Copa City review

We have plenty of football games, just like city management simulations. But what happens when you combine these two genres into one? You get a game that may reach its full potential in a few months or a year. Copa City arrived during the football frenzy, but for now, it won't impress with its bench entry.

Announced two years ago, it raised eyebrows among fans because the premise is quite interesting. After your football career ends in disgrace, you decide to invest your acquired knowledge in another way, behind the scenes of football. Manage a city with football segments at every turn. Infrastructure, connectivity, content; everything is up to you, but that choice comes at a price as the game loses its compass about where it actually wants to lead you.

Every good simulation game either throws you into the fire to navigate the madness it offers, or you burn out trying to understand what it wants to tell you. Unfortunately, Copa City falls into the latter category. The tutorial that is supposed to gradually explain what you need to do kills you with its boredom and controls. Keep in mind that I tested the game on PlayStation 5, so I believe the controls on PC are much better and more natural. You need about 50 minutes just to "master" that introductory part, and then? Then you can start the campaign and go through all that struggle from the beginning.

The game promised managing fans around the city and building infrastructure for their entertainment, but in reality, it doesn't offer you freedom; instead, it suffocates you with a pile of micro-decisions. Will the stand be for the most passionate fans or family-oriented? Where exactly will you place the cleaners? What kind of entrance do you want at the stadium? And so on. The biggest problem with this lack of freedom is that you can't build your own vision. Personally, I think it would be great to create a stadium from scratch, but here you have a choice of only three predefined stadiums that you currently cannot change in any way. Navigating through all this is further complicated by the main tool for orientation, the city maps, which are too confusing and unclear.

In fact, the main problem of the game is the gameplay loop which is, to put it simply, incredibly boring. Everything you want to place on the map turns into unnecessary complications. For example, if you want to set up a regular hot dog stand, you also have to squeeze in a power generator. However, that generator must not be too close to the stand because nearby fans will complain about the noise. The whole system is filled with illogicalities; at one point the game asked me to build a stand that was completely locked at that moment.

Additionally, the interface regularly tests your nerves. It often happened that I had to complete a task (like selecting the position where the security guards would stand), but then the game would not offer me an option to "click here to continue" or any clear indication of what to do next. Symbols and icons jump around the screen without any legend or explanation of what they mean, and there are no built-in hints at all. For a management simulation, these elements are executed catastrophically poorly.

When I add and subtract all of this, Copa City pushes you more to juggle between the frustrating demands of fans and the whims of your boss than it provides a real sense of leading a city full of football euphoria. To make matters worse, the interaction of NPC fans with that same infrastructure is practically non-existent. There are no accompanying animations; fans just walk lifelessly and aimlessly around the structures you painstakingly built, which completely breaks immersion.

In the sea of these problems, the technical performance of the game itself is at least solid in the sense that there are no crashes and returns to the console's home screen. However, the loading times are too long for this type of title, which further indicates poor optimization. On the positive side, the atmosphere managed to win me over on several occasions, mainly thanks to the infectious melody that constantly follows you, and the graphics, while they could be better, are quite "sufficient" for a title of this type.

On the other hand, the game reminded me in a few segments of cheap titles found on the Google Play Store that are filled with ads. The interface is confusing, and occasionally characters utter one word while the text on the screen displays something completely different.

Copa City has officially exited Early Access, but in my opinion, it should have stayed in it a bit longer. It is not unplayable in the literal sense of the word, but the time you will spend on it will likely cause you a series of frustrations. It is commendable that the developers have taken criticism to heart, as they have added an option through updates that allows you to skip that tedious tutorial altogether. They also regularly communicate with fans and leave responses to Steam reviews, claiming they are aware they made mistakes in some steps and will correct them.

I appreciate the effort to create something new in today's monotonous market, and I believe that with a few decent patches, this game can thrive. However, in its current state, I cannot recommend this title to you. If you are a huge football fan and also enjoy management simulations, it might be worth your attention, but keep in mind that it will likely disappoint you before it excites you.

A copy of the PlayStation 5 version of the game for review purposes was provided by the publisher Triple Espresso SA