Football Manager has pretty much got the handheld manager genre wrapped up. Championship Manager has recently tried to enter the fray, but its effort just wasn’t quite as polished and refined, making it too unwieldy to really enjoy. I make no secret of how much I love these games, and I appreciate both the depth of the PC version as much as I appreciate the lighter touch of its handheld counterpart. This does however create a bit of a problem for anyone new entering the market; how do you compete with something that’s already mastered the art? It would appear that the answer according Actoz Soft, is to come at the problem from a different angle, and I’m delighted to say that their game One For Eleven brings a new and fresh approach to a genre that was pretty much locked down.

One For Eleven is, at its most basic level, a social management simulation. You create your own team, and you begin with a squad full of players and a small but modest transfer budget. From there you’ve the option of spending your budget on improving the training of your current players, rolling the dice on a randomly drawn choice of player using the ‘Tryout’ option (the more you pay, the more likely you are to be offered a better player), or you can turn your attention to the good old fashioned transfer market. Unusually though, the transfer market works on real time windows of random length, starting at various times during the day. During these open periods, gamers can bid for players against other gamers, the winner being the highest bidder when the window closes. This adds an extra element to the game which I’ve not seen before, and it certainly adds to the enjoyment. It also changes the way you shop; rather than going for the Gareth Bale’s and Iniesta’s (player likenesses and photos all appear in the game), I often found myself scouting around for random players who may not attract such bidding attention and therefore be able to snap up a bargain.

The actual management side of things is quite unusual too; everything is scheduled in real time rather than in-game time so games are scheduled around the clock, often in the middle of the night. If you don’t catch it then the game will be auto-played, notifying you of the result the next time you check in. The times when you do catch a game however, you are treated to lovely smooth top-down gameplay, with lots of tactical customisation options that in terms of ease of use are the equal (if not the better of) its Football Manager counterpart.
One For Eleven is well worth some of your time, even if it’s to prove to yourself that there is another way to the behemoth that is Football Manager Handheld.

 

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