So I bit the bullet and downloaded this yesterday as I haven't tried it since it was released.
This is probably the finest example of giving your customers exactly what they don't want or need. From a User Experience perspective it fails in multiple places too (I'm currently a principle UX at a big software company).
So where do you begin?
Well the menus and UI is some of the worst I've ever seen for a supposed top title. The colours and fonts could seriously trigger a seizure along with those kits the players are wearing, I mean seriously? It all looks over saturated, clunky and is extremely overbearing.
So the first thing it does is asks me to select my base team, so I picked Atalanta. Does that mean I get their kits and stadium? Dunno didn't try and find out as I hate the thought of building my own team and then applying a real life kit to it. I also noticed the starter players I was gifted, everyone gets. Why cant they give you some random starters to make things interesting?
Anyway I gave up on the online stuff almost immediately, I think the whole concept of esports and spend to win is one of the most abhorrent things anyone has ever come up with. There is no genuine attempt to compete online and to play fair and to enjoy the game, its just assisted shitness with, in most cases, the player with the best players winning and not giving a damn about how they play to achieve it.
So I thought ok, they must have some single player content by now and pleasantly I found the (rather limited) match mode. So I chose a friendly and picked my teams. Originally I was impressed they had so many leagues but upon further inspection theres very few teams within each league. I chose Atalanta and decided to play Serie B Pisa which was the only team available from that league.
The intro screen looks ok, the stadiums look nice. I chose day and it had the sprinklers on which was a nice touch and the actual graphics of the stadium looks really good. So I moved on to settings and oh my giddy aunt, what were they thinking? Firstly, they list you options YOU CANNOT SELECT. Why? I don't want to play Beginner or Regular I want professional. I can see it but I cant select it. I can see weather types but I cant select it. Why? Why put them in if you cant choose them? How frustrating is that? So now im stuck on Regular which is pants.
I start the game and get some nice but pointless cut scenes although I do like the warm ups with the lineups. So I set my camera and kick off and the first thing I notice is how fluid players move and the dribbling. Thats probably the nicest thing about the entire game. Its all downhill from here though. Several things struck me:
Its absolutely easy as pie to play this game, theres zero challenge. So I go into controller because I remember im FUMA and it will make the CPU more challenging. Shock horror I can only go manual shooting. No advanced through ball and a forced passing assist!!! No wonder its easy! Regular plus assisted. Catering to kids to get them hooked on this garbage no doubt.
The rest of the game is meh, an uninteresting AI, a slightly more polished set of visuals over Pes 21that look too clinical and have no personality compared to the previous game. Same animation sets but it feels worse because the shooting is assisted and bland and the keepers do floaty dives. The game just lacks atmosphere and personality, plus where the player shadows? Makes them look like they are levitating across the pitch.
Oh and the cursors! Each player looks like he's running with a gigantic hula hoop at his feet! And he has an arrow on his head too! Spoils the attempt to imagine real matches, keep the cursors minimal.
Anyway could only stomach another few minutes before turning it off and uninstalling. An absolute tragedy.
Pes 21 modded on PC blows this sky high out of the water. Fifa 23 blows this out of the water and at least it has some single player modes and plenty of customisable options.
Imagine if Konami just applied the new dribbling mechanics to Pes 21 and introduced a more polished visual look and worked on keepers and some other little bits, they'd have a bona fide hit on their hands. But no they destroyed a franchise in the pursuit of making a quick buck.