
These are all too infrequent, though, and feel more like anomalies than intentional greatness. Once in a blue moon, a moment of magic will emerge to remind you of the joys past Konami football games have brought, whether this be a precise through ball around the corner to set an attacker free, or a player satisfyingly letting the ball roll between their legs to not break stride when receiving a pass. It’s all just so slow everything from pacey wingers running like they’re wearing ten-tonne boots to attempted whipped crosses floating listlessly in the air towards grateful goalkeepers. What should be zippy short passing moves, in reality, become long, drawn-out affairs. Matches often descend into wars of attrition in which unresponsive players fail to pick the ball up if it’s outside their six-inch radius. While not feeling a million miles away from the PES of old, it’s also nowhere near the peak of its powers. Some of this could be forgiven if the on-pitch action was regularly engaging and fundamentally fun to play. Online servers have been an issue as well, with one in-game notification informing me that known issues currently include both matchmaking not being able to find opponents and matches “failing to conclude properly.” So even if you could start, you may not be able to finish? It sounds a little like a metaphor for eFootball as a whole right now. It’s yet another baffling decision that, no matter how deep my love for the unlicensed ‘Tottenham WB’ runs, had me yearning for any semblance of variety. There’s a catch, though: although there’s a huge number of options available online you won’t have room to experiment with them due to your first team being locked in for the whole 10-day event once you’ve picked them.
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One major difference between the online and offline modes is that over 200 teams are available to pick from when online, making it even more confusing as to why the selection is so limited in offline friendlies. It’s currently completely unclear what this in-game currency will actually be used for, though, with no way to spend it as of now. During this 10-day-long celebration of everything mundane, you must win one game out of three to progress to stage two stage two consists of winning two games out of three in order to win a prize of 10,000 GP. With no way to play against friends currently offered, the only way to matchmake is through the Challenge Event mode – which sounds a lot more exciting than it is. Naturally, I’ve found myself spending more time with the online mode as a result. Have these just not been programmed yet? It’s odd, to say the least, but becomes truly frustrating once you find yourself comfortably being able to beat the regular, only for your only other option now being having your ass handed to you by eFootball’s hardest difficulty setting. Also, bafflingly, only the regular and superstar AI difficulties are available currently, with all four of the other options greyed out and unselectable. This is a good place to get to grips with eFootball’s gameplay but very quickly loses its appeal due to the limited number of clubs on offer and the minimal stakes attached to each match. The former is your standard exhibition match, allowing you to play as nine different teams from Europe and South America. Sadly, what lies inside these menus is a lot less exciting.ĮFootball has launched with two main modes, one offline and one online. In comes a splash of colour and an ever so slightly more modern feel to proceedings. Gone are the dated menu screens that Konami had been hanging onto like the ‘70s wallpaper your grandma refused to get replaced for all those years. Things start promisingly when booting up eFootball for the first time. All we can do is hope Konami cleans up its mess with the big updates it’s promising. Launching as essentially a demo with very limited modes, stuttering gameplay, laughable crowd models, and more than a few bugs and glitches, it’s very hard to recommend eFootball in its current form. Instead, it’s hard to think of a rockier start to life it could have had. Shifting to the more modern Unreal Engine 4 and ditching annual full-priced games for a free-to-play model with promises of sizeable content additions and a “pay for what you want” structure felt like steps in the right direction, moving away from the frustrations that come with annualised sports games.
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EFootball – Konami’s rebrand of the long-running Pro Evolution Soccer series – could have signaled a bright new beginning for football games.
