team and player and plays matches over a 28 day period to reach the top. Each event uses up a day. Players battle it out against various international teams including England, Spain and France.

Winning events and doing well in matches reward you with Pure Points that can be used to improve the user created player's statistics. In addition, accomplishing various tasks in the matches unlock the other team's players that can be enlisted in your own roster.

Overall the campaign is well implemented and does a pretty good job. However it is a little too easy. Your team starts at rank 18 and the goal is to reach the top 8 by the end of the month. Furthermore, you always gain a rank whenever you win. I found myself getting to the number 1 spot after only 18 days. The football game veterans would want to choose a difficulty higher than medium to get some sort of a challenge.

The game has online multiplayer but in our experience, there was too much lag to make it bearable. 

The Final Word:

Pure Football has some great ideas that it brings to the table. The campaign and online modes are well thought-out. However when it boils down to it, the gameplay is a little too simple and there is not much strategy or flexibility even for an arcade game. Far too often I found myself wanting to jump into Fifa 10 instead. The game is different enough to serve as a distraction from its competitors, just don't expect it to last more than a few hours.

When all is said and done, I don't think anyone expected this game to be on par with Fifa or PES. It would be interesting to see Ubisoft develop this franchise further as no one has yet mastered the arcade genre of football including EA with its Fifa Street series.

Genre: Sports Football (soccer)

Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360

Developed by: Ubisoft

Published by: Ubisoft