PES 2009: Pro Evolution Soccer

The Good
When it was released, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 sowed doubts between their players and reviewers. What's more, on PC the game has many requirements to work, many requirements for a game that is just a shadow of what it used to be. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 has better graphics and less requirements, so, the game is optimized as it should.

Everything in the game is much better than in PES 2008. There aren't so many physics problems as we had before, goalkeepers are agile as well as the animations of the rest of the players, but we're still playing a game that is just a transition to something that never comes. Every year, the new PES looks more like a patch for the previous one than an entire new game. We have our teams updated and better graphics but not a new game.

The most important new feature in the game and the most enjoyable one is the new "Become a Legend" mode. For the first time in PES, we can create our football player, even import a pic of our face and use it in our player (and it works good), and start an entire football career. We're not talking about a few years like we can do in FIFA, we're talking about many years, you'll start playing with 17 years and you'll finish once you want to retire. During that time, you can also play with your national team.

In FIFA you can choose the team where you're going to play, PES 2009 is different. In this game you'll have many possibilities, but you will never choose the team where you're going to play, you'll have to be transferred from team to team, and from different leagues too. Something much more realistic than the FIFA strange system. The better you play, the better the teams that will want you in their squad.

The coaches have personality. Each team has different playing systems, and you'll need to adapt yourself to that system, playing in different positions. It's possible that you don't play many matches because the coach don't want you there, or maybe you're just a substitute for another player. When you're not playing the game works at double speed to avoid a long wait.

The other game mods are as funny as always, but they have nothing new. The game's still up to 4 players, with any combination that you think. Master League is still available (long live to Espimas!).

The game is easier than other PES games. The adaptation to PES 2009 needs less time and you won't play those typical matches with the 0-0 ending result.

Despite of the fact that PES is not on form, the best thing of the game is its spontaneity. Since the first PES, you'll never know what's going to happen, you can't predict the final result, and it's really difficult to see two similar goals. That's the main difference from FIFA games.

The Bad
PES 2009 improved the PES 2008 experience, but it's still worse than all of the previous games of the series.

Summarizing, PES 3 was the first big step of the series and the game that forced the players to pay attention to the series. People started to play PES 3 massively and FIFA trembled for the first time in years. PES 4 and PES 5 perfected PES 3 (with too much fouls but...) and PES 6 was the definitive soccer game for the past generation of games. The next step was PES 2008, a poor game for the new generation.

We can't talk about involution, it's just a new concept that needed to be a new game, but they made a mistake trying to adapt a game based on PS2 to the next generation. For the time being, it's still something like that, and it looks like they've reached their top in Pro Evolution Soccer 2010.

The AI is really far from the one seen in PES 6. It's easy to get past through the defenders with just one player (a really good player, of course). Defenders will usually abandon their positions, specially the wingers, and the goalkeepers make many mistakes that will cost you many points in your tournaments.

Master League mode is a bit neglected because of the new Become a Legend feature, which is a nice mode but it feels like it could have been much better. Anyway, it's a good start for that mode, with some minor mistakes but nothing important at all.

FX is good, with stadium effects and all the atmosphere of a football match, but the narration are the same as always and it's really boring. FIFA has better sound, there's no doubt on this matter. The narration needs a complete remodeling

The Bottom Line
PES 2009 is a good game, really much better than PES 2008, but still far from the previous games. The game has the most important thing, the spontaneity that FIFA never had. If you're looking for graphics, better sound and maybe more realistic simulation experience, FIFA's your game, but if what you want is to live the excitement of a football match, the unpredictable final score and the feeling that everything could happen, you will love this game as you did with the rest of the games of the series.