Chaos has got to be contained. The boiling point is close and all the bases are pushing towards the final zone, The Stadium in Rio that’s hosting the most English of clubs, along with the most Brazilian of clubs. A clash of titans per say. So perhaps putting them together in the seating isn’t the right call.
Copa City is a rather unique take on the Football genre, as it’s more leaning towards the Theme Park/ Planet Coaster-esque gameplay of planning a week’s worth of Football festivities, leading up to the game, with the chaos of managing one big event included of course. Is it an engaging game though? Yes and no, at times.
Presentation
Copa City looks mighty fine for a game that will see players looking at buildings, and zones for the majority of their playthrough, as one should for this sort of management game. The art style lends it well to the more clinical nature of the game’s loop and it actually feels like an achievement to see the football fans flood the roads as they head towards the endzone that’s the stadium. 
I do commend the dev team for introducing the gameplay stuff via a story mode, kind of like how the older games from the Bullfrog Production-era would do the same as well, with us basically the captain of the company that’s handling these fan experience zones from the start and our boss, the CEO and our former rival, tasks us to make sure everything runs smoothly. It’s an interesting theme, though it feels a bit draggy at certain points if you just want to head into the game and start constructing..
The UI itself mostly look slick, with how it handles with the menus that’s quite readable during the creation of your many different Fanzones, though it does feel a bit contrived at times with what’s needed to progress and such, which could be solved in an update to better match what you need mid-game.
And there are some bits I do like, like how the world map reacts and looks with time differences when you’re trying to promote your match makes it feel like a believable world. Heck, the Tactical map screen that sees how those fans would flow into the zones is also quite cool, because it’s like looking at a football heatmap during a match, but in fan movements instead.
Gameplay
Besides the Theme Park-esque gameplay that I’ve mentioned already, the closest thing I can see Copa City being is like a MOBA or 4X game in nature, where constructing bases (aka Funzones), then lead your troops (fans) to the endzone (Stadium), where seating position is key to ensure total victory (that being high happiness within the fans). It’s how I mostly play this game with the added thinking that since every match week is a reset to Day Zero, I might as well think it as so.
The main Gameplay loop itself is fun with the added randomization at some turns, like for example, the Sponsorships could sometimes might ask for something that could jeopardize a run late game, or even Safety gets below a threshold before the match, it does make for engaging stuff.
Though one thing that I feel lacking within this package is the number of teams that you can bring together for a match under the lights. I would have preferred more teams, like even fictional ones that could make for interesting match-ups, or even have a touch of personalisation that could help with the longevity of the game.
Personal Enjoyment![]()
The concept of building a fun experience for the average football fan is quite novel, considering as someone how’s an avid fan of this sport about kicking round balls into a goal, my usual experience of these fan zones usually entails just a few food stands around the place with seating, fun games that can be played at sight and then the walk to the stadium itself with the Ultras, all of which has been copied with loving craft.
Though, I can see that it could be a hard sell with how complex some of the games could be for the average fan. With the amount of micro-managing you might have to do in order to make sure Safety and Fun are balanced enough before heading to the stadium. Heck, the Stadium seating mechanics itself could confuse many, I know I was (and still am still too).
But they have promised on their Steam update to streamline most of the experience (along with a price drop since the game’s release), and I do want it to succeed, even if the missteps have been quite clear. Being the only kind of this theme-esque management game that tries a new approach? I hope it does well, moving forward.
Verdict![]()
Copa City is an interesting take on the managerial type games that switches up the style from just a park to an entire town with many zones and perhaps rowdy fans to contend with. And while the execution could be better, I feel like with enough love by the dev team, I could see it being a sleeper hit sooner than later.
Played on PC, Review copy provided by the publisher.
Copa City
An interesting take on the managerial type games that switches up the style from just a park to an entire town with many zones and perhaps rowdy fans to contend with.
- Presentation 9
- Gameplay 7
- Content 7
- Personal Enjoyment 8