We are in 2015 and I enjoyed playing PES. This sentence is so crazy, I honestly did not expect to say it a few years ago. The 2011, 2012 and 2013 vintages were all convoluted and wobbly attempts to get back into the game, without ever succeeding. And yet each time, Konami progressed slightly, capturing a little more of what made FIFA so successful while retaining its identity. Until these 2015 and 2016 editions, clearly related (PES 2014 being the missing link), and finally successful enough to get back into the ring like a Stallone refreshed by the scalpel.
NICE, IF NOT PRETTY
And since we are talking about foundation and botox, let's first talk about the visual aspect of this PES 2016, still imperfect, but again in progress compared to its predecessor. There are still a handful of things that give the game a 1998 feel: the font used everywhere, some old-school menus (including the team organization menu, which is a bit obscure and poorly done). But the homepage holds up, as does the revamped Master League interface. There is still a little work on the general ergonomics, but overall we find ourselves there. On the ground, the FOX Engine stopped stammering: no more slowdowns, fucking hallelujah! It's fluid like any footy game should be on PS4. Still perhaps a little notch below FIFA because of the modeling clay side of the FOX Engine and a slightly visible aliasing, PES 2016 is nevertheless a hit on the creation of faces. It also offers a field that evolves pleasantly over the course of the match, without necessarily turning into the ultra-visual potato field of FIFA; and the stadiums, ultimately few in number and always poor relatives of football games, always give the impression of a more convincing crowd than in the competition. THE PLEASURE OF HANDLING LEATHER
However, it is clearly on the animation side that we find the major progress of this new PES 2016, the real engine of the title. Finely tuned inertia without being too constraining or too lax, movements finally in tune with the player's speed, position, support: this new opus is pleasant to take in hand, the players are pleasant to handle and it had not been the case for a very long time in the series. At the same time, we are finally being offered collision management worthy of the name, on each contact, and not randomly distributed over the whole game. pivots put their asses and arms behind to protect the ball Shaquille O'Neal style, even in the middle of the race, just to take care of the finish and not to be hindered by the return of a defender. Same thing for the aerial duels, which I had already appreciated last year, but which now let you maneuver more widely to place yourself when the ball falls. With this development, Konami has corrected one of the biggest flaws that its series has suffered in recent years.LAY THE GAME
However, the Japanese simulation has not let go of what made its quality, namely the pleasure felt in the construction of actions, the precision of the transmissions, the realism of the trajectories of the passes on the ground. PES 2016 even does better than its predecessor by correcting this impression of floating on crossbars and other aerial balls, and by giving the ball a trajectory worthy of the name even several meters from the ground. As usual, a football game is assessed by the way it is played. Personally, my short passing and doubling game with Arsenal just showcases what the developers intended. The combinations are even all the more lively and incisive as they benefit from calls from players other than the leading attackers. I will take my personal example once again: I chose to leave my right side voluntarily uncovered to allow Mesut Özil, much better axial playmaker, to express himself in his preferred zone and thus take advantage of calls ceaseless from the supersonic Hector Bellerin, right side of his state. And this is valid for all positions, to the extent of what you choose to adjust in the settings. Height of the block, offside line, behavior with and without the ball, choice of pressing: the tactical interface may be messy and ugly, but you have the choice of your approach. And PES 2016 to give you a glimpse of the enormous room for improvement that awaits you when mastering a game system that is truly different from the competition, much more elitist.It often happens that you have to turn for more than a minute in your own half of the field to finally open a breach. Pleasure.
The defense system is the most obvious proof of this fact. Whether it's against a human player or against an artificial intelligence, you really had to adapt, think differently from an EA player to get something out of your non-possession phases. It should also be noted that the AI of PES 2016 is really very good. Even if we will sometimes rail against a small handful of cheated players (as in all games for that matter), she strives more to take advantage of the spaces you leave rather than to keep the ball unnecessarily as can be the case in FIFA, to the point of nausea elsewhere. The pressing, which could be described as gegenpressing so intense, is terribly felt and it regularly happens that you have to turn for more than a minute in your own half of the field to finally open a breach. Pleasure. Faced with this, PES 2016 leaves you entirely responsible for the placement of your defenders, without assistance. And very often, boarding with one of your players just gives the opponent time to obliterate you. You will have to place your pawns, cut the passing lines, isolate the ball carrier, possibly adjust an individual marking on the key elements, to finally charge when he has no more solution. THE HEAVY
However, there remains what
A few small gameplay points that don't really make the game shine. Nothing dramatic, but maybe that will make the difference with the top of the line in terms of simulation. This is the case with the goalkeepers who, although they largely fulfill their role in most cases, still have a few minor problems in their outings and sometimes come out of parades that are a little weird when they could simply have taken the leather. On the other hand, he does not rely on them to save a close shot or a 1v1 situation. The fact is that they run in front of the attacker without stopping to close an angle: they are therefore almost useless in these cases, and saving parries are as rare as a forward pass from Jérémy Toulalan. Fortunately for them, the trajectories of the strikes are often of a surreal clarity. Kick, powerful, a small meter high: this is the typical strike of PES 2016. And apart from the curled strikes, difficult to try anything else... Even players with an average striking force find themselves sending prunes midway. Too bad when you know that PES was a forerunner in terms of varieties of strikes.LACK OF RISK TAKING?
On the content side, the results are already more mixed. The French comments are still hard to hear, even if the sound environment has improved (we advise you to switch to English or simply to leave the atmosphere of the stadium). The game modes have not been renewed for a few years already and the redesign of the Master League is not as crazy as the publisher let on, despite a notable attempt at modernization. The choice of teams is still crippled by the all-powerful marketing of FIFA, and we can only deplore the absence of a rising championship like the Bundesliga, or the fact that many selections display false names for their players. Konami is still trying to compensate by aligning South American teams for example, or certain Eastern European clubs playing the Europa League. But we must admit that we would have preferred to be able to play Dortmund... However, the small (big?) clarification comes from the game editor, which will now work as on PC: by downloading a simple image file, you can add the real logos and the real jerseys of the teams in the game. In a few weeks, you should be able to patch your game quietly with a simple USB key. Always good to take. Finally, we would like to be able to tell you about the evolution of myClub as well as online modes, but the servers were unfortunately not in working order at the time of our test...
