Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 review
It seems to have been an absolute age since Pro Evolution Soccer was the football game for any discerning console owner. FIFA had been in the doldrums for so long and PES was the undisputed master of flowing football and on-screen realism. Of course that was back when the PS2 was everyone’s console of choice and things have since taken a dramatic turn. Now it’s FIFA that is the go to game, with flashy presentation, official teams and players and, most importantly, a great game behind all of the fancy front of house presentation. Year after year we get told that this year will be the one where PES returns to form and it never quite happens.
Only this year it finally did.
PES 2015 is quite easily the best in the series since probably way back in 2006, and a lot of that is purely down to how the game plays and feels, rather than purely on presentation. For the first time in what feels like forever the players and handling is spot on, the A.I. works and makes clever runs when you want them to. You can place a pass, bend a shot and perform tricks and feints with ease and the pace of the game is superb. Matches have a real ebb and flow to them, so that you can break down one end and see the keeper pull of a fingertip save before suddenly finding yourself overrun in defence.
While club names are still pretty much unlicensed, at least most of the players are well realised and modelled after their real life counterparts. They also act like them too, with the statistics and animations of each player feeling as they should do on the pitch. Fast players are yet again coveted, but defenders feel more robust and able to shrug smaller, more technical, players off the ball so it feels well balanced.
While the action on the pitch feels like a massive step forward it’s not perfect, nothing is, and the first thing you’ll probably do is turn off the commentary which is nothing short of woeful. Short clipped phrases that often have nothing to do with what is actually happening on the pitch (being told the game is tight, while you lead 8-0, for example) and that are delivered in the kind of monotone voice that implies someone was only there to get paid. It is the stuff of commentary nightmares. Likewise the game suffers from a few of the familiar old animation quirks that often frustrate players. For example, the old habit of seeing your defender stagger over a prone opponent, after winning the ball from him, and subsequently lose possession is one that has been around for so long that it now seems to be bordering on some kind of elaborate trolling attempt by Konami.
As ever there are a host of modes and options to try out, and the front end of the game feels a lot more robust and well put together than in years gone by. Plus, you can now use teams and players from many of the worlds secondary leagues, such as the Championship in England or Serie B in Italy, so the number of options at your disposal has grown nicely. It still doesn’t quite rival the depth of FIFA but is a step in the right direction.
As ever you can set up your own leagues and cups, dip into the licensed Champions League, Copa Libertadores or AFC Champions League, do some training exercises or even head online into head to head or team play matches. As ever you can create your own player for Become a Legend mode too, or run your own team via the Master League. However, the newest addition is the myClub mode which is the PES answer to Ultimate Team only not quite as good.
The main problem with myClub mode comes down to the innate randomness of acquiring players. Essentially you play matches to earn points and agents then you can use those points to renew contracts or buy players. Likewise you can use the agents to get players too, with the more agents you use (up to three) granting you better odds of a good player. But the odds themselves are so poor that you are never really guaranteed to get anything good. Likewise if you save up all of your points and buy the more expensive Top Agents you get a slightly better player, but it’s still a random one.
Why they didn’t just give you the option to buy specific players, or trade players with other users, is baffling. It turns the whole mode into a micro-transaction fuelled quest to get good players, whereby you either spend hours grinding for points for the chance at a decent guy or get lured into buying coins from the Konami store to also have the same chance for a decent guy. Either way you’ll probably end up with a rubbish player you didn’t want. Like Wayne Rooney.
It’s a shame as the mode has plenty of options to play against the computer in one off games or tournaments, with the novel idea of the one off opponents being other players created teams but under the control of the A.I.. You can also go head to head with other players in matches, divisions games or events, and even in simulated division or cup matches too if you want to see how the A.I. runs your team. The chance to shine was there but it feels like a real missed opportunity.
Thankfully you can fall back on the traditionally strong Master League for a more satisfying long term experience, and the general gameplay and presentation is such a step up from previous games that PES finally feels like a serious rival to FIFA once again. So while the key new mode feels like a constant attempt to lure you into spending more cash, and the commentary is still dire, at least you can enjoy a great game of football and a wealth of satisfying modes, which is more than can be said of PES for the last few years.
You can read our FIFA 15 review here.