As a longtime (since PS1) PES fan I was incredibly excited about this years game. After last year's game - which, aside from insanely overpowered throughballs/speed merchants, was excellent - I was expecting PES 2014 to be a big step forward in the series.
So far my expectations have not been matched. I'm not posting this because I've just lost a game (I wish - see below) and I'm angry, or because something in the game went against me and I want to let off steam. I'm posting because I genuinely care about the series and I'm concerned by what are, in my opinion, big steps backward.
Here's some things I've encountered so far, having played the game a lot (on 360, offline - I'm not even getting into the whole data pack debacle) over past couple of days.
- I'm currently playing Master League on superstar setting. I've yet to lose a match, winning 8 and drawing 3, and have a + 12 goal difference. It took me weeks to get to this level on PES 2013, and I always felt I had to work hard for my victories. Yet on 2014 I've reached that level after a couple of days of playing. This suggests the game is too easy, and will offer very limited (offline) replay value.
- The menu systems are just awful. They look and feel about 20 years old. It takes an eternity to do anything.
- Players all handle in a very similar manner to each other. On 2013 there was brilliant difference between handling the likes of Aguero, Neymar or Messi, when compared to some average player. It was very satisfying to buy a new player in the Master League and instantly feel a difference to your team, because all players felt unique. Now all players feel very similar, pace is irrelevant as the catch-up-bug ensures you'll be swiftly caught by even the slowest defender within 5 yards, and all players seem to shoot and finish in an identical manner.
- Bugs. The game is full of them. Offside goals: many times I've viewed a replay of a goal to see the scorer was several yards offside. Sliding tackles: some perfect challenges, cleanly winning the ball, have resulted in a red card, other horror tackles that wipe out the man don't even result in foul. The graphics vary wildly between locations: some stadiums look lovely, some make everything on the pitch look cartoonishly terrible. Cursor switching is slow, unpredictable, and it's often impossible to select the appropriate man. The catch-up-bug (as mentioned above) makes the game feel very dated. Defensive AI is unpredictable at best: sometimes I simply don't have a defense (though I still won't concede as my CB will quickly catch up - which is a case of two wrongs NOT making a right!)
- Many new ideas are flawed. The new corner kicks offer very little variety when compared to last year. The manual throughball/shoot are nice ideas, but you simply don't have enough time in a match to use them because it takes too long to complete the commands.
Whilst all this sounds very negative, I do think there is the core of an awesome football game in PES 2014, but it just feels very rushed and incomplete. Some of the passing moves I've executed have been beautiful and show the true potential of this game. Hopefully some patches will help this game and the MLO (my highlight from last year's game) will be a success, but I can't help but feel this was a big opportunity wasted by Konami.
So far my expectations have not been matched. I'm not posting this because I've just lost a game (I wish - see below) and I'm angry, or because something in the game went against me and I want to let off steam. I'm posting because I genuinely care about the series and I'm concerned by what are, in my opinion, big steps backward.
Here's some things I've encountered so far, having played the game a lot (on 360, offline - I'm not even getting into the whole data pack debacle) over past couple of days.
- I'm currently playing Master League on superstar setting. I've yet to lose a match, winning 8 and drawing 3, and have a + 12 goal difference. It took me weeks to get to this level on PES 2013, and I always felt I had to work hard for my victories. Yet on 2014 I've reached that level after a couple of days of playing. This suggests the game is too easy, and will offer very limited (offline) replay value.
- The menu systems are just awful. They look and feel about 20 years old. It takes an eternity to do anything.
- Players all handle in a very similar manner to each other. On 2013 there was brilliant difference between handling the likes of Aguero, Neymar or Messi, when compared to some average player. It was very satisfying to buy a new player in the Master League and instantly feel a difference to your team, because all players felt unique. Now all players feel very similar, pace is irrelevant as the catch-up-bug ensures you'll be swiftly caught by even the slowest defender within 5 yards, and all players seem to shoot and finish in an identical manner.
- Bugs. The game is full of them. Offside goals: many times I've viewed a replay of a goal to see the scorer was several yards offside. Sliding tackles: some perfect challenges, cleanly winning the ball, have resulted in a red card, other horror tackles that wipe out the man don't even result in foul. The graphics vary wildly between locations: some stadiums look lovely, some make everything on the pitch look cartoonishly terrible. Cursor switching is slow, unpredictable, and it's often impossible to select the appropriate man. The catch-up-bug (as mentioned above) makes the game feel very dated. Defensive AI is unpredictable at best: sometimes I simply don't have a defense (though I still won't concede as my CB will quickly catch up - which is a case of two wrongs NOT making a right!)
- Many new ideas are flawed. The new corner kicks offer very little variety when compared to last year. The manual throughball/shoot are nice ideas, but you simply don't have enough time in a match to use them because it takes too long to complete the commands.
Whilst all this sounds very negative, I do think there is the core of an awesome football game in PES 2014, but it just feels very rushed and incomplete. Some of the passing moves I've executed have been beautiful and show the true potential of this game. Hopefully some patches will help this game and the MLO (my highlight from last year's game) will be a success, but I can't help but feel this was a big opportunity wasted by Konami.