Pro Cycling Manager 2023 is the companion management game to Tour de France 2023, the simulation-versed sibling of the pair. Cyanide’s recent release is another in-depth game showcasing the harsh behind the scenes of a cycling career, with all the major decisions out of the bicycle and into your hands, even if you also have the means to influence the performance of your riders during the races. With a back-to-back yearly release and a colossal database of riders and circuits, is Pro Cycling Manager 2023 adding significant changes to the previous edition?

Team Tactics

Every fan of cycling knows how difficult it is to find a game that translates the experience in a faithful way, but Cyanide has proven throughout the years that it has manifest respect for the sport, going to great lengths to deliver a deep and engaging outing, both in its simulation and management categories. Pro Cycling Manager 2023 again comes bolstered by a considerable collection of teams and stages, resulting in hundreds of hours of fiddling for the most devoted fans.

Official data boasts 260 races and 80 professional teams, so you can judge the amount of work that went into rendering all those circuits and coming up with reliable statistics for each rider, even if not all of these are officially licensed. With attributes specific to circuit stages, physical abilities, and a lot more details under the hood contributing to the performance of each rider, even if slightly affected by your choices, it’s easy to see that Pro Cycling Manager 2023 has a lot going on and is great for devouring hours of any afficionado’s time.

There are two main modes to pick from: Career and Pro Cyclist. The former is a detailed, thorough experience that can be summarized into off-track management and race segment. You can select the training focus and the coach for each rider, deal with countless types of injuries and debilitating illnesses, even with sinusitis playing a part, and do your best to maintain the sponsor’s confidence, maybe even getting a nice budget increase for your good performance. There’s a commendable amount of micro-management for those who like to tweak all kinds of fundamentals, including establishing a race calendar for every rider, their fitness goals, and a lot more.

When you go to the track, there are some interesting actions to affect your riders in key moments. You shouldn’t expect to watch every race unfold at normal speed, as the big choices come in specific moments that every fan will know how to identify. You can order your riders to attack, maintain position, manage their overall effort, request one to serve as wind protection for a more skilled teammate, or task the weaker riders with the ungrateful job of fetching water bottles for the rest of the team. When the time comes, a sprint attack is crucial to score those points and secure the top spots.

The improved Pro Cyclist mode is about creating a rookie rider who will be your persona throughout the game, shooting for glory, but also worrying about training schedules and growing your experience points by reaching objectives established by your manager. You start by selecting your nationality, something that affects the list of teams within your grasp, and then you must perform according to expectations if you wish to renew your contract later in the season. Interestingly, you get these prompts from your manager where you pick a reply and it affects some of your stats, as if a short cycling-themed pop quiz. During the race you are given some objectives, such as working at the head of the group for some kilometers, earning an evaluation for your effort at the end.

New Year, Same Tour

The issue with Pro Cycling Manager 2023 is that it doesn’t feel much different from the previous outings. The exact same was said about Tour de France 2023, and again it rings true here, feeling like a solid, interesting, and deep game for enthusiasts that are just about discovering the series.

Otherwise, the improvements to energy management and artificial intelligence may seem negligible or hard to pinpoint, the athletes all look the same apart from their equipment, and there are visible bugs during the race, such as riders sliding through each other as the game suddenly realized they should find another route, with no concern for collisions or logic.

Pro Cycling Manager 2023 may be described as a polarizing game. Examined in isolation, it stands out as a convincing management game, with all the content and options that you could hope for, even if some bugs rear their ugly heads and the outdated graphics may seem rough. However, considering the lack of innovation, it’s hard to see it as the evolution that would make fans jump at the opportunity of getting into this coveted manager role.

Score: 7/10

Pros:

• A deep and demanding management game
• Interesting mechanics pre- and during races

Cons:

• No considerable innovations
• Graphics are showing their age

Pro Cycling Manager 2023 review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.