Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 review

Old sensations

This was at least until my PlayStation 2 made room for the Xbox 360 ... But let's stop wandering and get to the point: Fish 2015 immediately reminded me, from the first game, of what I felt almost three decades ago. Looking for something different, I (re) found in Konami's latest work, my passion for living room football. And it wasn't because of the Master League or Abbiati's elf ears. Pad in hand, Pro evolution soccer is once again fun, fluid and challenging. Whether it's the Fox Engine or the Windsor team, the players under our control move on the team pitch, feel the opponent and prepare accordingly. The game is reasoned, the defenses controlled by the CPU must be opened delicately and then inserted with the right passage to put our attacker face to face with the goalkeeper. In the non-possession phase it is then necessary to remain concentrated and press wisely, because our teammates, although not infallible, move well and it is up to us to guide them to regain the ball. Artificial intelligence, in short, is excellent at both high and lower levels (albeit more permissive). The goalkeepers do not perform in colossal ducks nor, in some games, will seem insuperable as by some divine will.

The player's skills, thus, really matter, within a gameplay which, while on the one hand it requires application in order to be exploited in every aspect (the training mode is just for this), on the other it does not pretend to submit " the prodigal sons ”to long rehabilitation sessions to master the basics. There is also the strategic component, also properly calibrated and equipped with a menu of schemes capable of putting the lessons learned by Ancelotti or Mourinho to the test. From the selection of the module (basic, in possession and non-possession phase) to the most advanced tactics, everything is placed in our hands. At the same time, however, we can decide to rely on the automatic settings and rely only on our reflexes to overcome the opponent on duty. But even in this case, fatigue should not be underestimated and the right change, at the right time, can really make a difference.

Whatever our approach, it is unlikely that we will be disappointed due to “remote controlled” or repetitive games.

Pes ultim… oops, myClub

The rebirth of Pes after years of darkness certainly cannot fail to deal directly with the best weapons of the opponents: so, if the Premier League and second divisions licenses are proposed to us with the dropper, move to playing international tournaments literally changes the music (na na na… these are the Chaaaampions… nana na na… the Champions…). From the former Champions Cup, to the Europa League, Libertadores and, so on and so forth, all the major continental tournaments are perfectly sacked and yes, I took the opportunity to let Milan win the eighth cup in memory of the good times gone. But Uefa is nothing new, just as it is definitely classic, almost amarcord, it is there Master League. Playable only against the CPU, this historic mode obviously benefits from the newfound appeal of single matches even if it does not offer real innovations. Personally I have nothing to say about this choice: it's nice to come home after years of exile and find everything in its place. However, I understand that those who have never "betrayed" may feel the need for something more and perhaps greater control over the economic-managerial aspect of the club would have helped (sponsors and box office, for example, are sectors outside our control).

Minandinho in action: son of art?

But it is useless to complain, because in any case something more is already there and is called myClub. It is the spiritual heir of the ill-fated online Master League, which has never really convinced the fans. And it's an elegant way to make even those who have moved to Canada for years feel at ease. Without beating around the bush, myClub is a clear imitation of the Ea Ultimate Team, complete with a "random" dream team to build and microtransactions to deal with (active since yesterday, together with the first weekly Live Update, the myClub coin store, with the November 20 update: 100 coins = € 0,99). After a truly unclear tutorial, we enter the actual management of our club, which is mainly based on the hiring of increasingly better managers and coaches: through managers, therefore, we can access a sort of wheel of fortune from which to draw on individual players (each agent specializes in certain roles). The higher the quality of the intermediary, the higher the chances of scoring a good market hit.

Unfortunately, there is no auction house in which to buy the players we want (but you can borrow them in exchange for GP and coins), but even so the mode maintains a certain depth. Entering the mechanism, however, is not as simple as it seems at the beginning and the engagement of new players, through their management, is rather confusing. The main problem with myClub and the series itself, however, remains the online match. Starting a match these days has been anything but quick and many games have been plagued by downright annoying lag. In netcode Konami thus continues to be far from perfect and plagued by continuous maintenance. Not that the competition is, far from it, but at least in that case there is the partial justification of a definitely larger online player base. A shame, because the online divisions are really interesting and hard-fought, with an impressive variety of teams thanks to the scoring system that rewards victory based on the chosen team.

The top agents in myClub gave us a tear of nostalgia

Finally, it remains to deal with the "Become a myth" mode, also now a pillar of the brand: the creation of the player takes into account a whole series of factors, with good customization options (exaggerated, in a good way, that of celebrations: more than 100 right away). It starts from a young promise to become a top player, specializing the alter ego in a role or deciding to make it a joker suitable for any occasion (but watch out for limited skill points!). Added to this is the possibility of "exporting", so that we can join our team in the Master Championship.

NB Small service notice: if found problems redeeming the bonus D1 (on the official PSN forum many users complained about it), know that it is linked to the myClub mode and does not require download. It is sufficient to finish the tutorial to have the “rewards” credited through the myClub message box. Let us know in the comments if the problem persists.

Cunning as a fox…

While not without defects, on a technical level the Fox Engine shows good next-gen expression skills, with one almost perfect reproduction of the players covered by the Player ID, not only in their features but, above all, in their way of moving on the pitch (although in some cases more could have been done). Surprising is the total absence of aliasing at the edges of the players, as well as the speed of transition from one scene to another: unnecessary animations are banned, if we do not want to see a replay just press the "Options" button to skip it quickly. The audience then shows a good variety, while the commentary of the Caressa-Marchegiani duo still requires a lot of work: little variety, aseptic, makes us regret not a little the farewell of Pierluigi Pardo.

A few notes on physics, which on some occasions does not respond in a perfectly realistic way, with inconsistent clashes and some players who end up on the ground too easily. In general, however, also in this sector Kojima's engine does its job just fine. Too bad for some slowdowns during offline games which, while not affecting the experience, do lose some points in terms of fluidity. The audio sector in navigation is excellent, with a quality soundtrack (but the songs are a bit few).

Important limitation to report on the Ps4 version for longtime PlayStation fans: due to the inability to import images at the moment there is no provision for the creation of a complete Options File (FO) to "fix" non-fired teams and players. On PlayStation 3, however, some teams have already released FO v.1.

Final comment

Fish 2015 finally returns to the contention for the throne of the best football game of the year. Although it arrived a couple of months late, the Konami title made use of what it learned in Windsor to give the player a fun and satisfying product, with excellent depth of gameplay even in single player. Achilles' heel of the production remains an online still dancer and a myClub mode that is a bit immature today, which is unlikely, due to its structure, to become that money machine that today is the Fifa Ultimate Team (but what is it? don't care, we don't pocket them, ed). In the meantime, we hope for a step back from Sony to get back those file options that would be so beneficial to the title.

In the meantime, however, the King, after a generation of licking his wounds, is back in great shape and is ready to do battle. The usurper is warned!