Just when you thought PES was getting old and stale, it gets a new name. That’s right, for a franchise that began as International Superstar Soccer, changed to Pro Evolution Soccer, and sporadically adopted and rejected the name of Winning Eleven, Konami has decided 2020 will mark the new era of eFootball PES 2020.
It sounds like it could be the name of a hacker-inspired football version of Space Jam, perhaps themed around Zinedine Zidane getting sucked into a computer world while budget Kraftwerk plays. Sadly, eFootball PES 2020 is not that film, but instead a perfectly fun football sim that hasn’t been altered as much as the name change would have you believe.
The new name is supposed to signal a new focus on online play, which has been a growing focus for PES Productions. To herald this new era, Matchday mode has been introduced, a slight twist on FIFA’s notoriously time-consuming Weekend League.
At the start of each week, a new Matchday will appear between two sides, whether it’s an upcoming derby match or an amalgamation of national teams. After choosing your side, every match you play earns points for your team. The side with the most points enters the weekly Grand Final with an advantage, which can manifest itself in different ways.
Once the Grand Final comes around, the best player from each side is then picked to take part, while all others can spectate the showdown live. You can tell Konami is really pushing for PES to become an eSport seeing as only professionals and children are likely to have enough time on their hands to take part in a Grand Final.
For PES 2020’s biggest addition, it really doesn’t affect the game all that much. While you get great myClub – the PES version of Ultimate Team – rewards for taking part, Matchday never feels particularly exciting or high-stakes. You’re better off investing your time in myClub if you want the rewards instead of plugging away at Matchday only to lose the Grand Final.
Other than that, PES 2020 has no major changes from the year before. There are, as always, gameplay tweaks wheeled out that are barely noticeable, but this series' gameplay has always been exquisite: goals are satisfying and hard-fought, matches can change in an instant, and tackling is weighty enough to make you wince. Refereeing does seem a tad harsh this year, but strikers are going to need a bit of help from the officials when trying to get past Big Virg.
For the most part, though, PES 2020 is just minor tweaks and fun details, which is no bad thing. The addition of Serie A and the Brazilian second league is not likely to convert any FIFA fanatics, especially considering most PES players just import kits and team badges en masse from the internet.
But it is notable to point out Konami’s lawyers have finally recognised they can’t be sued for copyright over place names. Goodbye East Sussex Blues vs South Norwood, hello Norwich Yellow-Greens vs Liverpool Reds. Newcomers might appreciate this compared to PES titles in previous years where names were a bit more obtuse.
Thankfully, despite the supposed focus on online play, manager mode Master League has received quite a bit of attention. Though they take a while to load, there are now a lot more cutscenes featuring your manager and club officials. Deciding your objectives at the start of the season, explaining a loss to the chairman, and dealing with the press are all nice touches, especially when Master League has felt a little neglected over the past few years.
The mode remains mostly unchanged apart from that, except for the fact you can now play as legendary managers Johan Cruyff and... Diego Maradona?! Then again, it is fun to see the Argentine strut up to cubic counterpart Xherdan Shaqiri in the Liverpool dressing room.
Both Be A Player and myClub modes remain, for all intents and purposes, unchanged this year. The latter does seem a little easier than before in terms of getting better players and being able to fit them all into your squad, but nothing else new comes to mind.
As you can probably tell, this year is a quiet one for PES. Perhaps the new eFootball moniker is an attempt to shield that. But when the gameplay is this fun and the formula for Master League so infatuating, what’s the point in making swathing changes? This is Pro Evolution Soccer, not Pro Revolution Soccer.
Conclusion
eFootball PES 2020 won't convince any FIFA fans over to Konami's side, but it will certainly appease those who are already enthralled with Master League and myClub. There really isn't too much to write home about this year, but when the gameplay is this enjoyable, there's hardly any reason to complain.
Related Products
Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
Comments 33
Super punning
The fact that there is zero mention of the best ball physics seen in a football game and is put down to a 'minor tweaks' mention makes this review ridiculous from the second I clicked on it... 9/10 for me without fail
The best way to look different on a footy pitch nowadays is to wear black boots and have no tattoos.
@Smugford12 it's almost like the reviewer hasn't got a clue why pes is such a fantastic football game.
Will stick to fifa
"There are, as always, gameplay tweaks wheeled out that are barely noticeable"
Barely noticeable for a lame reviewer perhaps.
I dont know what more can we expect for a football game when it comes to gameplay. It is as good as it can get,. Physics( both from player and ball) are amazing, scoring a goal never felt so satisfying.
The game is a 9 for me... the only thing pulling it back from the 10 is the commentators (which has not changed at all from previous versions) and lack of innovation for modes.
On the pitch is a perfect 10!
7 outta 10 hmmm.
As a eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer Mentalist I am very very sad for the future.......having read countless reviews opinions and other stuff.
https://twitter.com/officialpes
https://www.we-brothers.net/
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheTrueBrits/videos
The reason I am sad/worried is no one mentioned that the
Master League Default Players have been finally given callnames/commentrynames after a long absense and the reason it saddens me is because that is what Pro Evo was built on the days of Huylens Castolo Minanda Espimas Dodo Ruskin Valeny have gone were the reason we loved the game.
Because the Bhatti boy has gone radio rental (video producer) and asked people that twitter if any changes were needed in the Demo so the Fifa crew demanded the fowling system change now we have a completely different game from the Demo and the people that purchased the game becaused they really enjoyed the complexity of the Demo are up in arms and rightly so........Konami had the chance to bring out a brilliant game instead they pandered to the Fifa crew and the dumbing down to the rest of us.
I play PES & I play FIFA. PES is a vastly superior football game in literally every respect. Especially on the pitch, where it matters most. Fifa cannot match PES.
I played the demo and realized it's the same since 2018, the cutscenes, celebrations etc not to mention the forever horrendous menus. FIFA is pretty much the same but at least you still see a lot of subtle changes and there's Volta. Not that I expect drastic changes for these 2 football games in the way of gameplay, if it ain't broke... Overall to the average Joe FIFA always is the complete package. Konami need to get some real sponsors for licences. I don't even understand why they both can't have licences, it's silly.
@Dan_ozzzy189 Yep can't wait for a 'Fifa20 the best football game ever created' headline and they award it a 8.5/10... I don't understand how people think Fifa is a better game especially people that play football and still say it's better lol.. This game is fantastic
As always, great to see all five PES fans rallying against a 7/10 (which is a GOOD score on Push Square).
This "review" even with the one about A Plague Tale: Innocence.
Both are perfectly useless if you are looking for detailed information by someone who had the chance to play the full game for many hours.
@Number09 Sad and worried? You need to sort your priorities out buddy!
I've platted PES 18 and 19 and in no way is the on field action "perfect" its just better than Fifa which is bogged down in stat nerfed gameplay. Sometimes the players don't change and the AI especially on defence is weak at the possible worst times. Due to the negligible alterations I will give it a miss this time out.
One thing I will say is on My Club the rewards over the last 2 years are great and getting a decent club without spending an extra penny is highly likely. However this is purely a fluke on our behalf as I don't think Konami know what they are doing luckily.
I know it's cosmetic and has no impact on the game whatsoever, but damn I can't stand that new name
I like the demo but I am not sure I can justify paying for it at the moment with Shadowkeep only 2 weeks away
@ShogunRok 😂
Personally, I used to love PES, and yes, it did feel like it played a better game. Maybe it still does, but I haven't bought it in more than ten years.
These days, I've switched back to FIFA; after not having bought any football games for several years, I've bought 18 and 19, and will most likely pick up 20 in a couple of weeks. The matchplay has improved a lot, and - for me at least - is close enough to PES that the official licensing is the major deciding factor. The commentary is far better too, and the whole thing just feels more authentic.
And no, I have never once touched the Ultimate Team nonsense. They get nothing from me but the initial price of the game.
bit of a weak review honestly, the gameplay is being played down as great as usual as if its not really a big deal because its great and we knew it would be lol and it wouldn't surprise me to see fifa 20 get a higher score even if the gameplay doesn't reach the same quality as pes but you know... it has a nicer UI or more modes.... theres an imbalance of how important certain things are I feel when it comes to football games, same thing happened last year, 7 for pes 19 and 8 for fifa 19.
in the review for fifa 19 you said the ball feels a lot better and in previous games the physics wasn't so good ''feeling stunted'' and yet fifa 18 got 8 and fifa 17 got 8, fifa 16 got 8, fifa 15 got 8 and fifa 14 got a 9.... do you see a pattern here?
fifa makes minor improvements year on year, same ping pong football and manages to hold its score, pes 17 got a 9... makes yearly improvements refining the gameplay, arguably the best ball physics in a game about the ball and pes 20 gets a 7... it don't add up.
@kyleforrester87 i'll try Kyle
@ShogunRok Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.
@Number09 be sad about no Half Life 3 with me
So apart from right stick dribbling, miscued passes/shots, improved physics, better physicality, more varied AI, and an updated master league, what has PES 2020 ever done for us?
Game play on PES this year is well superior of past version and Fifa 2019 and is the biggest improvement this year.
You can score in hundreds of different way and the match is much more tactical than any Fifa can give you....
I found this review very lacking IMHO...
@kyleforrester87 More Gordon Freeman yes please.
@Mergatro1d kudos! Ahahhaha
@jinx20001 It has always been like this with Seabass and Co under rated i'm happy to be playing a Gem as the masses flock to the bright lights.
To be fair to Push Square they did give PES 2017 9/10 in my opinion the best so far on PS4 im still reviewing 2020
I haven't bought either of these for a few years so played both demos and frankly PES was a lot more fun to play and I felt much more in control of what was happening on the pitch. Also FIFA seemed to have really muted colours when playing and seemed a bit drab
@Number09 That thing about them changing the gameplay from the demo does indeed sound very annoying, I'll give you that.
This review is somehow weak, only 7? 8.5 or 9 at least for me
@ShogunRok nice to see those 5 fans point out poor game journalism. I'm not one of the 5 by the way but I know which game plays a better game of e-football and its not the most famous one.
@ShogunRok Well I guess that's at least five people that actually know something about football then eh. People who like FIFA have a passing interest in it, are 12 years old or are sheep guided by everyone else.
PES is far better on the pitch, where it actually matters. It deserves a higher score than a 7, regardless of whether you think that's a 'good' score or not. In that case, I would expect FIFA 20 to receive a 6 or below because it's not as good as PES. Guessing it won't be.
The servers are abysmal, same every single iteration.
To my way of thinking a football game should mean multiplayer.
You, can't play this online. It's a good game but a shambles online
I've seen several reviews saying that "with patches this would be amazing". Have there been decent patches for AI and Ref since release?
Tap here to load 33 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...