PES 2020 REVIEW: THE BEST EVER?

It’s been a a week since the launch of efootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020, a franchise that has been battling for supremacy against Electronic Art’s FIFA game. Much as EA is the bigger company, Konami year after year, gives FIFA a good run for their money. This year’s edition is a weird one because one moment it’s like “the best game ever” and the next you’re wondering why they decided to release such an unfinished game.

Graphics and Presentation

Konami managed to secure team licenses like Manchester United, Bayern Munich and the one that hurt FIFA fans, Juventus (They now have to deal with Piemonte Calcio). This year’s graphics are top-notch and the best it has been in years. The improved Enlighten engine renders stunning-looking stadiums and turfs. The match presentation,
however, has been the same since I can remember; the walking out of the tunnels, the stadium feel and sounds, entrance scenes are still the same as PES 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, etc.

The scoreboard looks like something a beginner in graphic designing came up with. Even the licensed leagues do not have real-life broadcasting packages and scoreboards. This doesn’t make it as immersive. Menus are boring and I find myself skipping a lot of menu screen work in master league.

On a brighter side, the new camera angle gives a real-life feel as the camera spans in and out as the game is in action. The face scans are fantastic and close to perfection. The animations in this game are heavenly; the flicks, no-look passes, sliding through blades of grass, chipping shots, goalkeeper reactions, I could go on and on. Overall, PES has never been known for their presentation but at some point, questions need to be asked.

Amazing player scans and models

Same old entrance scenes since forever

Pogba face scan

Bayern Munich players face scans

Gameplay

The the gameplay is slower, giving you time to think through every pass, run, and every shot. It also makes the game a bit too simulated and not as fun when playing against friends. Playing master league with this slow gameplay, however, allows you to showcase your tactical brilliance over your AI opponents in satisfying wins. It’s a battle of wits, using the same tactics for every match will expose your team and the Superstar and Legend CPU do a good job of punishing you.

Speaking of the AI, they’ve been improved significantly. They vary in their attack unlike PES 2019 where they always resorted to wing play and low crosses. 
Some other notable improvements to the gameplay include the revamped Andres Iniesta-inspired finesse dribble, improved ball physics, new ball defending animations, improved the physicality between players and new advanced tactics (anchoring). Shooting and finishing continues to be the most satisfying thing as you’re rewarded for breaking down the toughest defenses.

Slow gameplay however, means unresponsiveness. Player switching is still unresponsive and sometimes doesn’t switch to the player closer to the ball. The right stick isn’t as responsive as advertised in the demo. 
The persistent issue of players losing momentum when they lose the ball with no contact is more often than not, annoying as it renders the player useless for a couple of seconds and makes it difficult to try to win it back immediately. The referees are the worst in any football game and so inconsistent, which I guess imitates real life. Plunge into a player in one game and the referee would wave play on. Another time it’s red. It’s such a mess and I hope Konami fixes this.

Online is a disgrace in this big 2019 and that’s that on that. The gameplay is still one of the best football simulations ever and some fine-tuning in the form of a patch could make it the best it can be.

Modes

New manager cut scenes

Master the league got revamped with a plethora of cut scenes and press conferences and a new ML homepage. It’s refreshing to see but it’s not much of a game-changer. The option to use legend managers like Maradona, Cryuff, etc. is a great addition but why remove the option to create your own manager? That was a let-down for me this year. The transfer system received a long-overdue overhaul. Gone are the days you’d receive an offer for Pogba for about $40 million or buy Hazard for 60. Another welcome addition is the ability to set transfer budgets and frequency of transfers.

These are not incremental leaps but are still welcome. It’s not even been a month and I've already seen most of the scenes Konami gloated about in the trailer. They've already become repetitive. The cut scenes are riddled with manager holding coffees in every cut scene and at this point, they’ve become repetitive and annoying. I’m glad they can be skipped. 

Rivalry matches are still a hell to deal with. I get the concept, derby matches are intense with a lot of passion. It’s painful to play derby matches because the intensity and passion only affect the CPU. They’re quicker to the ball, press very high with little stamina loss and even slower players get some sort of speed boost. The AI is also very aggressive and slides into challenges a lot. It almost appears to be a cheat fest. FC Barcelona can easily wash Valencia and struggle against Espanyol because of rivalry.

Interactive dialogue system

New ML Menu

The regen and the youth system has been another issue that has been persisting for so long. Is Konami intentionally not listening to this or can’t fix it? Having a 16 year-old Zlatan reappearing after he has retired in your master league save still looking 36 is so underwhelming and sucks the fun out of the mode. I don't know if it's still in this year's game but I'm assuming it is since we've not heard anything from Konami about this issue.

Skipping matches still don’t tell you, goal scorers, cards or substitutions made, only tells the scores and I find myself checking from the player report to see who’s goal count increased. And there’s no option to simulate the whole season or a month if you wanted to.

The menus still remain the same apart from the main page. There’s a new option to view messages which is great but generally, it feels like the PES 2019 with a different colour background. The menus are so boring and uncreative in PES it's sickening spending so much time in the menus. Training is still menu-based and the cut scene in the trailer which suggested you could have more control over training sessions was just false advertising.

Become a Legend mode. Why aren’t they taking this mode seriously? It has so much potential yet it’s being ignored by Konami and that has been the case since forever (maybe, PES 2015). It’s pointless to even begin to talk about this mode

Matchday is the new mode where you select a side in a soon to be played derby in real life and contribute to the side’s victory in-game. Individuals who scored more points enter a grand final as they play against the best from the other team and compete for ultimate glory. This is a good concept but how does this become a whole mode on its own. This should be at best one of the options in a kick-off mode.

Conclusion

Overall, Konami is still doing what they do best, provide us with the best on-pitch experience any sports game has to offer. The gameplay is still great but the little niggles such as the right stick and player switching unresponsiveness, and players losing momentum with no contact sets it back. The master league is steadily improving but it’s becoming stale with the same old problems year after year

 The cut scenes are new and refreshing but get boring over time. Something is still yet to be done for the Become a Legend mode which drew me to PES 2013 and for match day, meh.

OVERALL: 8.1