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After 2 years of development, eFootball 2022 is an absolute disgrace

posted 3 years ago by sati_84 (467)
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PROs

- The presentation (pre-match cutscenes, etc.) is passable. I mean it looks like PES2016 with a higher res textures mod, but it's overall not bad, so I listed this as a PRO.

- The foundation of the gameplay is good. I mean the idea of player movement is that you cannot turn on a dime, and you always need to take into account where your player is headed at the moment, and if you want to do a 180 or a 90, your won't be able to do it quickly - this is fundamentally a good idea, it has potential. Currently it's not implemented right (see the CONs section).

- The ball and the player seem to be separately handled by the physics engine. So while dribbling, you can accidentally lose the ball, which is a PRO because the skill gap is bigger (you need to learn to dribble right).

- There seem to be some new animations and the game overall feels a bit less "on rails" than previous PES games. Many times there are free balls, you actually need to run for to take into possession. Overall the game feels more manual (but it isn't, see the CONs).

- There were some moments of fun while playing the game, sometmes things just work, you can string a few passes together in a decent fashion and maybe finish your attack with a shot, and it feels good. Rare, but it happens.

CONs

- Your players feel like sacks of potatoes (on and off the ball, just the same). Oh, boy... the gameplay in its current state needs much work. As I mentioned, the foundation is good, but they really, really overdid the "sack of potatoes" feel of the players. I mean nevermind the 180 and 90 degree turns, you can't even turn 20 degrees quickly! I am very very far from even a decent Sunday League guy, but even I am more agile than the likes of Messi, Mbappe, Lewa or Müller in this game!

It's like the guys at Konami don't watch football - the mentioned gentlemen are able to change directions really quick, they know how to shift their weight and use inertia to their advantage. In defense, good luck tracking someone's run as a defender when you are facing exactly the opposite direction, and the attacker comes at you with a speed advantage. By the time you turn, your defender is basically beaten, and the attacker can waltz into your box and let a shot fly basically unconested. I mean this applies if you are caught even slightly out of position as a defender, whereas in previous games (and in FIFA) you still had a chance to run back, catch up and tackle.

When you attack, while dribbling, you cannot change directions quickly, and I tried to perform a few skill moves but the RS doesn't seem to do anything at this point. So you are stuck with the basic dribble, which is as I mentioned fundamentally a good idea, but compared to IRL soccer, it's ridiculous to see these world class players struggling to quickly turn 20-30 degrees with the ball to beat a defender.

The way it looks now, you simply can't get past a defender (who is in position) using your speed advantage, with quick dribbling or body feint, etc. You need to slow down, pick a new direction and start a new run - but this takes 18 years to perform for you and another 18 for the defender to try to track what you are doing, which makes the gameplay look as if teams of 70+ year olds are playing, it looks nothing like an actual highest level football match with the current best world class players. I know this is meant to be a "simulation" as opposed to "arcade", but in that case, just fucking simulate the way Messi, Lewa, etc. are actually moving, I ain't having this Senior Sunday League bullshit. Of course until this is fixed, the solution is to pass the ball around, so you don't have to beat a defender one on one, but... see one of the next CON points.

- Shooting is not fun. I had this issue in previous PES games as well - for me the ball physics in PES were always too "floaty", the ball felt lighter than normal. Here, this is somehow even worse, even with manual shooting.

- Passing is not fun. 90% of the times I pressed the pass (or through pass) button charging the power somewhere between 50% and 75%, the passes were still performed extremely weakly. It seems the power bar should be filled to the max if you want to pass even to a player located 5-6 meters away from you. This needs to be fixed ASAP. Crossing and lobbed pass is... decent, but that's not saying much at this point.

[–] sati_84 (467) 3 years ago

Continued here due to character limit

- The absolute lack of content. I don't care that it's a free game, there are good free games with lots to do. 9 teams??? No tournaments, season or any other gamemodes other than single match??? WHAT THE FUCK! The original ISS on the SNES in 1995 had more teams and more gamemodes than this atrocious piece of s... software. Literally if Konami asked anyone who played a football game for more than 2 minutes in their life to list what gamemodes should be available even in a demo-like, stripped down version of a free football game coming out this day and age, at least an offline season mode and an offline tournament mode would be mentioned. With 9 teams, there would be not much variety in them, but only including single match is beyond ridiculous. This might be the most painful point of them all, the most valid criticism and the primary reason why this product is currently in shambles.

- There is nothing next-gen about this. And last but not least: the 2 years of development. The promise of this game being truly next-gen, on a new engine. And what we got, I would praise if we were at the end of the PS3 era (around 2011-12). Graphically it's at least 7-8 years behind other current games, which is just un-fucking-forgivable!

Konami was either lying from the get-go, only trying to create a viable business model (hence their primary focus on the mobile platform) or about halfway through development they realized they bit off more than they can chew and what we are witnessing now is a panic move. The cynic in me thinks profit was always the primary motivator of Konami, but if there is even a faint chance for the second scenario, that means they at least intend to polish the gameplay further and provide a decent experience for us. Either way, the decision to have cross play with mobile users is beyond baffling.