PES 2016 Review

As you finally step onto the pitch and the whistle goes, PES 2016 once again shows off its unique gameplay experience. The franchise is finally starting to let go from requiring players to look at a huge controller manual, and becoming accessible even to newcomers. Many of the functions like passing, shooting, and tactical plays are easier to execute than ever, but that doesn’t mean the game is easy. On the whole, the game doesn’t play particularly differently from last year. There are some minor adjustments to passing and shooting, but for the most part it’s a familiar modern PES experience. The physicality of the tackles is highly satisfying, the ebb and flow of the midfield is key, and your strikers can pull off some impressive moves on the way to the goal. Player and Team ID systems make superstars and strategies highly recognizable and quite life-like. New controls when battling for aerial possession make it an actual contest for the ball. At times, PES 2016 comes very close and even surpasses its rival franchise in creating enticing, fun, and realistic gameplay.

But then there are those other times. The times when passes and first-touch moves feel too slow, resulting in crucial and frustrating giveaways if you choose to pass the ball out, instead of blindly booting it upfield. The games can be very high scoring, due to your defenders making poor decisions, and goalies being incredibly weak to any low shots. The stamina system remains seemingly broken, with your team gasping for air by the 70th minute, including players that you purposely never sprint with. The referees absolutely lost the plot this year, allowing tackles that look devastating (from behind, or on a breakaway), without so much as a foul. Some collisions between players can be awkward and result in a random chance of gaining possession. So, despite making some notable strides in quality, the gameplay still has a share of issues that bring the experience down overall.

Heading online, there is a new progression system in the online seasons mode, where you need a certain amount of arbitrary points to be promoted. The amount of points you earn depends on what team you choose to play as. Choose Manchester United, and you won't get as many points for the win as you would if using a lesser skilled team. It's an interesting concept that drives players to challenge themselves; but everyone still only uses the top teams anyway. It takes them more games to be promoted, but it seems the community would rather ensure some wins than risk multiple losses because they used a weak side. Other modes, such as Team Lobby, unranked options, tournaments, and MyClub games remain largely the same.

Unfortunately, many of the problems from last year continue to persist. It's not entirely the game's fault - but matchmaking in online versus modes takes upwards of 10 minutes (even longer in MyClub). And when you do find an opponent, it's usually someone outside of Canada/US. This means lag, disconnects, and a generally annoying experience. Sometimes the game can't find a fair opponent, even after 10 minutes, and matches you with someone with a vastly higher or lower skill rating. Once you realize this in the pre-match menus, there's no way to quit for some reason. You can only force-close the whole game. If you decide to go on and try your luck anyway, but change your mind after scoring or conceding a huge amount of goals before half time, there is no option to forfeit the match either. That's poor design.

Presentation has been of mixed quality since the switch to the new engine, and PES 2016 continues this trend. The visuals on the pitch can be very good - with a more realistic visual style than FIFA, PES has always looked more life-like. Players look close to their real life counterparts, and the authentic celebrations are a step above FIFA's random showboating. This year, you can also do a few manual celebrations as well.

Another big addition is dynamic weather, so the conditions can actually change during the match. The soundtrack got a nice update with a number of very catchy tracks, and the audio design in stadiums really helps the atmosphere with fans cheering and booing depending on what happens in a match. New physics effects will affect player and ball traction during rain, turf and water will get kicked up, and so on. Some changes have been made to the lighting, making the game look more realistic at night.

On the flipside, there are easily notable problems as well. A new man Peter Drury has joined Jim Beglin in the commentary booth, but the result is very lackluster. Most of the spoken lines are generic, and they feel highly repetitive after just a handful of matches. The two barely interact and sound like they could have recorded all their lines separately. There is also a huge delay sometimes between on-field events and the commentary that's supposed to follow. On the technical side, the game is still full of loading screens, and the constant forced replay after every goal should have been dropped years ago.

PES 2016 offers a number of improvements on the pitch, and in its main offline game modes, to make it an enticing outing for fans of the franchise. From the revamped and enticing Master League to the realistic visual style and various enhancements on the field of play, there is enough here to satisfy PES fans. However, despite these efforts, there are still problems that prevent the franchise from catching up to the competition in both quality and consumer exposure. The mixed quality presentation, problematic online play, and various gameplay annoyances keep this year's game from making the huge leaps in quality it so desperately wants to.