- Publisher: Konami
- Developer: Konami
- ESRB Rating: “E" for Everyone
- Genre: Soccer
- Pros: Plenty of modes; nice presentation; solid gameplay; offense is awesome
- Cons: Commentary; lack of licenses; defense is hard; trigger-happy ref
For the most part, the list of modes and features hasn't changed much. It still lags far behind FIFA in terms of licensed teams and players, but the wonderful Edit mode lets you create pretty much anything you want if you're willing to put in the effort. It does have the UEFA Champions League license, which features most of the teams casual U.S. fans recognize anyway.
Gameplay modes include quick match, training, Master League (still the best sports career / management mode in all of videogames for the last 10 years running or so ...), Become a Legend where you play as just one player through their career, various tournaments you can play through, and new this year the Club Boss mode. Club Boss makes you the chairman of a club and lets you do pretty much anything you want from setting a marketing budget to hiring coaches to tinkering with the player lineup.
Online play features quick matches, online Master League, a feature that lets you upload stats and scores to Facebook, and a nifty Community feature that lets you join up with up to 100 friends or like-minded fans so you can easily play each other and track each other's progress.
All of the modes contribute points that let you purchase special items like new sound effects from Konami games or new balls as well as a super difficulty level.
Gameplay
Konami
We also had issues with the A.I. in past games, and that has been fixed somewhat here. Defensive A.I. is still kind of bad, and you can dribble through defenders pretty easily. It is much better for your offensive teammates, however. They actually make good runs now and don't just stand around making you do all the work, which makes connecting on crosses into the box all the more satisfying. Keepers still give away far too many rebounds than they should instead of catching or falling onto the ball, but it leads to some crazy moments around the goal when you can get 3-4 shots off in rapid succession.
A couple other comments. The referees are still very trigger happy and call fouls if you sneeze at an attacker the wrong way. Too many fouls being called paired with some fairly worthless defensive play - Seriously, playing defense sucks. Nothing you do is effective - makes for some annoying moments where you lose the ball at midfield and have to pretty much wait for the attacker to waltz down to your penalty box (where they usually cough it up).
Graphics
Visually, Pro Evo 2012 is a nice looking game. Player models look good and stars are easily recognizable. The animation is also really smooth and mostly seamless and really looks great.
Konami
The sound is also pretty good with great menu music and fun crowd interaction. The commentary - a problem with most recent PES games - is still pretty poor, though. It lags behind the action and usually doesn't quite match the tempo or excitement level of what is actually happening on the field.
Bottom Line
In the end, Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 is the best PES game to come around in quite a while. Offensive play is spectacularly good, but is offset by defense that isn't nearly as satisfying. It is still very fun to play overall, and thanks to the wealth of modes - including the legendary Master League - there is plenty of fun stuff to do once you get used to some of the quirks of the gameplay. The game favors fast, aggressive, attacking play over being conservative, so don't expect many nil-nil draws. We liked it. A lot. We can't give it a full recommendation over the competition due to lack of licenses and features, but it is definitely the best Pro Evo has been for a few years and worth a look for soccer fans looking for something with a bit of a different feel.
