Pro Evolution Soccer 2017
FROM US$39.95 | PC, PS4, X1 | WWW.KONAMI.COM/WEPES The PC version doesn’t make the Premier League.
Like a football manager resting players for a secondrate cup game, Konami again appears to be treating the PC as a distraction from the main prize of console sales. PES 2017 is another intergenerational hybrid that looks more like the Xbox 360 than the Xbox One game. It’s an accomplished — brilliant at times — sim and an improvement on last season’s effort, but it could, and should, be as good as the console game in every detail.
Get past this and you’re in a happy, footbally kind of place. A place where subtle moments speak of a deep understanding in the fabric of the code of what makes the game of football so very beautiful. The AI is a perennial joy, and not just in terms of adaptive opposing players. Your virtual teammates are intelligent and appear sensitive to your desire for flowing football. They are almost always switched on to the possibility of a defencesplitting pass, taking up positions that enable you to outclass your rivals.
There’s also a quiet appreciation, especially if you turn off the poor commentary, for the joy of a long pass. It’s something that’s largely overlooked in the FIFA series, but that’s the footballing equivalent of a sniper rifle headshot on a moving target — tricky, satisfying and fatal. Chipped through-balls and sprayed long passes are as relevant here as buttonmashed dribbling skills.
All of which keeps matches ticking along nicely, something some online commenters claim breaks down during online play. That wasn’t my experience. The main issue for me was the scarcity of opponents, with the only breaks in the flow of the game coming from sluggish advancement through CGI sequences — an irritating drain on realism, but hardly fatal.
Hamstrung by EA gobbling commercial tie-ins for its FIFA series, licensed club, player and stadia names in Pro Evo remain few and far between. Wearside versus Man Red not only sounds naff, but it shatters the illusion of realism. Though the likes of Barcelona and their annual victims Arsenal are present and correct.
This is football with a brain and without the gloss. But there are moments of serious frustration, when a lack of footwork finesse causes play to break down needlessly. On the upside of unlicensed content, PES is largely immune to the fawning deference for big name players that is standard elsewhere. Rather than superstars appearing to belong to different species, the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic stand out, but don’t dominate play. While his rapier-like shots aren’t automatic, your inadequate tap of the shoot button are modified by some cuddly power bar fairies to save the big man’s blushes.
In other respects, Pro Evo remains true to its arcade roots. It’s certainly one of the most ‘gamified’ football sims. The achievements system as you build a team in myClub mode features hundreds of rewards for feats such as signing new stars, or simply opening transfer negotiations.
You can even earn contract extensions for managers for free by hitting performance benchmarks, otherwise you’ll need to use up rewards or splash your cash.
Lee Hall