PES 2018 | Xbox One | Review

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It’s that time of the year again, chums, as the smell of fresh-cut grass, drink-driving scandals, early managerial sackings, and fair-day's-work-for-a-fair-day’s-pay all combine to create the lopsided world of professional football. The new season brings with it the age old autumnal conundrum: FIFA or PES? We’ve gone in two-footed to bring you back a real piece of Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 to help answer that trickiest of questions.

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​by Rob Holt

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​@acousticmagic

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Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, PC
Players: 1 - 8

So, like a young, pre-Hollywood Vinnie Jones, we’re smashing straight into the weaker areas of the game first.

Let’s talk the eternal licensing problems: we’ve got absolutely no issue with sports developers making games without licenses for all the leagues, kits, players, etc. but we do expect them to try and cover that with creativity. Konami could easily follow Don Bradman Cricket 17 dev Big Ant’s lead, creating an option on the home menu to download the latest community created kits, badges and whatnot - but they haven’t.

Because of that sloppiness at the back, we’re left with the usual raft of terribly named teams and stadiums (Hampshire Red for my beloved Southampton could easily have been St Mary’s or something snappier), but the real shocker for us is the continual lack of effort to make any of the kits, club logos and the like look professional in any way, shape or form(ation). For example, the mighty Saints’ kit is a heinous orange in PES 2018, complete with no sponsorship or funky modern designs - in our predominantly visual world, this is a Crystal Palace-esque start to the season.

​There are more returning offenders too; the antique dialogue boxes that pop up every time you enter a new menu look disparate in comparison to the cleaner, more modern menus, and the commentary is just so bad it’s shocking. Not only are Jim Beglin and Peter Drury lacking in many new sound bites - we’ve been hearing the same cliches and fluff for years now - but they’re also frequently behind the on-screen action. It’s embarrassing, honestly, so take our word for it and hit the mute button.

Stuart “Psycho” Pierce ranting and raving over, let’s talk about the actual gameplay. PES has always been the slower, more realistic, total football simulation to FIFA’s arcadey shenanigans, and this year’s edition does nothing to change that. 

From our first moments on the pitch, the sumptuous weight and control of the passing system wooed. Simple, slower balls across the back feel grand, one-twos speed play up beautifully, and crosses whizz off the boot of fair wingers and fullbacks. Holding down the left trigger also engages the full manual passing option, where every completed through-ball will fill you with sheer bliss.

You can add the glorious shooting to the celebratory pile-up, too. Just like the passing, the length of your button press provides control or power to your shot perfectly. Long range drives are Phillipe Coutinho levels of wonderful, side-footed strikes into the corners provide maximum satisfaction, and cheeky glanced headers raise a smile every time they hit the back of the old onion bag. Honestly, FIFA doesn’t even make the Europa League places in passing and shooting compared to PES’ title-winning efforts.

​Defending is a slightly different matter, mind, as the simplistic pressing system prevents the more aggressive defensive tactics that we like to employ during our FIFA sessions here at PTC towers. Holding the pressing button down often leads to attackers easily waltzing around our midfielders and defenders, which proves frustrating. It’ll come as no surprise then that we prefer FIFA’s turn-and-face, show him down the touchlines defensive configuration.

​As a result the gameplay is flawed, though still mainly great, but what about the breadth of options on offer? Those that have played any of the last few iterations of the game will be pleased to see familiar favourites like Become a Legend (take one player from amateur to super stardom), Myclub (PES’ attempt at FIFA’s all-conquering Ultimate Team mode) and online divisions return. Legendary single-player campaign, Master League, is still an enjoyable timesink, even if the AI are easier to beat than that of EA Sports’ game (we’ve found 4-4-2 and lots of crosses into the box wins most games). It all comes together to provide a varied and sumptuous banquet of gameplay, easily supplying you with your money’s worth.

This year’s instalment looks pretty good to boot, with mostly accurate facial models for the biggest stars moving splendidly across the pitch. Goalkeeping animations have notably improved too, which importantly also boosts the actual quality of the stoppers.

If Konami pull their finger out and sort the presentation of menus, kits and logos, tighten up at the back, and fix that rancid commentary, we can see PES 2019 mounting a real title challenge. 

Perhaps the real winner here though is the lighting, where gameplay is put well before realism. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve struggled to pick up the ball because of stadium shadows, weather, or clashing kits in FIFA, as EA strive for Sky Sports-like presentation, but, thankfully, that never happens here. Whether you play during the day or under lights at night, you’ll see every bit of action clearly in PES 2018.

As the stoppage time boards go up, we find ourselves focusing on the positives from PES 2018’s performance. If Konami pull their finger out and sort out the presentation of menus, kits and logos, tighten up at the back, and fix that rancid commentary, we can see PES 2019 mounting a real title challenge. This year though, they’ll just have to settle for a Champions League place.

Pros

• Fantastic, Barcelona-esque passing and control
• Thrilling, Matt-Le-Tissier-in-his-prime shooting
• Huge amount of options as always
• Animations are more natural this year, especially with the improved keepers
• Pitch lighting puts gameplay first

Cons

• Konami haven’t bothered to work a way around licensing issues - again!
• Truly awful commentary
• Not much strategy required to beat the AI, even on higher settings
• Defending lacks FIFA’s level of control
• Antique dialogue boxes look hideous

7/10