So I've been playing PES 2009 lately and I'm left wondering why the game is often spoken about so poorly. It's often lumped in with the absolutely dire PES 2008 and that seems quite disingenuous to a game that is honestly, much more fun and rewarding than 2014 has ever been for me. There's a lot of good design in the game and it only adds to the misery to see how much the new games have just ignored the roots that made them so successful. It's not perfect but I've been playing it a lot and it's a much better arcade game than 2014 is a realistic one. It's not a great game but that's what's important because it still does a lot of basic things better than PES 2014 does.
I should point out that when I first loaded 2009 I did laugh at it. I thought it was as crappy as everybody said it was but the more I played, the more I got hooked and realised why PES used to be such a good series. It wasn't because of how realistic it looked, it was because of how fun the game felt whilst maintaining a distinct air of challenge that remains fair. It seems to me that 2009 may even be the only real HD version of PS2 PES that we got (perhaps 2010 too, I'd have to check).
Of course, the negatives are there like the animation being terribly clunky, passing being way too accurate and the speed of the game being a little bit fast but these seem to be the only really bad things and I'm left wondering if the hate for the game remains quite, well, superficial, which at this point has become a hot-topic given how good PES 2014 looks as if it plays and how badly it actually feels to play. I wonder if we and Konami have become so obsessed with how the game looks that we've under-valued the basic design parts which made the series work so well.
So onto the design parts I wanted to address:
Firstly, attacking is hard. Chances are relatively few and far between and it makes me look at PES 2014 and wonder why the new games have become such an attack-fest. I get no reward scoring in PES 2014 but much of that is down to how easy I seem to find it to get into the box and this has been a recurring theme for years now. Remember the bullet shots from 2012 for instance. The design of 2009 rewards the player much more because it makes you feel as if creating chances is difficult and ergo when you put the ball into the net, it feels special. The defenders are clearly superior in and around the box compared to the attackers unless you manage to weave a piece of magic. PES 2014 isn't so different here but the defenders are just too good at tackling and timing isn't a necessary aspect. Tackling is simple too in 2009 but timing is crucial, most of the time you simply can't make an easy tackle and need to block out passes. Clever play is needed to get around the defence and I think this may well be what the magic is.
Secondly, the tactics screen in the old games is just better than the new ones. It's fast, intuitive and promotes you to program in tactics because you aren't dallying about waiting for it to respond to your user-input. You can either press about 3 buttons within the space of 1 second and choose Auto-Sort to get into the game which the best players or get more in-depth. The new style formation screen makes me want to get past it as quickly as possible because it's slow and laborious. I find myself wanting to set up custom tactics in 2009, which is something I've never felt compelled to do in 2014.
Thirdly, individuality. Gary Neville is slow and can't catch up with wingers once they've beaten him. Peter Crouch isn't very good at bringing the ball down. Jonny Evans isn't good at dribbling. Dong Fangzhou can't even control the ball. The ML players aren't good at playing long balls. All that stuff which has gone missing in PES 2014 essentially. The players have become too samey lately and I barely feel as if I'm controlling individuals any more.
Fourthly, Master League. It's the old style one. You can make fantasy leagues and create your own team from scratch. It's great. The stranglehold of the Champions League license and the devotion to realism has become such a bug-bear for me in the new PES games. There's about 5 European leagues in total. There's simply not enough to try to be realistic so why bother.
Fifthly, it's just simple. This is presumably what draws a line between those looking for a good arcade-style game and those looking for a realistic one. The aspects to the game are small which probably makes balancing things a lot easier and also draws away from realism, but importantly it works.
Sixly, physics. Weirdly 2009 has some of the best physics the series has seen. Shooting has a distinct weight about it but shots can be weak and powerful. I remember 2012 being a game with decent physics, except that every shot was a rocket-shot making long-shots way too simple.
Closing Thoughts
The fifth point is really the point of this post I feel. I think PES has lost sight of the bigger picture. Adding in more and more things is what makes a game look attractive but it isn't necessarily what makes the game look better and it's up to Konami to use the new engine to good effect, not merely because it looks pretty. By playing the old games, you begin to realise how well things used to work and how crucial the balance between the simple things was, which in turn made an excellent game full of depth, even at times when they animations began to look ridiculous. It's hard work making a game I am sure but if PES wants to advance and become the series it once was then I'd wager it would do well to go back and look at why the series worked well in the first place. Getting the basics right is the most important thing and design-aspects such as shooting, stats and tactics have become terribly under-managed making the game look really good but making it feel really dull.
So yes, onwards and upwards with PES 2015. It's really up to Konami at this point. If these things are obvious to experienced players then why aren't they to the team behind the game? If there was an option for the survey to include 'Do You Think The Team Should Go Back and Play The Old Games Whilst Making Some Notes on a Scrap of Paper About What They Like?' then I'd probably click the box that says 'YES'.