As fall season approaches, gaming sports fans are like little kids at Christmas. That two month period between late August and late October are where almost all of the yearly franchise games drop (the outlier being MLB The Show). This year though is a bit different for Konami. In an effort to put as much time and resource into PES 2022 for next-gen consoles, the team have decided to just provide a ‘season update’ this year at a budget price.
It’s a rather unorthodox move and one that has the community split. On one hand, you only have to pay £25 this year – around £20 less than the regular RRP. The downside though is that you aren’t really getting as many meaningful updates. So the question is – does the eFootball PES 2021 Season Update do enough to justify your money? Well, let’s break it down.
It should also be noted that while PES 2021 is a season update it does not apply over the top of PES 2020. Instead, it is a separate game with the update applied, so should you ever want to roll back to last year’s game you can simply launch it from the PES 2020 tile. As this year’s iteration shares so much in common with last year, our eFootball PES 2020 review that was written 364 days ago can be found here.
GAMEPLAY
Despite being billed as just a data update, there have been changes made to the gameplay – albeit minor ones. Players feel a little more responsive in possession of the ball, which oftentimes allows you to manoeuvre into enough space to launch rapid counter-attacks or play your way out of trouble skillfully at the back.
The first touch also feels much better. When PES 2020 launched last year I was pretty happy with the gameplay, but then post launch they tinkered with it in an update and ever since I felt the game just didn’t flow well at all. While it may sound like a sidewards step, this almost feels like it has went back to the original gameplay of PES 2020 and tweaked it in a few positive ways.
Long passes still feel superb and once again more regularly are accompanied by that signature PES bend on the ball. Pass assist 1 is more intuitive this year with the large majority of my passes going to their intended target. I did try manual passing for a few matches and while I enjoyed the freedom it gave, I did find I was still giving the ball away far too much. I plan to stick at it though and see if I can master it.
GRAPHICS & PRESENTATION
As has been the case in previous years, this area is a bit of a hit and miss. In terms of players who have scanned faces – for the most part, they look outstanding. I love how Konami take the time to have scanned faces for promising youngsters at smaller teams and not just the Real Madrid’s and Liverpool’s of the world.
Another plus is that the fit of the kits has been revised. Last year they were like bin bags, but they have been reigned in at the bottom and now look much more natural. The same cannot be said for the grass, which still has a yellow tint to it – especially at night. I really hope this is something that we see fixed when PES makes the jump to next-gen in 2021 as it’s always one of the first things to be modded in the PC version.
As with previous iterations the game lacks many of the licences for big teams. For example, Arsenal and Manchester United are the only two Premier League teams in the game. The rest of the league is filled out with slightly altered names like Newcastle WB and Liverpool R, but as always on both PS4 and PC this can be fixed with an option file that will import all the correct kits and team names. Currently on Xbox this is still not an option.
GAME MODES
This remains the area of the game that needs upgraded the most. Master League is still fun, but is really starting to show it’s age with bizarre transfer fees and unrealistic negotiations. The team chemistry is still brilliant and when the team starts to gel you really do notice on the pitch. Be A Legend also remains untouched, but enjoyable. I was unable to test out My Club as the servers were not switched on pre-launch, but if there are any issues I will update the review in the coming days.
TROPHIES
Word for word this is the same list as PES 2020. It’s a good formula though, as it covers all modes with a sprinkling of misc match objectives. As long as you don’t mind spending some time with each mode it’s a very achievable platinum. I would estimate the difficulty at around 3/10 with 30+ hours of game time required.
VALUE
This is a tricky one. You are essentially paying £25 at launch for a data update. However, the gameplay is better and that counts for a lot. You will also receive all the data packs over the next year for free with more player faces, gameplay tweaks and maybe even some more Euro’s content before the tournament (hopefully) finally happens. If you are someone who plays a lot of PES I say go for it. If you only dip in from time to time though, I’m sure a sale won’t be too far off.
VERDICT
While this is as the name suggests just a season update, it does improve on PES 2020 where it matters most and that is on the pitch. Once you add a option file in and get the latest transfer updates applied it really is a good package and one that will be iterated on throughout the year. In terms of modes PES needs a serious overhaul, but while we wait for that in 12 months on PS5, this is a good stop-gap.
-VDZE ✌️
A review code for this product was kindly provided by the publisher. Reviewed on PS4 Pro. This post also contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.
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