Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 Review (X360)

Another year, another great playing but poor everything else Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer release. We love the smooth and flowing gameplay, but are getting sick of the average graphics and lack of licenses. Come on Konami! EA’s FIFA series is catching up little by little every year, and unless you spend some money on licenses and giving the graphics an overhaul, soccer fans are going to start abandoning you. Pro Evo 08 is still a decent game, but it could have been so much more.

Features, Gameplay, Graphics & Sound

The biggest letdown with Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is that pretty much everything is the same as it was last year. The gameplay is extremely solid and is very intuitive and flows just about perfectly. The Master League mode is deep and extremely satisfying, although very time consuming. And the graphics and sound lag far behind FIFA in pretty much every area other than player animations. And, unfortunately, the licensing issues are still very much at the forefront, including the lack of real players on the US national team. This is pretty much the same exact game as last year with some slight tweaks.

For more in depth comments on the Gameplay, Features, and Presentation, check out my Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 Review. There really isn’t anything different here.

Bottom Line

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is a hard game to rate. On one hand, if it is your first time playing the series, it is easily the best soccer game you’ll have ever played. If you haven’t played Winning Eleven for a couple of years, Pro Evo 2008 is highly recommended for a purchase. It will be a fun and fresh experience and you won’t be bothered at all by paying to play the same game two years in a row. On the other hand, if you are a die-hard Winning Eleven/Pro Evo fan and already own last year’s game, there really isn’t any reason to pick up Pro Evo 2008. It is pretty much the same exact game with all of the exact same issues. It plays just fine, but we have been dealing with (and complaining about) the sub-par presentation and lack of official licenses for far too long. FIFA is rapidly catching up, and Konami needs to put some effort into really polishing this series or they are going to get left in the dust.

Final verdict: If you don’t own WE 2007, or you haven’t played a Winning Eleven game in a while, it is definitely worth at least a rental and likely a purchase. If you have played every WE game and own last year’s game, you can skip Pro Evo 2008. You aren’t going to miss anything.