eFootball Review

I’m not one to write negative reviews, generally. I usually try to focus on the positive aspects of every game, which might be many, or not really, although, rule of thumb, every game does at least one thing right. eFootball 2022 is, by all means, a step backwards. I do understand that an engine switch is usually a big challenge and more often than not the first iteration is a disaster. Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 was an example of that: awful, impossible to enjoy, but it matured greatly over time and became my football franchise of choice. Is history repeating itself?

With the advent of the “new” generation, one of many, from the ever-evolving game and hardware development scene, the old and faithful Fox Engine wasn’t good enough and had to be replaced by something much newer and apparently visually pleasing: Epic’s Unreal Engine. It is completely possible to achieve great things with it, but whatever KONAMI came up with isn’t anywhere near greatness. If anything, the final outcome is what you would expect from a mobile game of sorts. Clunky gameplay mechanics, AI with short bursts of brilliance and long moments of complete vegetativeness, awful user interface and user experience. A tragedy from every angle.

PES 2021 was almost there. It was not specifically great and got outsold by FIFA, but with a couple GB of mods and patience, it could deliver an acceptable experience. eFootball, on the other hand, brought the franchise back to the nightmare-fueling late 2013. Coincidently, also a transitory period from console generations. Once again, another gamble, and yet another defeat.

Some of the problems need to be immediately addressed if they really want to stay relevant. For starters, the performance is awful. My RTX 2070 struggles to keep up with HIGH settings in full hd. Framerate is all over the place during cutscenes, and the vsync is wonky: locked at 30 fps during replays, yet unlocked during the entrance scene. All in all a very inconsistent experience. The gameplay itself needs a lot of work, too. It’s awful and nothing like how it used to be. It feels like an entirely new game and it’s not a good thing, because it’s even more distant from what one would expect of something that tries to emulate real world football.

Maybe that’s why they made it free to play. It’s not something you would want to pay for.

I’ll be updating the review when it gets patched. From now, it’s a big no. Either buy FIFA or stick with PES 2021.