Pro Evolution Soccer 19 Review

Every year FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer fight for the title of best soccer game on the market. While FIFA has become the dominant player due to its officially licensed teams and populist approach to the sport, PES is usually the choice of connoisseurs. But does Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 keep up that trend?

Training

A great feature of PES 2019 is its detailed training mode. It ensures you can get to grips with the game relatively easily. Considering how different the game is to FIFA, even if many of those differences are subtle, it is a welcome addition. The trainer walks you through everything that the game has to offer.

It teaches you the basics and then delves into the more complex things you can do. For example, you can learn how to thread a perfect lobbed pass or send a defender the wrong way with a trick move. Learning all of this is satisfying. But using it in a match against opponents actually trying to beat you will put a smile on your face.

Passing

One of the areas where PES 2019 really stands out is in the way that it has moved away from allowing you to pass around opponents. This has been a problem for soccer games since the very early days of gaming. The majority of early titles suffer from matches being dominated by quick laser-accurate passes.

Thanks to a realistic first touch in PES 2019, controlling an incoming ball is difficult to master. Passing is given actual weight and the ball feels heavy. It forces you to genuinely try to understand where the space is. And it allows the defending player to intelligently press to take advantage of the new mechanic and snuff out attacks.

That is not to say that passing doesn’t feel crisp as the ball skims across the pitch. It is just that everything feels a bit slower and more deliberate. PES 2019 really wants you to think about everything you are doing, rather than just zipping the ball around hoping to find a chance to score. While it does produce a bit less action, it is genuinely thrilling when a thoughtful attack comes to fruition.