Those who followed our wanderings in Turin last July already know it: PES 2020 had left us with mixed feelings, even if all the qualities hailed since the return of the series to the fore were still there. Blame it on a higher than usual pace, some mind-blowing spaces between the lines, and ultra-friable defenses. At the time, it was thought that it was the default 3-5-2 that caused the mess, a system requiring rigor in coverage and defensive repositioning. Now that we have the final version in our hands, we can say it: the game is back to basics with a compact team block. We then find the pleasures of the placed attack, that is to say this need to turn the leather in the hope of creating the famous shift, and thus bringing the danger in front of the opposing goal. Since we are talking about offensive actions – and we owe it to Iniesta – we notice that the ball carrier constantly has two or three solutions around him, the partners multiplying the calls both in the intervals and on the wings. Always in this concern to differentiate the players, the race of the teammates depends on the profile of the setter. Basically, with Payet, Pjanic or De Bruyne in charge, the calls will hurt more than with Florent Balmont. Ingenious on paper, this aspect of PES 2020 is however the door open to nasty abuse on the ground.
Season after season, PES continues its transformation started in 2013 with the FOX Engine; an era where FIFA could still look down on it as the rivalry was non-existent.
More concretely, against top teams where the guys have a sharp vision of the game, millimeter openings are often synonymous with punishment behind, clashes rarely turning to the advantage of defenders. There is always an unfavorable counter, a contact, a lousy rebound which puts the attacker in the direction of the goal. What to blow a lead. And to make matters worse, the rear guard hardly anticipates the movements of their vis-à-vis; understand by this that once they get eaten, it's over. The same against players who hit: we see from time to time a form of laxity in the marking, as if it were forbidden to cut the passing line. Afterwards, all that is so obvious that one wonders if it is not a desire of the developers to unleash the game, at least when one is not in full manual. The detractors of PES indeed reproach him for his nature a bit too scripted, his square side, his rails which end up standardizing the actions around the surface. It's true that compared to the champagne football advocated by FIFA, it must be funny to see a blackboard standing in front of you. It is undoubtedly for all these reasons that Konami requested the services of Andrés Iniesta, whose goal was to make PES 2020 more varied than its predecessors, but slightly less balanced as a result.
"THE MOST IMPORTANT ARE THE 3 POINTS""
Let's be clear, we have nothing against quick attacks after a high recovery of the ball. There, it's no use crying, it's just football. What is more annoying is to see his defense being split open when it seems, a priori, well in place. Seems like the Inspire only works one way, defenders can't feel the blows; yet it was the promise made by Konami. For the rest, we are fortunately entitled to everything that makes the salt of a PES, starting with the accuracy of the inertia which requires taking care of the controls. Moreover, the latter have gained in wealth, whether the player is stopped or in motion. Convenient for snapping feints, or embarking on a one-touch construction based on deflections and other discounts. And again, pressing being second nature in PES, it is better to apply the basics taught in football school, namely giving the ball to the partner facing the game. If the body is not balanced, the quality of the pass or the strike is felt immediately. In this regard, PES 2020 provides better readability in terms of finishing thanks to the Miss-Kicks system. The idea is that depending on the support, the player's technical background, the position of the body, the race, or even the opposing pressure, the shot will be different. We won't go so far as to say that the possibilities are now endless, but you really have to apply yourself to put on a twenty-five meter bezel or a very dry volley.
What's interesting about this mechanic is that bad timing doesn't necessarily kill the action. Indeed, a crushed shot can very well deceive the goalkeeper, just as a ball recovered in the area after a missed recovery is likely to lead to a goal opportunity, not to mention unfortunate counterattacks. Coupled with the ball physics that we prefer to that of FIFA (it's totally subjective, huh?), the Miss-Kicks give an unpredictable character that we particularly appreciate. The physical also has a say in PES 2020. We are not talking about Visible Fatigue (introduced last year) which prohibits putting yourself in the red, but duels where passing the shoulder in front of the opponent is the best way to earn leather. Behind, with good ball coverage, it is difficult for the opponent to recover it without taking the risk of making a mistake; and it's even more tricky against someone who masters Finesse Dribbling and his right stick in small perimeters in 1v1, or even 1v2. do wonders with stars that are larger than life. We are not going to list all the players that we recognize at first glance, we will just note the efforts made in terms of facial expressions. But most of the work concerns all these new animations (especially in duels and contacts) which make the game even more realistic; and it's not just about the terrain, since even the surroundings have been tweaked. When it all comes to life, it really looks great, especially with the great lighting and the new camera. In the end, two big flats remain: the comments with which we continue to have trouble, and the supporters who deserve better treatment.
The new camera? Immersive when you play quietly with friends, it may on the contrary annoy players who swear by competition.
The new camera? Immersive when you play quietly with friends, it may on the contrary annoy players who swear by competition. By mimicking the subtle angles and zooms of the TV, she upsets the landmarks and forces her to reclaim perspectives as well as distances. This unprecedented view is particularly penalizing when the action takes place on the opposite side of the field, and even more at the level of the corner post. In any case, the original camera is still available if you really can't get used to it. On the content side, Konami has managed to conclude / renew agreements with prestigious clubs such as Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Arsenal, FC Barcelona and Juventus Turin, which appears in the game completely excluded. A nice snub to FIFA in which the Wolf team will be called "Piemonte Calcio" for at least the next three years suddenly, knowing that the stadium (the Allianz Stadium) and the equipment will not be able to no longer be mentioned by Electronic Arts. Deals have also been signed with championships (Italian Serie A, for example) and national teams (Brazil, among others), to compensate for the absence of the Champions League and the Europa League. However, PES 2020 will be the subject of a free extension dedicated to Euro 2020, proof that communication with UEFA is not completely broken. And for the haters, we remind you that the PES community is so reactive that updates will take care of “cleaning” everything. End of debate.“WE TAKE THE MATCHES ONE AFTER THE OTHER”
While we were promised heavy for the Master League, the overhaul is not as deep as hoped. OK, the possibility of embodying a big name in football as a manager (Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit, Diego Maradona, Roberto Carlos, Bebeto, and Lothar Matthäus) inevitably tickles the nostalgic fiber, but hey... Even if the we feel that the developers wanted consistency in the transfers, but we wonder where they found their algorithm supposed to be based on real data. Indeed, since when Grégory Sertic weighs more than 7 million euros? Ditto for a young person who has been a starter for almost the entire season and who ends up champion with his club: only ten million? Konami is obviously not aware of the crazy prices on the market. And then, with such a badly done interface, it's misery to find your way around the numbers. Despite everything, we recognize that the negotiations are more tense than in the past, the leaders not hesitating to break them off if we are too greedy; and the threat can also come from the player who refuses to renegotiate his contract and, thus, leave for free. The less calculating can be reassured, different parameters allow you to define the frequency of transfers, the difficulty of negotiations, or even the starting budget.
As for the "dynamic" dialogues praised by the developers, it is still difficult to grasp their impact. During the two seasons spent at the head of OM, we did not have the impression that our answers were going to change anything in our career. It's rather gimmicky; to tell the truth, we were more receptive to the new videos punctuating the key moments of the season. Finally, given that the servers were down at the time of this writing (two updates were deployed today, the numbers will not be updated until September 12th), we did not have the opportunity to try the "Matchday" mode in which myClub teams can be used.
