PES 2016 Review
Pro Evolution Soccer has been a rocky franchise. The ps2 era of PES 3, 4 & 5 were fantastic games and were the superior football game to many and without a doubt was the best football game on the market gameplay wise at the time. A very common trade off argument between the arch rivals PES and FIFA was, PES was all about the gameplay, where as FIFA was the game to get for the licensed teams, presentation and production quality.
That soon changed once the PS3/Xbox 360 gen hit. FIFA became a game that ticked all the boxes and nailed the gameplay, where as PES couldn't even get the gameplay right, the signature that they were so renowned for was fading, with many mediocre games during that console cycle, you wondered if PES would ever come back. It was dark times for the series with FIFA being the clear winner and practically the only football game on the market that was worth getting. Last year PES made huge strides to make their comeback, to bring back the signature they were so re known for. It fell short from being that, with the gameplay still needing work and lack of extensive edit options such as the ability to import user created licensed kits.
Last years PES didn’t quite live up to the old great games but you could see the potential was there, it left the sense of the next PES should be a great game. So does PES 2016 live up to that expectation? Has it returned to its winning formula of the past? Or is it heading in the direction of the doomed last gen era?
That soon changed once the PS3/Xbox 360 gen hit. FIFA became a game that ticked all the boxes and nailed the gameplay, where as PES couldn't even get the gameplay right, the signature that they were so renowned for was fading, with many mediocre games during that console cycle, you wondered if PES would ever come back. It was dark times for the series with FIFA being the clear winner and practically the only football game on the market that was worth getting. Last year PES made huge strides to make their comeback, to bring back the signature they were so re known for. It fell short from being that, with the gameplay still needing work and lack of extensive edit options such as the ability to import user created licensed kits.
Last years PES didn’t quite live up to the old great games but you could see the potential was there, it left the sense of the next PES should be a great game. So does PES 2016 live up to that expectation? Has it returned to its winning formula of the past? Or is it heading in the direction of the doomed last gen era?
Gameplay
The gameplay is fantastic, it plays such a fluid, fun game of football, and is genuinely the most fun I have had playing a football game in years.
Passing is so slick and fast, the gameplay is really responsive, you can play really fast football, with fast counter attacks. You can hit people on the break with pace with fast passing moves leading to really satisfying goals. You can also play the Barcelona style of football, the zippy fast possession football, something you just cannot do at all on FIFA. A good comparison on how the game plays like is PES this year is Barcelona, fun to watch, great passing movement, great team play goals. FIFA is like Chelsea, well the Chelsea of last season should we say…slow defensive and quite dull, but effective and has enough venom to finish and win.
Shooting is awesome on this game. The moves you can make are one thing but some of the finishing in the game is class. Whether it’s a 40 yard rocket that flies in, or a cheeky dink from Messi when one on one with the keeper. Chip shots if done with the right player in the right situation are so effective and unbelievably satisfying. You are left screaming ohhhh myy god or laughing at how good it was. Finesse shots are also nice, at times they can look so clever. I love the shooting, but there are a few criticisms I have. Body balance doesn’t play much into how the shot outcome will be, if a player is off balance the shot will a lot of the time still end up being the same.
The gameplay is fantastic, it plays such a fluid, fun game of football, and is genuinely the most fun I have had playing a football game in years.
Passing is so slick and fast, the gameplay is really responsive, you can play really fast football, with fast counter attacks. You can hit people on the break with pace with fast passing moves leading to really satisfying goals. You can also play the Barcelona style of football, the zippy fast possession football, something you just cannot do at all on FIFA. A good comparison on how the game plays like is PES this year is Barcelona, fun to watch, great passing movement, great team play goals. FIFA is like Chelsea, well the Chelsea of last season should we say…slow defensive and quite dull, but effective and has enough venom to finish and win.
Shooting is awesome on this game. The moves you can make are one thing but some of the finishing in the game is class. Whether it’s a 40 yard rocket that flies in, or a cheeky dink from Messi when one on one with the keeper. Chip shots if done with the right player in the right situation are so effective and unbelievably satisfying. You are left screaming ohhhh myy god or laughing at how good it was. Finesse shots are also nice, at times they can look so clever. I love the shooting, but there are a few criticisms I have. Body balance doesn’t play much into how the shot outcome will be, if a player is off balance the shot will a lot of the time still end up being the same.
Something FIFA does so well is when a player is under pressure or off balance, the ball will fly over or the shot most of the time will be very timid. Sometimes if you are in space but don’t lineup the shot properly, for example sprinting and turning whilst shooting, the shot will be ineffective and timid. This does not happen with PES and almost every time you shoot normally, it will be a really powerful shot. At first every time you shoot, you are left going ooo thinking it’s going in. After playing it for so long, it makes the shooting feel quite repetitive. I also find it a little bit unauthentic how every player other than maybe a defender has a powerful shot and at times a devastating shot. I think it would be better if sometimes certain players can hit powerful shots but most of the time they wont. You know in real football, when it flies in the top corner, you know you or the player hit it cleanly, you got a sweet strike on the ball? Whilst if you scuff it or don’t connect cleanly with the ball, usually it wont generate as much power or will fly wide. Factors play into how well you will hit the shot, concentration, momentum, skill, how much space do you have, how much pressure is on etc. This doesn’t seem to be the case in this year’s PES, every shot just seems to connect cleanly. This is something I would like to see improved in future PES games. Never the less the shooting is still really fun and overall satisfying.
Defending feels physical this year and the slide tackles are brilliant. They feel really aggressive but effective if used at the right time. There is a risk reward element to the slide tackles, slide in to win the ball really effectively, get hit on the counter and must land a perfect slide tackle to break the attack, but mistime it and could receive a booking or a straight red. This is the kind of thing that makes defending exciting. Heading defensively is great too and responsive. Sometimes the AI of your player will get confused and can cost you however. Other times you will tackle someone but collide with them as you win the ball leaving your player confused, at times you could win the ball knocking the opponent to the floor fairly but then as you control the ball, you collide into the player on the floor leaving your player stuck and confused and then the player on the floor gets back up and tackles you. This can be extremely frustrating sometimes, and with the AI being quite deadly and unforgiving it can cost you. It is not game breaking but is something I hope to see improved on in the future.
Collisions seem very inconsistent in the game, at times it seems authentic both defensively and Offensively, shrugging players off the ball and bursting past players is great, but at other times players can collide and the animation screws up or the game glitches, at times the AI on both teams gets confused. It shows you that the game mechanic is still young and needs work, I am completely understanding that it could be a mechanic that is still under developed and needs time to progress onwards from future titles which is fine and it isn’t game breaking.
Success in a match plays more on the actual football you play, the passes and timing of movement rather than abuse of sprinting and skill moves in an arcadey manner, like on FIFA. Sprinting is great on this game, because if you sprint instantly when you receive the ball or hold sprint before the ball has arrived to the player, the player will often control it worse sometimes knocking the ball far too forward, but if they get it right can actually be a good thing. Sprinting must be timed right and used right. You can’t just hold sprint and expect to be able to easily beat players, you have to use sprint in bursts and time it perfect to burst on and sprint to get the momentum to pace past players. Just holding down sprint and sprinting in a straight line will rarely get you anywhere, and I love this. Sprinting effectively takes skill. Something you don’t see in football games. I like this a lot.
The dribbling is solid, and works great with sprinting but it isn’t extremely precise, the dribbling is decent, average really, not bad or good in my opinion.
Success in a match plays more on the actual football you play, the passes and timing of movement rather than abuse of sprinting and skill moves in an arcadey manner, like on FIFA. Sprinting is great on this game, because if you sprint instantly when you receive the ball or hold sprint before the ball has arrived to the player, the player will often control it worse sometimes knocking the ball far too forward, but if they get it right can actually be a good thing. Sprinting must be timed right and used right. You can’t just hold sprint and expect to be able to easily beat players, you have to use sprint in bursts and time it perfect to burst on and sprint to get the momentum to pace past players. Just holding down sprint and sprinting in a straight line will rarely get you anywhere, and I love this. Sprinting effectively takes skill. Something you don’t see in football games. I like this a lot.
The dribbling is solid, and works great with sprinting but it isn’t extremely precise, the dribbling is decent, average really, not bad or good in my opinion.
Player likeness is absolutely fantastic in this game, the best I have ever seen in a football game. The way players feel when controlling them feels so authentic.
Messi is so effective in this game, gliding past players with him is great, and all you have to do is time how you sprint and move and he will burst past players. Scoring his typical goals as well is so satisfying, whether that’s a cheeky lob or a little slot in the corner it’s fun. Ronaldo is fantastic too and you can cause some serious damage with him. The animations on the most part are great and the way the players feel when controlling them just feels spot on, where as FIFA just feels like dolled up players that all pretty much feel the same in comparison. Playing with the best players and teams feels amazing, you feel like you are playing with the top players, you feel like you can do anything to a team, it’s really fun and I haven’t had this powerful feeling of playing as the best players ever in a football game to this extent, it’s fun.
Hazard, Aguero, Messi, Ronaldo, Bale, Saurez, Neymar, Costa, Mata, the list could go on, but each of these players feel unique and really effective, and exactly like the real life counterpart. The game is best played with the top players and teams there is no denying that, however that’s not to take anything away from the teams outside of that range, lower quality teams are still enjoyable, and despite actually having any official licenses (bar Manchester United) in the English Leagues, the teams still feel exactly like them. The premier league is exciting and feels like the teams and you will be surprised. Player attributes really feel accurate to how the player feels too, for example if a player has high pace stats, they will be fast in gameplay, whilst that is not always the case in FIFA.
Playing against the AI is fun and has characteristic to it. The AI will play in the style that the actual team plays like which makes the whole game feel authentic and makes modes that are reliant on playing against the AI such as Master League very authentic. It means you won’t get the same sort of match every game and takes away any repetitiveness. You can have it on a certain difficulty and wack the computer 5-1 and feel like it is far too easy, and then go into the next game and lose 1-0 or draw 3-3 and realise oh wait I don’t need to change the difficulty. Each game is unique.
Messi is so effective in this game, gliding past players with him is great, and all you have to do is time how you sprint and move and he will burst past players. Scoring his typical goals as well is so satisfying, whether that’s a cheeky lob or a little slot in the corner it’s fun. Ronaldo is fantastic too and you can cause some serious damage with him. The animations on the most part are great and the way the players feel when controlling them just feels spot on, where as FIFA just feels like dolled up players that all pretty much feel the same in comparison. Playing with the best players and teams feels amazing, you feel like you are playing with the top players, you feel like you can do anything to a team, it’s really fun and I haven’t had this powerful feeling of playing as the best players ever in a football game to this extent, it’s fun.
Hazard, Aguero, Messi, Ronaldo, Bale, Saurez, Neymar, Costa, Mata, the list could go on, but each of these players feel unique and really effective, and exactly like the real life counterpart. The game is best played with the top players and teams there is no denying that, however that’s not to take anything away from the teams outside of that range, lower quality teams are still enjoyable, and despite actually having any official licenses (bar Manchester United) in the English Leagues, the teams still feel exactly like them. The premier league is exciting and feels like the teams and you will be surprised. Player attributes really feel accurate to how the player feels too, for example if a player has high pace stats, they will be fast in gameplay, whilst that is not always the case in FIFA.
Playing against the AI is fun and has characteristic to it. The AI will play in the style that the actual team plays like which makes the whole game feel authentic and makes modes that are reliant on playing against the AI such as Master League very authentic. It means you won’t get the same sort of match every game and takes away any repetitiveness. You can have it on a certain difficulty and wack the computer 5-1 and feel like it is far too easy, and then go into the next game and lose 1-0 or draw 3-3 and realise oh wait I don’t need to change the difficulty. Each game is unique.
Likewise players will be controlled by the AI in a fashion to make it seem like the real player. Playing against world class players feel like it, when a top player does something magical, it feels like that player just did that, rather than it feeling like the AI had done it. Goals scored by them especially top players feel believable. This is fantastic and makes ML a great experience and I have a blast playing against the computer as much as playing against humans.
Presentation and Content
There are some brutal truths behind Konami however that potentially could really hold back PES from really being taken seriously this year. Essentially Konami have shot themselves in the foot. They have got the big things right but failed on the fundamental basics that have damaged the reputation of PES. The main controviousy being 3 month out of date squads at launch. Worse yet, information came out that it wouldn’t be ready until late October. This is absolutely ludicrous. I really don't understand how you can release a football game with out of date squads. Buying new football games for updated squads is the cliche stereotype that many non football fan gamers preach. Having up to date squads in a NEW football game is not just vital but expected from all gamers, expected so much that it has become that cliche stereotype that gamers buy new iterations just for it. How could Konami not understand the importance of it? Why were they not working on updating the squads during and after the transfer window before the game launched? (Or clearly not working efficiently enough) I don't want this point to take away anything from the gameplay, because the game is fantastic but the incompetence of Konami to not be able to get the basic important foundations correct really hurts the reputation of PES and gives gamers reason to not buy PES and buy FIFA.
Of course now that the update has arrived, this issue is irrelevant, however it will still live with me knowing that I had to wait for a game to be finished at my expense, and had to even delay this review because of it. The general feel is they rushed the game to release earlier than FIFA to boost sales. Which appeared to have worked in terms of sales this time, but it is wrong, and fans won't forget that. What's pretty bad too is how the manager's personal Twitter was the most viable option to find out news. On top of that, he has tried to justify all of this, by preaching it's all about the gameplay. However as much as I agree gameplay is the most important part of the game, if you start taking away the core foundations and content of a game, it takes away any depth and authenticity a game can have. The developers of PES will have to be very careful with what they do in the future.
I don't want to draw too much negativity on the game because the game to the core is great, which is what makes the whole situation such a controversy, if the game sucked, no one would care. The gameplay might be fantastic, but other foundations of a game are just as important. I just hope they understand that next time.
There are some brutal truths behind Konami however that potentially could really hold back PES from really being taken seriously this year. Essentially Konami have shot themselves in the foot. They have got the big things right but failed on the fundamental basics that have damaged the reputation of PES. The main controviousy being 3 month out of date squads at launch. Worse yet, information came out that it wouldn’t be ready until late October. This is absolutely ludicrous. I really don't understand how you can release a football game with out of date squads. Buying new football games for updated squads is the cliche stereotype that many non football fan gamers preach. Having up to date squads in a NEW football game is not just vital but expected from all gamers, expected so much that it has become that cliche stereotype that gamers buy new iterations just for it. How could Konami not understand the importance of it? Why were they not working on updating the squads during and after the transfer window before the game launched? (Or clearly not working efficiently enough) I don't want this point to take away anything from the gameplay, because the game is fantastic but the incompetence of Konami to not be able to get the basic important foundations correct really hurts the reputation of PES and gives gamers reason to not buy PES and buy FIFA.
Of course now that the update has arrived, this issue is irrelevant, however it will still live with me knowing that I had to wait for a game to be finished at my expense, and had to even delay this review because of it. The general feel is they rushed the game to release earlier than FIFA to boost sales. Which appeared to have worked in terms of sales this time, but it is wrong, and fans won't forget that. What's pretty bad too is how the manager's personal Twitter was the most viable option to find out news. On top of that, he has tried to justify all of this, by preaching it's all about the gameplay. However as much as I agree gameplay is the most important part of the game, if you start taking away the core foundations and content of a game, it takes away any depth and authenticity a game can have. The developers of PES will have to be very careful with what they do in the future.
I don't want to draw too much negativity on the game because the game to the core is great, which is what makes the whole situation such a controversy, if the game sucked, no one would care. The gameplay might be fantastic, but other foundations of a game are just as important. I just hope they understand that next time.
Another basic gripe I have is how the default color schemes of teams is completely incorrect which will apply to the kit colours of the default kits when custom imports aren’t applied. Leeds will be purple and Arsenal will be orange for example.
The game has a severe lack of licenses, with every premier league team apart from Manchester United unlicensed. The team names are fake where you will have Liverpool as ‘Merseyside Reds’ and Tottenham as ‘ North East London’, and Chelsea as ‘London FC’ I don’t know the legal terms on why PES still can’t even get the team names and is the only football game on the market that can’t get correct team names, but it is very damaging to the franchise, it puts many off and having to rename them is a chore to many and it is a 100% must to rename the teams, putting up with the fake kits and badges is tolerable but playing against Merseyside reds just completely kills the authenticity and not just that, it gets to a point where you won’t actually know who you are playing against if you don’t know the teams players, which I am suspect to with some of the championship teams admittedly. I actually had to get a list of what the fake team names are for certain teams so that I could rename them.
The game has a severe lack of licenses, with every premier league team apart from Manchester United unlicensed. The team names are fake where you will have Liverpool as ‘Merseyside Reds’ and Tottenham as ‘ North East London’, and Chelsea as ‘London FC’ I don’t know the legal terms on why PES still can’t even get the team names and is the only football game on the market that can’t get correct team names, but it is very damaging to the franchise, it puts many off and having to rename them is a chore to many and it is a 100% must to rename the teams, putting up with the fake kits and badges is tolerable but playing against Merseyside reds just completely kills the authenticity and not just that, it gets to a point where you won’t actually know who you are playing against if you don’t know the teams players, which I am suspect to with some of the championship teams admittedly. I actually had to get a list of what the fake team names are for certain teams so that I could rename them.
The game can’t get the licenses and that is out of their control, that’s understandable. However it feels like they haven’t even tried to make it look authentic, as said before, the kits this year are not even the correct color, with Tottenham playing in blue as the home kit and Chelsea playing in yellow as the home kit, which carries through the color scheme of the team on the management screen, it is baffling how they couldn’t even get the kit colour correct this time. The kit’s also look ridiculously half arsed and generic, they didn’t even try to make them look real, at least have the same design of the kit with a fake sponser? Something I have actually seen in a mobile football game that has fake kits but has fake sponsors, for example arsenal and Manchester city will have ‘Airlines’ as their sponsor and spurs would have a Red three lettered sponsor that looks similar to their real life sponsor. It’s little things like this where I think, they could have put a bit more effort in making up for the lack of licenses.
Thankfully this year, they have reintroduced the ability to download user made files such as the licensed kits and badges for all premier league teams, championship teams and so on. Unfortunately you can’t simply download a option save file where all the teams have been renamed and all the kits and badges have all been applied for you like you could on the PS2 PES’ but you can download the user images to then apply the kits and badges yourself to the teams which is much better than nothing. Thankfully it is simple to do all of this, you simply just load the files on a usb, import the images, select the team press load image, click on the image and that’s it, so if you want a licensed kit applied, you simply click on the kit image that you want and that’s it. It is quite time consuming though and will take you a couple of hours to get it all done, but it is really worth it and the kits look great and make the game look so authentic, and eliminates the generic no license problem.
Thankfully this year, they have reintroduced the ability to download user made files such as the licensed kits and badges for all premier league teams, championship teams and so on. Unfortunately you can’t simply download a option save file where all the teams have been renamed and all the kits and badges have all been applied for you like you could on the PS2 PES’ but you can download the user images to then apply the kits and badges yourself to the teams which is much better than nothing. Thankfully it is simple to do all of this, you simply just load the files on a usb, import the images, select the team press load image, click on the image and that’s it, so if you want a licensed kit applied, you simply click on the kit image that you want and that’s it. It is quite time consuming though and will take you a couple of hours to get it all done, but it is really worth it and the kits look great and make the game look so authentic, and eliminates the generic no license problem.
Unfortunately though this is only for PS4 this year and Xbox One users were shut out of the dark, so if you are a Xbox One player, this could be a huge drawback making it not worth getting on that platform.
The Presentation is on the most part quite poor, and something that needs work. Hud looks dull in matches unless the Champions League or Europa League hud is used for matches, which they do make great use of the two licenses. Replays need work, they play too slow, and I want to see more speed options on the instant replay, it’s far too slow.
The graphics are inconsistent which is disappointing considering how good Metal Gear Solid looks on the fox engine, the same engine used for PES. Player faces on some players look fantastic and the lighting at times is great but at other times is weak. Other times player faces look awful, certain players look like the player but in crack head form. Their eyes look scary and their face looks screwed up at times.
Commentary seems great at first, it’s exciting and the commentary from Peter Drury seems passionate and lively… Until you start hearing the same lines over and over again and then start hearing him scream the players name far too often when they shoot. It just sounds way over the top at times. Basically there is a severe lack of dialog but the actual commentator isn’t bad, but just needs to calm down and tone down at times. I think this will improve in later years so I can’t be too critical but it’s just a little thing I will point out. The match atmosphere is unbelievably generic and feels quite foreign. The crowd will often in Premier League games whistle which European teams usually do, not English teams. Manchester United have official chants by the seems of it but it’s so pathetically done that it sounds like a bunch of school boys are singing it in the corner of the ground, it’s laughable.
The Presentation is on the most part quite poor, and something that needs work. Hud looks dull in matches unless the Champions League or Europa League hud is used for matches, which they do make great use of the two licenses. Replays need work, they play too slow, and I want to see more speed options on the instant replay, it’s far too slow.
The graphics are inconsistent which is disappointing considering how good Metal Gear Solid looks on the fox engine, the same engine used for PES. Player faces on some players look fantastic and the lighting at times is great but at other times is weak. Other times player faces look awful, certain players look like the player but in crack head form. Their eyes look scary and their face looks screwed up at times.
Commentary seems great at first, it’s exciting and the commentary from Peter Drury seems passionate and lively… Until you start hearing the same lines over and over again and then start hearing him scream the players name far too often when they shoot. It just sounds way over the top at times. Basically there is a severe lack of dialog but the actual commentator isn’t bad, but just needs to calm down and tone down at times. I think this will improve in later years so I can’t be too critical but it’s just a little thing I will point out. The match atmosphere is unbelievably generic and feels quite foreign. The crowd will often in Premier League games whistle which European teams usually do, not English teams. Manchester United have official chants by the seems of it but it’s so pathetically done that it sounds like a bunch of school boys are singing it in the corner of the ground, it’s laughable.
The lack of stadiums is shocking, I can’t deny this, and it does damage the authenticity of the game. I can be understanding of this though as it appears that they have built the game from the ground up and focused on the gameplay, which they have got right. This years PES however not only does not have many licensed stadiums at all, but there’s not even a large selection of generic grounds to pick from, which means you will be playing in the same stadiums a lot. This is disappointing but as I said I can understand in this case. I want to see the stadium creator make a return, to make up for the lack of licenses.
These are pretty significant setbacks when all combined, leaving a very amateur looking game, until of course you actually head to the pitch and start playing. There is no doubt this is a game that’s literally all about the gameplay, a game that if you choose, it’s because the gameplay triumphs everything else for you. No doubt that this has the best gameplay on the football market, and if you care about gameplay, you should consider the game, but the presentation is so poor where they couldn’t even get the basics locked down, it really sets this game back from being a great game. When you combine all the basic fundamentals outside of the gameplay that they failed on, you start to feel a bit stuck in two minds about the game, that’s how I certainly feel, it’s a great game in many ways and a below par game in other ways.
These are pretty significant setbacks when all combined, leaving a very amateur looking game, until of course you actually head to the pitch and start playing. There is no doubt this is a game that’s literally all about the gameplay, a game that if you choose, it’s because the gameplay triumphs everything else for you. No doubt that this has the best gameplay on the football market, and if you care about gameplay, you should consider the game, but the presentation is so poor where they couldn’t even get the basics locked down, it really sets this game back from being a great game. When you combine all the basic fundamentals outside of the gameplay that they failed on, you start to feel a bit stuck in two minds about the game, that’s how I certainly feel, it’s a great game in many ways and a below par game in other ways.