Review – Pro Evolution Soccer 2012

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The very kind people over at Konami were nice enough to send us over a review copy of their new game, “Pro Evolution Soccer 2012″ for the Sony Playstation 3. Being the biggest sports fan on the team here at the GDP I guess you could say I lucked into the postion of reviewer. Since I’m more of a fan of American style football, basketball, hockey, golf and baseball than I am of the worlds most celebrated and participated in sport, “Football”, or “Soccer” as it’s referred to by the less than knowledgeable, this review will be from the eyes of a novice. The last football game I played was FIFA on my Sega Genesis. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the game, it’s just that with all the other sports I enjoy more mixed with the many other genre of games, there just hasn’t been the time needed in my life to devote to this great game.

After booting up PES and starting up your first match you will notice one thing is for sure, the game looks really good. From the player’s faces, to the lighting, to the textures on the grass, to the thousands of fans cheering you on – you really do get the feeling a lot of effort was put into making this game feel as close to actually being there as possible. Like I said earlier this is the first soccer game I’ve played in many years. That means I haven’t had a chance to sit down with EA’s FIFA 12 so I can’t really compare the two. From what I’ve read in other reviews and comparisons of the two games though, EA seems to do a bit better of a job in the overall graphics and animation department. This actually makes me want to give FIFA 12 a try because if it looks better then PES 2012 it must be a stunner.

This isn’t to say the game is perfect. PES does have a few issues when it comes to fluid animation. For the most part they do a great job, but there are times when it looks to stutter or “spasm” for lack of a better word. This can cause for a distinct lack of realism when trying to make that perfect lead pass or shooting top corner on a breakaway and take you out of the action for a brief moment.

Being a fan of realistic sports games in general one thing you need to get accustomed to is complex controls if you want to take full advantage of everything the game has to offer. PES 2012 is no different. It’s very important to familiarize yourself with all the gameplay controls if you want to pull off some of the best, highlight reel worthy goals the game has to offer. Thankfully Konami kept simple minded individuals such as myself in mind when developing this game. Instead of having to memorize the entire list of plays, you can actually map your favorites to simple “L1 + Right Stick” directions. This way you’ll be able to throw a ball fake on your next 2 on 1 without having to think twice. Combine this cool play mechanic with how fluid running and dribbling with the ball is, you might find yourself trying to be the next Wayne Rooney and taking the ball end to end when you should be passing.

Speaking of passing, this was kind of hit and miss for me. The way it works is there is a power meter under the player dribbling the ball. The longer you hold down the kick button, the more your power meter will fill up and the faster and farther the ball will travel. When this works, it’s works very well. The problem is, it doesn’t always work. There were a few times I would hold that pass button down until my meter was full and then let go, expecting to unleash a half a field long missile to one of my players streaking up the pitch, only to have him pass it 10 feet beside him to a closer teammate. This can be pretty maddening in a close game and you see the perfect play unfolding in your mind only to have it end up in a turn over.

One other part of the player control I really enjoyed was the use of the right stick on throw-ins, corner kicks and free kicks. This allows you to select the player you want to hit with the pass, then take control of that player, run and call for the ball. Having this much control with such simple commands is a small, but great thing that adds to the enjoyment of this game.

Going back to the look and feel of the game one more time, I have to say how impressed I was with the action replays and camera cuts throughout. It’s great seeing the game from different broadcast angles and camera views. It really gave the game a good sense of an actual TV broadcast. The one thing that really held the presentation back unfortunately, and maybe I’m spoiled because I’ve been playing a lot of NBA2K12 lately, are the announcers. Between the lack of excitement to the cut and paste style of dialogue, PES has a long way to go to catch up to the 2K Sports offering of dynamic commentary.

In closing, I would say I had good time with Pro Evolution Soccer 2012. I played it for more than a few hours and with the already small amount of gaming time I have at my disposal this says a lot. It says I did come back for more time after time and I did enjoy myself. I have no idea how this game compares in terms of quality to that of FIFA 12 so my review is strictly one of just “how much fun did I have”. I think that if you’re a soccer fan there is a lot of things here to keep you happy. From the “Master League” to the “Become a Legend” mode, to the “Club Boss” mode where you run the team as a money making machine and not actually playing the games, there is bound to be something in here to keep you happy and keep you playing.