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While Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series has lagged behind EA Sports’ behemoth FIFA series in regards to club licensing and presentational aspects, it has regularly been the better game to play on the pitch. After taking the 2021 season off to focus on an engine change to better prepare for next-generation consoles alongside a full rebranding to the eFootball 2022 moniker, Konami released its new, now free-to-play football simulation at the end of September of this year.
Despite significant hype drummed up by the new engine and the title’s two-year development time, eFootball 2022’s recent release was met with considerable backlash from fans. Plagued by bugs, a simplification of controls, and a complete dearth of content among a multitude of other problems, eFootball 2022 found itself the worst reviewed game ever on the Steam platform. Despite being so flawed, its premise is one of great potential.
eFootball 2022 is a Modern, Ambitious Approach to a Sport Game
The concept of eFootball 2022 could be considered a sound one; rather than release an annualized sports game in the same vein as FIFA 22 or NBA 2K22 and charging a full $60 from players each year, eFootball 2022 is meant to be a rolling free-to-play platform that will see continuous updates over time. As yearly sports titles are generally criticized for a lack of meaningful changes year over year, Konami’s progressive approach for eFootball 2022 seemed like a reasonable, consumer-friendly solution inspired by the likes of other free-to-play titles like Fortnite and Rocket League.
eFootball 2022 looks to monetize itself through the use of buyable player packs similar to EA Sports’ massively popular Ultimate Team modes which earned EA over $1.5 billion in the last fiscal year. Gamers who do not wish to spend any money should be able to do so, although with buyable player packs fans may feel the need to pay to stay competitive. As always, careful balancing will be needed to keep the game feeling fair. The franchises’ well-received Master League mode is to be added at a later date as a paid-for DLC for players who are interested in single-player franchise-styled experience, allowing fans who want such a mode to pay for it while not forcing it upon those who do not.
Finally, eFootball 2022 is going to add full cross-play support for all devices in the future, including Android and iOS phones, with players able to use gamepads like the DualShock 4 on those devices to keep things competitive. Crossplay is always a great way for developers to keep a player base thriving, as a greater player pool gives fans more people to play with.
A New Engine Brings New Problems
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All of these ideas seem like a progressive plan to create a more consumer-friendly, forward-thinking soccer game, but Konami’s execution on these concepts has been shaky at best. The gameplay has actually taken some major regressions with eFootball 2022’s change to the Unreal Engine.
Past PES games were built on Konami’s Fox Engine, which was used in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, and despite the older games perhaps looking a bit dated, the Fox Engine PES games played fantastically. Now, passes are slow and flat, players float around as if on ice, and the whole game is incredibly buggy. Players’ arms get impossibly tangled up with each other, facial animations glitch out and create some rather odd-looking monstrosities, and referees seem to have some sort of aversion to calling any sort of foul. The series’ traditionally tight controls, weighty feel, and distinctive players and teams have been totally replaced by mushy controls, poor ball physics, and a lack of impact.
eFootball 2022 hardly has any content in its current state, either. There are currently only two game modes: a simple local single match mode and an online event-based mode. Inexplicably, the local mode only has nine clubs available for players to select even though the online equivalent has multitudes more. The game is clearly unfinished, and although Konami has released a roadmap regarding what content and updates players can expect to see in the coming months, the game’s listings on Steam and consoles sell the title as if it is a full, finished game, which is very much not the case.
What Can Konami Do to Save eFootball 2022?
While Konami has acknowledged eFootball 2022's poor state and apologized for the game's multitude of launch issues, the company still has a long way to go to earn back the goodwill of its understandably disappointed fans. The title is set to receive its first update on the 28th of October, although it is unknown what exactly this patch is going to fix.
eFootball 2022’s roadmap states that the game’s team-building mode, cross-platform play, and battle pass-styled match pass system is going to launch sometime this fall, hopefully somewhat addressing the title’s lack of content concerns. A follow-up winter update will then introduce mobile crossplay and controller support for phones, as well as esport tournaments. It is currently unknown when the franchise’s beloved master league mode will be added to the game, but being that it is not listed on the game’s roadmap, it is unlikely to be coming anytime soon.
Being that eFootball 2022 is poised to be a live-service game, it is certainly possible that Konami can turn the game around into a worthy successor of the PES franchise. The series’ last engine switch to the Fox Engine back in 2014 was also something of a buggy mess that regressed the franchise at the tim, but allowed it to flourish in follow-up releases. It’s feasible that in a year's time, the eFootball 2022 could be the soccer simulation that fans would like it to be. Still, after waiting two full years for what was supposed to be a revolution for the series, it is hard for players to not feel disappointed in the game’s current state.
eFootball 2022 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X. The mobile version is expected to launch sometime this winter.