EA was at the top of their game several years ago with the Madden franchise. Things were going so good that the NFL offered an exclusive deal to EA to be the only publisher with an officially licensed NFL game. EA then went out and picked up other exclusive deals, one being the Arena League license. But over the past couple of years some fans have been crying foul at EA for not including as many innovative or unique features in their yearly titles. It seems when you’re at the top of your game everyone is paying compliments to you. But when they start to see weakness everyone wants to pile on with the misery.  

Arena Football: Road to Glory (AF) for the PS2 doesn’t generate a rebirth of EA Sports football. Instead we get a solid, if unspectacular, football game that does enough right for casual gamers to enjoy. Don’t come into this game with a mindset that AF is another Madden game. AF is far from being another Madden title simply due to AF not being a NFL style game. The way Arena Football plays might be similar to NFL football but there are some big differences between both leagues. Just as the AFL and NFL are different Arena Football for PS2 is a different game than Madden.

The gameplay style in AF is very similar to an arcade-style football, such as Blitz or even Tecmo Bowl. The main course of AF is the offense, specially the passing game. You can almost forget about running the ball except for goal line or short yardage situations. The AF style is about making explosive passes and scoring lots of points. This style comes through just fine in the AF game. I was scoring points within just a few seconds of taking possession of the ball. Either the games were a blow out of 30-plus points or a down-to-the-wire affair of who could score the most.

Gameplay wise AF does a solid job of sucking you into the action. All of the controls during the games I played were tight and responsive all the time. If I found an open receiver my QB was able to hit the receiver at least 90% of the time. AF includes all of the standard control features you would expect such as Sprinting, juke/spin, diving, stiff arms, pump fakes and tons more.

The game does include a nice feature (called Be the Receiver) that allows you to take control of a wide receiver at the line of scrimmage. This feature allows you to run your own routes while the computer takes control of the rest of the offense. But you still have to make the decision of when and where to throw the ball. If you’re controlling a receiver at the line you can run a different route and still throw the ball to another receiver. If you like you can even control the QB with the right analog stick while moving your receiver with the left analog stick.

One big issue that occurred during the game was some slowdown. The game would slow down for a brief second right after you pass the ball. I hope this wasn’t an intentional part of the game because it didn’t help the gameplay. In fact, it made it difficult at times to figure out what was happening since the slowdown would hamper the view of the field.  

The gameplay modes offer a nice variety that should keep casual and hardcore gamers busy. There is a quick play mode, a season mode and online mode. Along with these three modes there are other options or modes available.  The create a player option is available within the Feature mode. There is a practice mode along with a challenges and situation mode. The challenges mode lets you play against teams you previously beaten. The situation mode allows you to create specific situations to play against.

Another feature is a Field Goal Challenge, which lets you try to complete as many field goals as possible in a set time. The field goals in AF are crazy just due to the length of the field, 50 yards, and that making a field goal requires more accuracy than in the NFL. There is only a small open hole that a kicker in the AFL has to clear in order to make a field goal or extra point. The My Arena Football option lets you view statistics and change strategies for your team.

Another part of My Arena Football is the ability to view your Milestones. The Milestones are specific goals you have to meet in order to unlock bonus items. The goals range from getting a certain number of touchdowns in a game to winning the Arena Bowl or Arena Cup. I did enjoy the Milestone features simply because it unlocked a ton of classic Arena teams that are no longer in existence today. For example I was able to unlock the San Antonio Force which was a great bonus for me since I live in San Antonio.

Visually AF is not the prettiest picture in the book. The players look good but still have the same look we’ve seen in a PS2 football game for the last few years. All of the arenas look exactly the same with only the team logo on the field being different. I did notice that most of the running plays (when I could run the ball) usually ended with the same animation. The runner would either fall to his side or start a head first dive that made my neck hurt. The game did try to spice up the visuals by including some cutscenes after a big play. These scenes usually involved the players involved in the game jawing at each other or the coach yelling at a player.

The game is lacking anything special that will make you say “Wow” when it comes to the visuals, in game or in the menus. In my opinion everything appeared really dull with washed-out colors and no special visual effects. Even the menu screen was a bore fest with one image of the AF logo and various options to select. No special color scheme for selecting a particular team as seen in other football games. Just a plain, generic looking menu.

Arena Football: Road to Glory tries to excel at being a great football game but only ends up being an average game. If you’re looking for an arcade-style football game then you will definitely enjoy the game due to the Arena league’s setup. But if you thought Madden was lacking punch this year, then AF still isn’t the game that will let you forget about Madden. I would even add that if you’re a hardcore Madden fan that you might even want to stay away since you won’t get all of the endless options found in Madden. AF captures the excitement of the Arena Football game if you come in with the idea of this being an arcade style game.

Gameplay: 7.1
If it wasn’t for the strange slowdown issue then AF would have constantly remained a fast-paced game. Just don’t expect to create a top-notch defense; just worry about the offense.

Graphics: 7.0
If you thought the PS2 still had some gas left in its tank then you should start second-guessing yourself after looking at AF.

Sound: 7.2
The voice acting of the stadium announcer was nice and fit the game nicely. The cutscenes in the game were voice acted and sounded good but did get a little repetitive. Besides the voice acting you’re also treated to the now standard rock tracks EA loves to throw in. Most of these tracks are completely forgettable by artist I’ve never heard of.

Concept: 7.3
This isn’t Madden but this isn’t a game to make you stop playing Madden. Think of Madden with fewer features and more focus on offense.

Multiplayer: 7.2
The online portion of the game lets you compete against other players all over the world. It’s a common feature by now and it still works well. The biggest challenge was setting up an account with EA. I’m now on my fourth of fifth username since I can never remember my previous ID and the servers can never find all of the usernames I usually use.

Difficulty: Easy/Medium
The hardest part of the game was getting use to the different rules of the AFL. I found myself snapping the ball too late and performing illegal blitzes.   

Overall: 7.2
Arena Football: Road to Glory will please fans of the Arena League and casual gamers. The fast-paced and intense offense showcases the style of play found in the AFL. Gamers wanting a deep and extensive football experience will be disappointed. This is a game that you will play for a while and then wait until the new Madden comes out to get your complete football fix.