Soccer, it's the sporting equivalent of the metric system, popular everywhere on Earth except here. It's ironic then that Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 and the english system of measurement both rely on the use of feet. While I'm no stranger to soccer games I admit I've not heard of Pro Evolution Soccer. That seems to be because it was called Winning Eleven, which I had heard of but not played.
OK, name change aside the Winning Eleven series is considered the most popular in the futbol realm. In the real world I don't follow soccer at all but I enjoy the game if for no other reason than the fact that it isn't an American sport. I appreciate the patience and strategy needed to wear down the defense and put your team in position to score a precious goal. The running clock is nice as well as it means there are no commercials.
Sports games seem to be split primarily into two camps, hyper-realistic simulations and arcade style funfests. My first impressions on PES 08 left me feeling a bit lost in the middle.
But don't listen to me, hit the Jump and make up your own mind.
When first booting up the game I was quite impressed by the fancy stylized intro and euro-pop theme music. Unfortunately, that was pretty much the last time I was impressed by anything. Soldiering on, I decided to start in a league and picked a middle of the road team. The menu screens are all very simple and straight forward, navigation iseasy and there is a snappy soundtrack.
There are many options available to customize your play style. Defensive sets, offensive sets, changing and optimizing set pieces for throw-ins and corner kicks, all can be tweaked with near limitless choice. However, here is where the breakdown occurs for me. Since I'm not an avid soccer nut nor a veteran Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution soccer player I was left to fend for myself on attempting to figure out just what my tinkering was really doing. Not to mention that I needed a magnifying glass to read the info on screen.
So, OK, I go with a 3-4-3 set and start the match. The game begins and my players are moving well. Passing is not going well though as all my attempts to pass to a teammate seem to be intercepted. In general, I found the controls difficult. I realize that a skilled person can do many things with a ball and two feet,however, I did not like having to press a trigger and a bumper while controlling my player with the thumbstick and pressing X or whatever specific combination was required simply to try an make a through-pass to a cutting teammate. I'm not interested in a bicycle kick, I just want to get passed mid-field.
To be fair, the basic controls will serve you well on the lowest skill levels. I was winning 8-0 and controlling the ball 60% of the time. However I'd been playing the game all of one day at that point and decided that held little appeal. When moving up even one skill level (there are 5) the defense becomes far more aggressive in marking you and the more complicated dribbling and passing maneuvers become necessary.
It's not that I don't appreciate the need for increased skill as the difficulty level increases, it's just that I shouldn't have to go from, in baseball for example, tee-ball straight to say, Division 1 College or a AAA Minor league. Essentially, the control scheme was not intuitive for me and I struggled mightily to get into this game because of this.
There is a tutorial in the game but I found it limited. Rather, the exhibition mode is more conducive to practicing strategies and maneuvers. However you will have to hope that certain situations occur as you cannot manufacture them as you can in the tutorial.
As career modes go PES 08 left something to be desired for me. Whereas most sport sims are going uber-realistic, Pro Evolution is a bit too stripped down for me. I couldn't simulate games to advance the season, and while you can trade and adjust your roster, the presentation never really made me forget that it was a game. The realism factor was low for me and I just didn't get any real buy in.
Remember that cool euro-pop music soundtrack? Well, unless you spend a lot of time on the menu screens you won't get to hear any of it. In game sounds are relegated to crowd noise and chants underneath the very mediocre commentating. If you like, you may play with French or Spanish commentators. Which would be cool if they used the "Goooooooooaaaaaaaal!!!" guy but they don't, so it isn't.
Soccer players love to celebrate, goals are hard to come by and so camera time is precious. When you do score a goal, Konami really wants you to watch the celebrations as you must press start (and only start) like 50 times in order to skip through it to get back to the game. Watching the players is ok if you like that sort of thing, they all look pretty good. Player models are actually pretty realistic considering I wouldn't be able to recognize any of them in real life.
During gameplay, players look fairly similar due to the wide angle used. I found it helpful to display names and fatigue levels. Each player behaves in accordance with their attributes so it was useful to know to whom I was passing the ball to. However, I never really learned much about the players beyond their most basic of qualities like speed, stamina and height.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is a serviceable game and a solid representation of the sport. There just wasn't enough here beyond the actual game to get me really involved in dominating the world stage. I disliked what I felt was a clunky control scheme and the difficulty levels are a bit too steep for novice players.
This very average presentation makes it hard to recommend this game as more than a rent. Wait a few months and pick up a used copy if you are a soccer fiend. As for a rating, does anyone know how to convert TAG scores to Metric? Oh well, I'll let someone else figure that out.
Final Score: 6/10
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