ISS Realm - Pro Evolution Soccer Review

The International Superstar Soccer
Realm

Website Reviews - Pro Evolution Soccer
(PlayStation 2 - December 2001)

I dunno where to start about the differences of PES and previous games, but here i go....

When i first read the reviews, they all said it hasnt changed much gameplay wise...i think thats quite wrong...when i turned it on i was expecting to win all the time as im quite good in iss pro evo, but that wasnt the case.....i played a match with level 3 difficulty and got slaughtered!! Its become EXTREMLY HARD....the GKs are very good and the defences are good as well. Shooting is not as easy as before and dribbling has changed. Referees are much more sensitive too...

Dribbling has now been changed a lot...you can run at different speeds too, you can run slow,normal, medium ar turbo. Dribbling is best at medium speed.

The one-two has become difficult and useless, now you have to press L1+X and then before the ball reaches your other player you gotta press TRIANGLE for the guy to send it back....same goes for the L1+TRIANGLE lob...absolutely usless.

After playing two exhibition matches, i decided that before i start playin i have to learn new skills, so i started training. My way of training is quite good and its also the way i became so good at iss ev, I play exhibition matches at the highest or second highest difficulty for weeks untill i get good....playing on level 4 difficulty, i see that its very hard to get in front of goal and you only get a few chances here and then, if you wanna win, you have to capitalize on EVERY single chance.

Even tough the game has become harder...it is so challenging and rewarding that i find myself playing for 6 continuos hours!!Nuthin beats the feelin you get after making a good run, dribbling a few defenders, taking a spectacular shot just from outside the penalty area, watching the keeper dive, and then see the ball hit the back of the net, full force!!!

Gameplay is where the Konami games have always excelled and they continue to do so. The gameplay is basically the same system with a few changes. The passes and through balls are more accurate, the one-two's are more difficult to execute and less accurate, the L1+ TRIANGLE lob is also obsolete. The player has the option of running at different speeds and has more dribbling options. You can run at nomal speed, turbo, very slow (good ball control) and medium speed. You can use these speeds to dribble players and so on. Free kicks are harder than ever before and the shooting system has changed as well. All these changes mean that even the ISSPE veteran will have to take time and learn the new system. Overall the gameplay has become much harder than before and scoring a goal is more difficult, but once you score that perfect goal, the feeling of satisfaction is unbeatable. The controls are also great.

I just read your review for ISS pro evo and mentioned that you didnt have the game (PES). Well my friend has just got a PS2 with ISSPES and let me tell you...... Its not up to scratch.

It starts off well with a marvilous FMV that really gets you into the mood. then it goes to the menu which resembles ISS 98 on the N64 which I am a fan of to say the least. But missing from the menu is senarios which is a blow.

When you start a game While it is loading it pans around the stadium which contains the almost exact crowd from the snes version. The thing that struck me most is the framerate. Its is very smooth im thinking like 120 fp/s. I was playing ISS 98 on one TV and this on the other after playing pro ev and looking at ISS 98 the picture seemed to be jumping there was that much difference. A nice addition is players coming out of the tunnel, sinnging there national anthem complete with moving mouths, and then posing for photos. Very nice.

The Gameplay is where the game is not what we excpect from the Iss series. It is virtualy imposible to take people on and there is no tap run "jink" feature. When running shooting is so far from instent it is allmost laughable it is very hard to shoot in a crowded area because it waits and waits and waits.

Passing is very very sloppy even with teams like brazil the passes with X someimes dont go anywhere near the player which is stuipid.

There is no way of telling where you are going to pass the ball no arrow or highliting players on the radar nothing.

The threw ball is very unpenatrive and it allmost allways plays you to the flanks when you want it to be threw the middle, why?

The main improvement that I was very impressed with is the ball physics, they are as perfect as a game will get them.

Apart from that this game seems to have taken a step backwards in gameplay in order to take two steps forward in graphics. If ISS Delux had these graphic and ball mechanics then it would be the greatest ever.

As Winning Eleven 5 hasn’t strayed too far away from our office PS2 since it was released five months ago, we were awaiting the PAL code like a ravenous tiger awaits its prey – foaming at the mouth and, frankly, gagging for it. Hell, even English names with everything else unchanged from the Japanese code would have been enough but no, Konami made us wait for all these months, starving for our footie fix. There had better be a bloody good reason for that!

Sure enough, upon loading Pro Evolution Soccer for the first time, a wealth of stunning new enhancements come to light that instantly solidify this as the most fantastic football game ever. All is forgiven. The options on offer may be almost identical to last year’s PSone epic, ISS Pro Evolution 2 – boasting identical cup and league competitions – but the upgrade in processing power means that the presentation has been enhanced to such a degree that the only way you can tell you aren’t really watching England is the fact that you can actually string two passes together in this game. With more frames of animation and a whole host of new tricks to master, these players are more lifelike than ever, so much so that you can even piss your pants laughing when Andy Cole comically swipes at thin air, missing the ball completely. Yes, even stinking rich professionals make heinous mistakes, and this game doesn’t portray them otherwise.

The most significant new addition to the control system is that there are two extra sprinting moves. To compensate for the straight forward dash that has been the sole means of injecting pace into matches in previous games, there is a new move which actually allows you to turn, cut inside and size up a shot all in one breathtaking move. The addition of this move means that you can at last make devastating solo runs and create chances out of nothing. The other sprint variant is when you actually slow down to a snail’s pace and tentatively nudge the ball forward. This seemingly serves no real purpose, but if you combine it with the other sprint moves then you can bomb down the wing, slow to a grind and draw the defenders out, often causing them to commit to a rash challenge before speeding up again and darting into the area. Another useful move is the jump. By pressing R3 at the exact moment a defender comes lunging in, you’ll merrily skip over the danger and break for goal. Getting the timing right is hard, but if you pull one off, much to the delight of the crowd, it beats any between the sheets shenanigans hands down!

Elsewhere, the one-two passing move has been unnecessarily complicated – possibly because it was just too damn effective in previous games and the feint and shimmy moves actually work now.

Knowing that all eyes would be on this game after Konami’s previous PS2 football outing took the ISS name in vein and delivered a game which was a far cry from the sexy football we have grown dependant on, KCET has gone to great lengths to address all of the past problems. Take the AI of your players. Many argued before that they just didn’t react quickly enough to tackles and lucky deflections, but now each player is ranked out of 100 in 20 different attributes – reaction being one of them. This means that every player is much more individual and utilising them in their best positions is essential for getting anything out of the games, for the results tend to be much closer now.

In terms of gameplay, nothing comes close to recreating every essence of football as this game. It’s perfect. Everything that’s in the game is, well, in the game. Stringing together a flurry of passes that culminates in a bulging sack is sheer unbridled bliss and you can experience every wave of emotion going as you battle to break down the opposition’s back line before whacking one in… only to have it ruled out for offside.

Only the commentary and restricted FIFpro licence, which means only European players have the correct names, tarnish the overall splendour. But this matters not, because KCET has produced a football game which defies belief. Choose FIFA over this and you deserve to be shot!

Thanks to TotalGames.net and their affiliated magazines (Cube, XBM & Play) for the review.