For it's time good,but footy games have evolved
Written: Nov 27 '04 (Updated Nov 27 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: For it's time it's good,now inexpensive
Cons: controls,speed,graphics,general aged
The Bottom Line: PES isn't the world defeating game it's made out to be, but for the low price it now goes for,and the time of release, it is definitely good.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Pro Evolution Soccer 4 for PlayStation 2 |
In 2001, Konami, makers of the inconsistant International Superstar Soccer series of videogames released Pro Evolution Soccer on the PlayStation and PS2. This was to be a more 'realistic' football title in comparison to the arcade nature of the ISS games, and given that the all conquering FIFA series from EA was stuck in a rut, it was the perfect time to strike.
Naturally, given that the PS2 library still wasn't all that impressive, the reviewers and fans lapped up PES, basically because every other football game on the console at that time was sheer trite. Naturally, sales were impressive, and the series recently saw it's fourth entry released on the PS2 and XBox. For those of you outside of PAL territories, PES is known as Winning Eleven (5 I think), I believe it was actually released as a continuation of the ISS games in your parts, and not a splinter series like here.
A basic rundown of Pro Evolution Soccer, is that it's a football/soccer game. There is no story or anything, a straightforward sports title. You have the regular Exhibition,Cup and League modes, as well as the 'Master League' which I will get back to in a moment. One of the major talking points concerning the game is that it has no license, so not all of the player names and none of the club names are correct. This doesn't particularly bother me, what is in my eyes the best football game ever lacks proper player names, but it has to be mentioned anyway.
The Master League mode is the meat of the single player experience. In this mode, you choose a club out of the small selection, and start in the League 2, with a team of fake players, your goal is to win the competition by signing players and winning matches, and progressing to take on the Master League 1 teams. This is a pretty cool single player mode, and it sure beat the regular league format that was the only single player value offerred in the majority of footy titles.
So, we have the usual options, plus one nice addition, but what of the game's much touted gameplay. Indeed, how the game plays is often what people gush so much about, but personally I'm not the biggest fan.
The basic workings of the engine are competant, and playable, but I just feel the game is rather sluggish in terms of pace, and you don't have any sort of tricks at your disposal to help add some spice to the matches. It's also often said that the game is difficult to score in, which,for lack of a better phrase, is absolute bollocks. If you get a header on target, you have scored, simple as that. While it is quite tough to score with regular shots, the fact that it's impossible to score a goal that actually looks good with your feet kind of defeats the purpose of trying. The game also has absolutely woeful response in terms of trying to hit the ball first time (on rebounds etc), although this is a problem that applies to almost every football game released prior to this year, so it can't be looked down on that badly.
What can, is the horrendous Goalkeeper AI, the sickening ease in which free kicks are awarded,occasionally just by running into people and the fouls performed by your AI controlled team mates. Should you find yourself with the ball at an empty net, it's also impossible to run the ball in, this is really annoying in scrambles, because it takes far too long to try and make any sort of kick in some situations. The horrible free kick system also screams out the game's age.
With this said, I wouldn't go all out and say the gameplay is terrible, because I would be lying, when you consider that I picked this up for the paltry sum of three pounds, I have got some entertainment out of the master league mode, and even the multiplayer aspect, which is really why you would buy a footy game to begin with. While it didn't distract our play time away from the newer football games on the market, it certainly dished out enough fun to warrant what I paid.
Listing all the nuances of the controls would take forever, but the basics look like such:
X:Pass/Step in tackle
O:Cross/Slide Tackle
[ ]:Shoot
/_\:Through Ball
R1/R2/L2:Various types of sprinting
L1:Shot Modifier
R-Stick:Manual Pass
L-Stick/D-Pad:Move
Personally I always did prefer the FIFA layout of controls, but this system isn't far removed, so it is workable, what I won't forgive, is how poor the response times of some of the controls are. You are looking at a good few seconds between the press and the action, and controlling the player movement is pretty dire, although I always did hate the Dualshock controller, so it may not be totally the game's fault.
The poor control really does hinder the game, especially when the ball ends up in your box, in a scramble and you cannot for no amount of trying turn around to boot the ball away, and end up losing it, and a goal.
While the controls aren't unuseable, frustrating does certainly spring to mind.
Graphically, the game is ok from the distance used to play, but they are fairly cringe-inducing when you see the players up close and realise they are all impossibley skinny and tall, and have a fairly generic face.
The strips also look stupid. While I realise that they don't have the license, so can't use the real kits, the strips just look really crappy and generic. The local junior team has better looking strips. This was a chance for someone to get creative and come up with some cool kits for the teams, instead we get boring garbage that look more like the sort of fake tat you get off market stalls in Spain than what the world's best wear onfield.
The stadia and such are well rendered, though, and it was 2001, so a lot of improvements have been made graphically in the sequels.
The sound in the game is...eh, not even the biggest PES fanboy could stick up for it. The crowd sound uninterested, not even mustering up a "ya-ohhh!" when their team hits the bar. The commentary, provided by Chris James (no, I don't know either) and Rangers and England legend and current Motherwell manager Terry Butcher is, to be honest, crap. James goes through the same phrases over and over, talks rubbish, and Butch, who Im sure footy fans would rather here, rarely gets a word in edgeways.
I may have sounded incrdibly negative in this review, but that is partially due to the 'perfect' rep this game has. When I consider it was made in 2001, and compare it to that year (and even the following year's) FIFA title, I can see why people prefferred it, but it has aged quite a bit, and really can't hold a candle to todays games.
But, if like me, you have just bought a PS2 and are looking for some cheap games, this is common preowned (in the UK anyway), for the price of Ă‚Â£3-5, and you can't really complain if you paid that for it.While PES won't ever be classed by me as a classic, I certainly don't regret the small sum I payed for it, as it's faults do become a little more workable if you are playing it for the cool master league mode.
So that's why the game musters up 3 stars and a recommended. While it certainly isn't perfect, when I take into account that it was best out of what it was up against at the time, I can't be too harsh on it.
Other Konami Football games
International Superstar Soccer Deluxe for Super Nintendo
International Superstar Soccer Pro for PlayStation
International Superstar Soccer 64 for Nintendo 64
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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