Same game for past 3 years. Nothing changed.
Graphics: 9/10
Pretty awesome as usual. Very nice smooth motions for the most part.Good
Presentation and Content: 6/10
Menus are beautiful and the functions make sense for the most part :)
Although there are some cool unlockables like balls, classic teams (with fake players), hair styles, stadium parts
I'm still very surprised that they included trash like soundtrack from old Konami games or design for the stadium. This is suppose to be a hardcore soccer game not some high school girl fantasy flower basket..
Also almost all the best faces, kits, boots, balls, stadiums come from modding community while people who are getting paid for this put out the same half baked product for the 3rd year.
The licensing that has been plaguing the franchise from the start is still an issue so get ready to download some mods to fix all the fake teams and players.
Commentaries are ridiculous: very limited options, fewer callnames, no flow in commentary, 0 emotions from announcers. Simply very bad.
Game modes: 6/10 (nothing new)
Nothing new. except for club boss which is a strange take on FIFA Manager series. Overall kind of pointless adding to interactive soccer game.
Be A Legend has nothing new. The rewards like higher salary or colecting trophies has absolutely no point. I much more prefer the 2k or even EA sports reward system where player can use the achievements to unlock different kind of equipment (even sound tracks would do). I know there are GP that you get for simply playing but it would be nice if they have included some kind of reward system for getting better in BAL mode or master league. Otherewise id doesn't make any difference whether you are getting paid 50,000 or 5,000,000 a year.
Master League. Pretty fun as usual but all the same as it always has been. It would be nice to see a bit more control and importance of finances. Once again refering to EA franchise NFL: you could build a new stadium, upgrade the existing stadium, invest into fanbase support, give a special offer to boost ticket sales (which mattered and reflected your team's performance), sign contracts with broadcasting companies e.t.c. In other words performing well on the pitch mattered, attendance depended on it and so did your funds and therefore the quality of the players you hired and their happiness.
Training is lame as it has always been. The shot training does not give you any skill but rather relies completely on luck. The Main manu training does explain some of the new tactics and play options but I wish they really focused a bit more on teaching the player different tricks and shooting techniques.
Gameplay and AI: 4/10
Simply pathetic. Let's start with shooting. Apparently simple shoot button just makes the ball fly into the stand no matter what the players shoot accuracy is. Another option is curved shot with R2 which slows the ball down to turtle pace and you have to press it after the gauge is up but before the player kicks the ball, but make sure he is in the right position and is ready with the kicking foot and the kicking animation is at the correct point... yeah right good luck! A complete flop on dev team's part, not user friendly and does not even explain all the game physics in training. If feels more like an old rerun of Mortal combat were you had to remember just the right 10 button combination and press is in the exact moment and you were garantied a win. Very lame!
Motions are good and tricks look awesome but they are completely pointless since AI immediately reacts and counters any dribbling animation on all the difficulty settings above regular. This makes the tricks useless once again. Thanks SeabASS. But even if you got lucky and the trick worked so you got in front of the defender don't celebrate yet the "brilliant" AI cheating system makes any defender no matter how slow he is faster then Messi and Ronaldo combined. Because that makes it more "realistic"...
The AI of NPC is not bad but not good either. Players stop half a foot short of the ball and just stand there until the player from opposing team gets it, dribble off the field, ignore "give me the ball" calls from the Player, run into each other with the ball e.t.c.
Another "awesome" function is AI player control. If you are within 3-5 feet of the ball you will loose control of you player and will be forced to go through animation system no matter what you do with your controls. Example: if there is a corner and you want to stand on the outside of the box poaching for the ball - tough luck, cause unless you are almost on your half of the field you player will definitely run towards the ball even if your joystick jammed all the way into the opposite direction.
Overall: 6/10
Impossible to play without patching from modding community which means the initial product is under par. Regardless of all the glaring problems this game is still better then FIFA but my advice to KONAMI is to fire SeabASS and get some new blood cause that has-been will drive the franchise into the ground with his "vision" or rather lack of it.