EVOLUTION for a PRO... (Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (PS2))

Member Name: Frog_cat

Product:	Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (PS2)
Date:	28/10/09 (69 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: GoOd GaMe!

Disadvantages: SeE ReViEw

::~ OVERVIEW ~::

The Pro Evolution 5 for the Playstation 2 is the yearly version of the long-running football game series, this version being released in 2006.

The game is essentially an arcade-style sports simulation game, in which you can control your favourite team or national side, or custom build your own side and compete in tournaments, leagues, Cup matches or the custom Master League. The game includes training levels and challenges to unlock bonus material and a "shop" where you can buy new stadiums, new players and challenge levels to add to your game.


::~ REVIEW ~::

You can't improve on perfection. That must be the thought at Konami when the time comes every year and another version of Pro Evo pops up on the engineering team's work schedule....but then can we blame them - if we buy it every year, it must be good?

Pro Evolution 5 is essentially the same game engine as Pro Evolution 4. Which was the same as Pro Evolution's 3, 2 and the original and all the way back to International Superstar Soccer on the Nintendo 64 and ISS on the Super Nintendo. What makes this years contribution any different or worthwhile is the small and incremental improvements that are made each year and will be surmised later in this humble review.

The controls are easy enough:

Press the X button to pass.
Press Square to shoot.
Press Triangle for a throw ball.
Press Circle to cross.

Press and hold the R1 button to run. As in every previous version since it began, hold a direction and watch the same fixed movement of your player haplessly bolting in a fixed run either in the direction you intended or towards impending doom....the same clunky animation as all previous versions.

From beginning to play the game, and assuming that you are new to the series, the as-mentioned animation and control will strike you from the start - how did this series rival the FIFA brand game? Comparisons have been drawn since the two games series' emerged in the early 1990's - if there's one thing to be said for FIFA, the game engine allows close control from the off, players can sprint and generally stop midway through, to turn or pass. FIFA also incorporated the most up-to-the-minute teams, if your team in real life had just bought a new star striker for example, you could generally bet that when you forked out your £29.99 that there he was, straight onto your PS2 with his new haircut. Pro Evolution avoided the brand names and trademarks with player names similar enough to guess who was who. So how does Pro Evolution compete, and in this gamer's opinion win over FIFA with every version?

One word: longevity.

It's been said before, and I can only agree - you can put on any other football game and pick it up and play within an hour - and you'll be reasonably impressed with what you've got - a fun kick-about football game... but that's all. Not so with Pro Evolution.

Detail is the order of the day in this game and it's far in advance of FIFA in this department - before and during games you can plan an attack - say for example your opponent has a particularly rotten right back that your winger keeps flying by - you can exploit this during a game by activating a pre-made strategy or formation by assigning strategies to one of the four buttons and pressing the L2 button - this can change your team dramatically and tactics such as drawing an opposing team and then going on the counter attack can instantly be achieved. I'd point out here that FIFA has began to adopt aspects of Pro Evolution such as player development and more involved strategy but it seems too little too late as Pro Evolution adds to the formula with each release.

Since early editions of the game there's been an added factor - namely player development.

This feature comes into play in the series' most rewarding game mode - the Master League. This allows you to either custom build your team from scratch (which can take a while to create) or to begin with the given first Master League team of muppets that the game grants you to begin with.

I have almost exclusively played the Pro Evo series on the Master League game mode and have found it to be massively rewarding and highly addictive. Players develop experience points after every match, if they play well they are rated well and develop more. With this their attributes can grow as they play well or regularly or decline as they age. There's a development circle involved though as retired players will re-emerge as youngsters and there's a certain joy in searching new players and training them up to be star strikers - the transfer negotiation periods occur twice during a season and at the end of season there's a team training facility (new to the series) or you can automatically train individuals and pick the attribute you wish to increase (thankfully this is now done automatically, in previous versions one had to manually train the player by dribbling around cones etc) Very welcome incremental additions to this game mode here.

::~ Overall ~::

If you own Pro Evolution 4, you don't need Pro Evolution 5 - the slightly updated game modes and barely noticeably smoother player animation isn't worthy of buying - if you really love the series as much as I do then you'll check out each edition - but be warned you'll find little significant difference between one year and the next, best to leave it until you spot the next edition on Ebay or a car boot sale - any of the series will give you a good years worth of involved play though - enjoy!!

Summary: A rEvIeW oF pLaYsTaTiOn 2 GaMe...!