Another excellent release for this series, and this latest one is a HUGE upgrade over last year's version. The ability to customize - already a major feature and differentiator between this game and others like it - has been greatly expanded so that pretty much leagues of any size (up to 130 teams) can be used in Single Season play, and leagues up to 32 teams (and as few as 8) can be used in Career mode. A quasi-Free Agency feature has been added as well, that is optional to use. In addition, career stats are tracked, and stat files in text format can be exported from any season or career in progress. A player encyclopedia is included that tracks all players in a career over an almost infinite number of seasons. I have simmed through as many as 25 and the results remain believable and consistent.

The sim engine continues to be a strength for this game as well. The developer continues to improve this, and the sim engine certainly rivals that of pure stat-based sims that are out there on the market. But the key difference is the animation that adds that extra bit of value to this game so that it's more than just reading stats - there is visual representation of how each down plays out. The graphics are not sophisticated - we're talking a 1990s look that many have often compared to Tecmo Bowl - but that's part of the charm of PSF.

The best thing is that the developer listens to everyone and does his very best to respond to all suggestions and ways to continue improving on this wonderful game. As I mentioned in my review last year, PSF is simply about the game of football and what happens on the field. It leaves out the GM and owner stuff that really doesn't relate to the Xs and Os, and keeps it pure and simple. Or at least as simple as one wants it to be - the advanced coaching option is a blast and allows one to pre-plan almost every key player's movement on the field before the ball is snapped.

Overall, there's a little something for everyone - to a point, of course, but overall about as complete of a football simulation as you can find, while still maintaining the "fun" part of what makes the game of American football what is it. I highly recommend this game!

This is a very immersive football sim. I have been playing OOTP and FM for over a decade, so I know my sports sims. This one does a lot of things right, and even the things it comes up short with (like an expansive career and free agency mode and some more refined graphics) are not necessarily parts of the game I've missed so far.

It's the little things in the sim engine that keep me coming back. It's the way you can replay a historic NFL season -which you can download as a mod- and get realistic results. Heck, I haven't even seen these players play in real life but it is very immersive to replay the 1978 or 1982 season and look up all those stars of the past. Match engine is solid and fun, even though the way the plays are portrayed is cartoony and kinda 90's arcade style (which i love..I still think NHL 94 is the best sports game I've played) and it somehow fits.

Surprisingly good coaching tools at your disposal too. I'm not an NFL expert but there are many plays and the way you can set up your team is very well done. Highly recommended for any sports sim nut.

It took me a playthrough or two to get used to things, but after about a half hour I was finding mods and getting in depth. I really fell in love deep with this game and I fell hard. GREAT GAME!

It's hard to compare it to other titles. I adore Grey Dog Software's simulators and stuff like Out of the Park Baseball which take a real wide lens approach to it's sport of choice and have you making in most cases TONS of decisions that lead to success or failure and effect the entire in-game world as a whole. With OOTPB I get my kicks from playing for years and decades, seeing how my teams stack up how many championships I can win and how many great rookies I can develop over time and follow their careers.

This isn't that.

I also love games like Madden (even in this year's game which was rated very poorly by critics I've racked up over 150 hours) where you directly control the on field action with great gameplay where I actually feel like a wiz QB or a stud running back or a killer safety with stunning realistic graphics. This definitely isn't that either.

Or even something like Super Mega Baseball which is a personal favorite of mine, which maybe goes light on the visuals to give you some damn good physics and extremely satisfying on field controls. This isn't that either.

So what is Pro Strategy Football 2021? The best thing I can say about a game in 2020 is that it's it's own thing. And it's really great. So you don't really directly control the action you are calling plays and setting up your team and making strategic choices in a simulated game of football. I honestly didn't think that could be all that interesting in a game that didn't appear to be very deep, but as an on-field simulator it's uniquely fascinating to me. And the more I played and the more I felt out the AI and how it controls the different teams, the more I found myself enjoying it. Sure you kind of controls franchise over multiple seasons but this isn't designed to be football's answer to OOTPB. It's a coach simulator I guess but the fun is the way it simulates the on field drama of football. The career mode is just a hook to make me more attached to playing several of these games over time and you know what? It works for what it is.

It's made by one guy. Some of the games I'd compare this to are as well, so while it's not necessarily unique but it's special and something I always respect and maybe in a way look for. I enjoy sports games made by one person (Arlie Rahn and Adam Ryland are two of my favorites) who loves their product and focuses a lot of time on it. One man development teams are obviously going to be limited, but the tradeoff of having that communication with their fanbase and passion for what they do is worth it tenfold to me. Check out these forums and the man's work and you'll see this game isn't some stepping stone that he crapped out trying to bulk up his resume. This was a labor of love. I didn't develop this opinion over years and years of being a fan. I found this game a few days ago and checked it out and the love of this game by is developer was just all over the place with how well he communicates with his fans. I was really impressed with that.

I don't like getting into whether it's "Worth it" or not because who knows what price you'll be looking at when you read this and who knows what kind of budget you have? But I bought it at full price and regret nothing. I didnt get a huge franchise simulator nor did I get a game with stellar on field controls. I instead got something wholely unique and captivating in it's own way. And I honestly dont come across that very often.

At the time of this review I have 14 hours in the game. I cannot recommend this game at this time. The real fun and unique part of the game is that you can take teams from different eras and play them in a season with teams of that season. I took the 85 bears and played them in this year's football season. If that has a huge draw for you, then the game might be worth the money.
The issue with the game is there is no active play, it is really all strategy. That would be fine if the strategy was deeper. The problem is the draft/FA/play design/depth charts/rosters are all shallow.
If you are looking for a game where you can make meaningful decisions for a football team look someplace else.
I will quickly go over the things missing.
The rosters are not full. You have to have X or Y of each position and there is no changing players positions or moving guys to other positions.
The offense play design only allows you grab routes from similar depths. So you can have deep routes, all intermediate routes or all short routes. Also the ball gets thrown to the primary receiver ~70% of the time.
There is no cap. There are no contracts. The game randomly generates a few players to be FAs each year on each team. The FA go into a draft. It is very lame and not like anything that resembles football FA.
The draft is not terrible. They allow you to scout 20 players. You get all the info on the 20 players you scout and zero info on any other player.
I don't think there is enough strategy in this game. It offers nothing other than strategy so, I am not sure where the value is.

First began playing this series with it's predecessor Tom Landry Strategy Football. Loved it then, as well. By time I became re-antiquated it had become Pro Strategy Football 2018, and I've been enjoying and making mods for this game ever since. But, the PSF2021 version offers the most customization, so far. That's because it allows gamers to build custom leagues for career play. No longer are you locked into the NFL league structure. That's truly a dream come true, for me. I've always wanted to play my fictional league using this sim engine. Finally, with this version of PSF, I'm able to do just that. Plus, the developer is planning on making even more customization available in the future.

If you like loads of customization and great football play then give PSF2021 a go!

This is a superb American Football game, absolutely brilliant. The attention to detail to plays you can call is amazing, you can practically set any play you want to run. You can send players in motion, blitz individual players, keep players in to block. The game realistically follows what would happen in a real game. You can scout the team you are playing against and adjust your game plan accordingly. You can call the plays you want and can even set the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator to suggest plays to you.

The best part for me is the career option when you can be the head coach and take your team through as many seasons as you want. The offseason in the game is just as good as the actual season. You can analyse your teams strengths and weaknesses and scout up and coming players in the draft. The draft system is terrific, will you be able to get that player you need? You can also trade your draft picks with other teams to move up and down the draft, or trade your picks now for future years picks. There is also free agency and you can even franchise a player to ensure you keep him.

Another great feature is the game is highly customisable. You can create leagues, edit teams, player names and attributes.

I highly recommend this game, absolutely first class.

TLDR: At bottom.

I love this game. Right off the bat I want to make it clear that this is more of a coach / match simulator than a management sim, as I think that is important to note before entering the game, incase you are expecting something different than what it is.

I would love to see more management mechanics introduced, such as mid season trading, roster changes etc, and I believe there are discussion threads saying new things will be looked at for the next version of the game. For what the game is though, its a very enjoyable sim, with realistic match outcomes. I currently play a sim only league with the NFL and Draft mods. So I haven't even touched the real meat and potatoes of the game with the ingame play calling

You can play / sim individual matches, or run a single season; My main and only game mode is as below;

Career mode will have you choose a team and sim / coach your way through a normal NFL season, when it comes to management mechanics you will have the following:

1. Franchise Player: You will get a few players ready to leave at the end of the season and you can choose one to keep.

2. Free Agency: This works on a draft basis, all the players that were not franchise tagged will enter a draft pool and you run a draft to select these, you can set what order, aka worst teams go first or best teams go first.

3. Draft: This is the draft as you know it, you get 15 (I think) draft scout points which you can use before or during the draft itself, to reveal player ratings, then draft them, prior to the draft you can trade picks if you wish.

4. Roster: After FA and Draft, you set your roster depth chart for the year, this can be automated if you want, but always fun to try and make sure your favourite players are in there, even if Cooper Kupp is 37 and becoming a liability at this point.

5. Pre-Season: This gives you a few options such as overall gameplan (can be changed prior to each match); training camp where you can "train" 3 players of your choice and they recieve a random +1 to a rating, overall team ratings, you can risk a 50% to either increase or decrease team stats (ex: red zone offense / defense, team discipline etc)

Then you are into the season, where you try and coach your team play by play through the seasons, there is no active roster changing currently during the season, but you can swap in/out players in a match of the same position: example: my current Rams HB are Brockers and Hammond, I can choose which one to play; this isn't available for all positions however. During the season you are free to edit till your hearts content; such as I keep Aaron Donald maxed out ratings until he was 33 then let the game take over, have fun with this.

There is incredible depth here when it comes to play calling, you can literally make nearly any play you want on a whim, and the backend will simulate the results for you, the animations during the game should be treated as a visual replay though, they are showing you the outcome, after it is already decided.

The results are excellent in this game, and 100% believable, teams will rise and fall realistically (No NE Dynasty you are an anomaly) and in my sim only league I am yet to win the Superbowl after 140 hrs, but then again I am constantly making bad decisions to keep my favourite players.

There is room for improvement here such as adding a contract system would be nice, maybe some extra draft scouting points, training system etc.

However for the price of the game, and for what it is, I think this game is excellent, I love just sitting back and watching the sim matches play out live while I am working from home, and get unusually invested into my teams run to the Superbowl every season (Some day I will win it). The dev seems like a stand up guy, and actually cares about his game. There are also some cracking mods for this game from old school leagues to draft generators.

If you are interested in the play by play, play calling aspect of American Football, I really don't think there is a better option out there for you at the moment.

Definate buy if you are interested in American Football match day coaching!

TLDR: Excellent match day coach simulator, with basic management mechanics; This is not Football manager 21: NFL Edition, and nor is it trying to be; for what it is, it is brilliant with a dev that obviously loves his game. Great mods and community in general.

This is a wonderful hidden gem of a game that I stumbled upon last year! This new version has improved the game in every way. At its core, it is an amazing coaching simulation for american football, but has had the management side greatly expanded. I play by letting the CPU control all teams and I act as the commish. Watching games play out this the best aspect of this game, combined with its streamlined management mode (career mode). It is extremely customizable as well, in terms of league structures, playoffs, schedules, audio, graphics. The developer is really receptive to suggestions and is a pleasure to communicate with.
This sky's the limit for this game!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This is a fantastic football sim! It gets all the little details right. If you want to play the NCAA mod, it gets the college overtime rules right. If you want to play the NFL mod, players perform like they do in real life. Play against the Ravens and Lamar Jackson will run on you. The graphics are dated, but I think that adds to the charm of this game. To me, it's the on field game play that matters most anyway, and this games is rock solid there. The developer is active on the boards and very responsive. I posted an issue I saw with sacks and he responded immediately and a few hours later said he found and fixed the issue! This is a must have for any fan of true simulation football.

Though it isn't as polished as some sports sims, there's a lot of fun to be had here.

Let's start with the presentation of actual games, which is done in the fun and colorful side-scroll style of the old Tecmo Bowl games. Some of the outstanding community mods make NFL stadiums, logos, and uniforms available, or just design your own. The games are pleasant to look at, and strike a balance between simulator and fun/video game. In my opinion, it's the best visual representation of games in the (surprisingly small) football sim market.

Playcalling can be complex if you want and you can even design your own plays, but I've found the "simplified" mode works just fine - I can tell the computer to pick an inside or outside run, or a short, medium, or long pass, with a few other options. Or if you only want to call plays on one side of the ball, you can have the computer suggest plays for you - a technique I've employed after watching my defenses give up too many long, frustrating drives.

It keeps good career and league statistics that seem realistic. These aren't always as easy to access as in some of the longer-running sports sims (like Out of the Park Baseball, which I consider the gold standard), but with some digging you should be able to find most stats you're looking for. I hope future versions make the stats more accessible - it would be nice if clicking on a player's name in the roster pulled up a back-of-the-football-card set of stats.

The emphasis in this game is definitely more on in-game coaching than general management. You won't find (or at least I haven't found) a way to make trades between teams (except for draft picks), and the game takes an "impressionistic" approach to free agency in which a few of your players are randomly made FAs every season, and a brief free agent draft is held. It accomplishes the same thing as free agency, more or less, but those who want more GM control, or who like the challenge of working contracts under a budget and dealing with holdouts or trade demands, will be disappointed in this area.

Maybe its biggest strength is as a great football "sandbox" where you can invent your own teams, down to picking colors, logos, and stadiums. Or if you're lazy like me, just take advantage of the excellent mods already made in the community (thanks community!) to find historical teams, seasons, and leagues.

All in all, a unique football game with realistic statistics and a great visual presentation that set it apart from most of the grind-your-spreadsheet football simulator market.