Game Reviews

Motorsport Manager 2 review - A super slick management simulation

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iOS
| Motorsport Manager 2
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Motorsport Manager 2 review - A super slick management simulation
|
iOS
| Motorsport Manager 2

Motorsport Manager 2 continues the trend set by the original, then adds a decent amount of new depth to proceedings. It's a shift in gear, but it's a welcome one. This is a sim with a surprising amount of bite.

You take charge of the day to day running of a racing team. That means buying and building new parts, hiring new staff, and developing your HQ. As well as that, you make all of the big decisions come race day.

It's a huge juggling act. Keep your sponsors happy, keep your drivers happy, and make sure you're working your way up the grid too. It's no small task, but the game manages to back everything manageable and, perhaps more importantly, very entertaining.

Drive angry

Once you've picked your team livery, you're dropped into the hot seat. The game walks you through enough of its mechanics to get a grip of things, but some stuff you're left to figure out on your own.

A lot of the experience takes place outside of the race days. Here you're trying to balance the books, while getting the most out of the team you're building. Hiring new stuff, trying to get better equipment, engaging with new sponsors - it's all in a day's work.

And then you get to the race weekends, and you see if your hard work has paid off. Oh, and you get some new hard work to do as well. The decisions you make over qualifying and the race itself are probably the most important you'll have to deal with.

You set up the car, you tell the drivers how they should drive. It's you who's keeping an eye on the fuel gauge and the tyre wear, and it's you who's ultimately responsible for the outcome at the end of the day.

You can't just push your drivers to go as fast as they can. Different tracks demand different combinations of aerodynamics and gear set up. And if you're telling them to drive at full throttle the whole race, they'll run out of fuel before the finish line.

Even if you're not pushing for the win, there are targets you're trying to meet. You pick race sponsors, and they'll pay out if you finish in a certain position during the race and qualifying.

It makes for some incredibly tense action. Can you get one more lap out of those tyres and use your pit stop strategy to hold your place? Can you tell your driver to push that little bit harder to make sure they're in the running?

It's frustrating when it all goes wrong, but it's part of the learning process. You're not going to be winning races to start with, but you are going to be learning the ropes. Every race you pick up something new, ready for the next challenge.

Chequered flag

Motorsport Manager 2 is a highly polished, incredibly engaging simulation. But it's not too daunting if you're new to the genre. There are things to tweak and think about, but there's never too much information that you feel squashed under it.

But there's still enough going on that you feel like you're part of something. Fans of sims, of racing, and even people with only a vague interest in either, are going to lap up everything this one has to offer. Oh hey, lap, that's a pun.

Motorsport Manager 2 review - A super slick management simulation

A chunky and intriguing simulation that offers something for everyone
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.