UEFA Champions League Season 1999/2000

The Good
The strong point of the game is by far gameplay. Two sprint modes, it's a joy to shoot at goal, the players are not attached to ball movement (so to clinch an header, the player must be on the right spot), yet they are always search for open spaces and tackles can be used to skillfully intercept the ball. Height matters a lot in air balls, so does a low gravity center while controlling the ball, which forces the player to adapt the building of plays according to the kind of players available. While ball physics sometimes feel a bit too floaty, they allow several kinds of shots, all depending on the position of the ball and player, shooting abilities and so.

Graphically, most stadiums are perfectly recognizable, and the players are well animated. Noy only they run realistically (bending over to build speed), but they have a lot of movements to show. And it's rather comical to see a winger mis-time a first touch cross and fall backwards on the grass. The menus capture the graphical design used by UEFA in 2000, and while console-ish (no mouse support) work perfectly well.

Also, as it is a console port, the game only takes a few megs to be installed. Great if you already have some of the >1GB monsters installed and want to peek a different game or a really small drive.

The Bad
Commentary is downright poor, from the programming view, with occasional five second delays, to acting, which seems poorly prepared (Keegan often speaks like he is in the loo). The rather dull stadium sounds don't make playing only with them turned on a viable option.

While before each match there's a small videoclip showing footage from previous editions, the quality is downright low. I doubt that SD put any effort onto them, as they look a rushed job. Same with player faces and some of the kits. This is particularly true with the classic teams, as a lot of them aren't minimally correct, and some more details could have been fitted in (like a proper ball and adboards plus kits without the CL badge). The lack of a stats or appearance editor also means players are worth what SD thought they were, and if you disagree with them or the looks are wrong, tough luck. This can be attributed to the game being mostly a console game ported to PC, and loading screens are pretty much everywhere.

Finally, the game gets easy soon, mostly due to the effectiveness of through passing and poor AI. It's too easy to run inside the area digging for red cards (refereeing is dire, now that we're at it) and easy penalties, and to take the ball away it's just a matter of sprinting over forwards. Of course, against passing teams this becomes much harder (the before mentioned too-effective through passing).

The Bottom Line
Season 99/00 is a truly underrated game, and a much better job than the last SD take on the license. While from my review it might seem the game is a lot worse, it's because the game is simply a joy to play (I'd rate it 6 if I could) and has some minor flaws along the way, except commentary, which is horrible. While graphically it might not be at the same level as FIFA 2000, the superb animations and well designed stadiums make up for it, and the inclusion of other modes that allow to use both 2000 and classic teams increase the longevity of the game.

Oh, and remember to get the crucial patch from Eidos before starting anything.