By Vincent Haoson (Vincenthaoson), OnRPG Journalist
F1 Manager is a browser-based MMO that puts you in the seat of being the manager of your very own Formula 1 team. You start from scratch as you create your Formula one dream team and battle through the ranks until your races and your team reaches the highly coveted rank one in the standings.
Game Features
The game gives you full reign of everything that affects your team. You start off naming your manager, your team and practically giving yourself the overall power to imprint yourself in your F1 team.
You are also given the choice of what type of F1 cars your drivers have. The helmet design is also by your own accord and even the names of your team’s two drivers are your pick. You then dictate the training your drivers will have to undertake and the amount of R&R time they will be having after each training session. You have to carefully discover the proper harmony between training and relaxation for your drivers so that you can maximize the growth potential of what you have.
Aside from the drivers you also have three other teams to look after which are the Pit Crew, the Engineering team and the Mechanic team. As your team’s manager you get to dictate what each team should be working on, what kind how intensive is their training, how long will they take it and of course the kind of R&R they would be taking and also of the duration.
Another job of a team manager is to handle the team’s overall budget and finance, and this is not overlooked in F1 Manager. Through the desk page, you get to look at every data you have on the team. You can see the contracts of your teams, the warehouse where you can get your car’s spare parts tire partners, the world ranking list and you can even track your bank records through it.
Racing Properly
When the opportunity arises you are then invited to take part in races that will be your team’s staging ground to the Grand Prix. With the game concentrating on the managerial side of a Formula one team all you do is watch in the sidelines as your drivers duke it out with their competitors in the race track.
In each race, you get to track how each driver is doing, the shape of their car is in and other data that you can use as your basis in future plans for your team. You won’t get to see your drivers actually race; you will only see race-data that is shown in your screen.
As with real F1 races, your drivers would not immediately take part in the race properly but would have to go through qualifiers to determine where they would start, each race then costs you fuel and equipment that is why you have to carefully manage your resources on and off the race.
Conclusion
F1 Manager is for those avid fans of the heart-stopping, adrenaline-rushing sport that is Formula One racing. Though you may not be positioned in the driver’s seat where most of the action takes place, you are given the alternative to at least be the person who, besides the driver makes thing roll in a racing team.
F1 Manager does provide you everything that you need to know regarding your team. The statistics of your drivers, the car and helmet design. Even the name of your drivers would come from you. The game has given you the opportunity to experience the biggest dream of a F1 fan, become a boss of a team.
However, the problem with F1 Manager is that with the lack of a guide that is translated to English, you have to second-guess whatever it is that needs to be done and that you have to rely on your own know-how on how things work for an F1 team.
Thankfully, the English server of the game has everything in the interface in English. If you can’t read German then getting to understand the whole game needs more effort for you because you have to either research about the things you see or go through the game forums, which has people that can help you.
As long as you get past the language barrier issue of the game everything would run smoothly for you then. The game balance is not really a problem because everyone starts off with the same set of stats for their cars and drivers, the same amount of starting money and the same set of crew. It all boils down on how well you manage your team which is basically what a manager does.
This browser-based game is not a game that a casual gamer would enjoy. True, that it may spark interest for those who are trying out the game, however in the long run, if F1 is not in your system you would then eventually forget about this game.
The opposite can be said for true F1 fans though. The level of detail this game has can feed the cravings of any die-hard F1 racing fan.
F1 Manager has successfully detailed the things a real F1 manager would have to go through in their everyday life and it is what F1 manager is all about. If you are into strategic planning and would want to know how it feels to handle an F1 team, F1 Manager is a game for you.
Pros:
– You get to experience how it feels to be a manager of an F1 Team
– You have full reign of your team, every detail is provided for you to decide on
– You get to decide on the team and the driver’s name.
Cons:
– Not everything is translated to English
– The game is for those who are into F1 and not for casual gamers
– You don’t get to see how your racer fares in the actual race.
