Read about how we complete our reviews. You can check out the review process here, and then you can scope out the scoring guidelines and scoring rubric.

(Note: I based this impressions article on the PS3 version. There are reports of a stuttering issue on the Xbox 360 that made its way onto the final release, which unforuntaely I cannot verify personally.)

Offensive Gameplay

We were promised, after last year’s uber-static players, a revamped AI that would be a lot smarter in recognizing space and running into them. We got what we wanted. Make no mistake, this year’s AI — on the attack, anyway —is smart. 

After playing a number of matches, I am happy to report that the series’ greatest strength — the fluidity of the build up play — is very much alive and well. I’ve seen wingers and fullbacks work in tandem to free up the flanks, strikers dropping deep to try to pull a centerback out of position and poachers making diagonal runs off the shoulder of the last defender. You can build up some really breathtaking plays if you take advantage.

There was one sequence of play during my initial game that summed up the new and much improved AI movement: The CPU doubles up on my player because I was dribbling towards the byline with no help in sight. Out of the corner of my eye I spot my poacher positioned between defenders, waiting to break the offside trap. But I couldn’t hit him with a through ball because my player wasn’t facing the right direction, and there was no way a pass would get past my two markers. If this was PES 2011, I would’ve played the ball anyway and took my chances because there would’ve been no other option. But just as I contemplated that, my second striker drops back to offer me an outlet. I play the pass, which sucks one of the defenders away, and quickly return it to my original player, who is now facing only one marker and the right direction. To my amazement, on cue — and without me calling for it—the poacher takes off and I hit him with a perfect through ball. All this happened in less than ten seconds.

Wow.

The attackers’ movements in PES are smart and coordinated. Dribbling, too, is intuitive and is more reliant on change of pace than elaborated right stick combos -- provided you use the right players, that is, because there is a big difference between players who should run with the ball and those who should pass it off, and you'll know in a hurry. In practice, this means you can see your attack two to three moves before they develop, just like real playmakers do. It’s exciting, really, and it almost feels like “if you can think it, you can do it”. Counterattacking, especially, looks so close to lifelike because of the cleverness in which the AI reacts to the defense and the position of your ball carrier. All this adds up to more of the organic, “anything can happen” feeling that PES is so famous for.

Off the Ball Control

One of the new features in this year’s PES is the ability to control an off-the-ball-player, so if you want to position your attacker in a specific position for a corner or a free kick, you can. Or if you’re running with the ball and want a specific player to make a run, you can too. My initial fear was that, during set pieces, if I control an off-the-ball player, the cross will come to the spot where I initiated the kick as opposed to the area my player is running into. But in practice, the crosses coordinate with your player’s runs very well. I’ve been able to score a few flick-ons from the front post, beating my man just by a step.

Unfortunately, if you’re planning for more elaborate set pieces, it becomes harder as the CPU can somehow magically detect which player you control, and will stick a defender on your player no matter how sneaky you try to be. Case in point: I position two players at the top of the box, while the CPU only has a solitary defender to mark that general area. I try to drag the defender a few yards away by moving one of my players a few steps inside the box, and the defender goes with him. But when I switch back to the player at the top of the box, the CPU defender instantly zooms to him, before he has even taken a step. Again, nine out of ten times this won’t matter a whole lot, but if want to try for something spectacular on corners, you’re out of luck.

Defensive Gameplay 

On defense, the quality slips. While the offensive AI is brighter than a light bulb, the defense can be borderline stupid at times. 

To be fair, the defending is adequate for the majority of the game — in fact, standing tackles are much more difficult this year, especially against skilled dribblers, and requires more accurate timing than just holding down X. It’s just that there are few set situations that bring out the worst in the AI. The biggest problem is that AI defenders don’t deal well with crosses — the marking is way too loose on the onrushing forwards. This seems to happen only with AI controlled teammates, so your best bet is to make sure you switch control to one of your centerbacks and challenge for the ball. Also, sometimes your AI teammates can just totally switch off and fail to clear a ball that is trickling inside your own box, allowing the opposition attackers to pounce on it. This one, while seemingly more severe, is a much rarer instance. After playing fifteen games or so I’ve only seen it happen twice. But still, when it happens it’s a frustrating sight. 

Sloppy

There’s good, there’s bad, and then there’s downright sloppy. Every year for the past five years, one of my favorite things to do when firing up PES for the first time is to head straight to the Wigan or Sunderland squad and check the name of a certain combative midfielder. This year, the streak continues: Lee Cattermole is still spelled CATERMOLE in the squad list. Significant? Hardly. But it’s symptomatic. During free kicks, I have seen several instances of a CPU player magically teleporting into the defending wall from a few yards away. How did this get past QA? 

But perhaps the biggest manifestation of this sloppiness lies with the goalkeepers. Every year we hear that they’ve been fixed. Well guess what? They haven’t been, at least not to an acceptable level yet. I play recreation league football as a keeper myself, and every week I have teammates coming to me to tell me that their hearts skip a beat when the ball heads towards goal. Unfortunately, I get the same feeling when playing PES. Goalkeepers, no matter the quality, are still maddeningly inconsistent. One minute they can pull off a flying save, the next they can let a trickler dribble right underneath their flailing arms. In addition, they are still too eager to simply parry the ball, even on a slow looping header.

Tactics

Many teams outside of the top tier are saddled with some baffling default tactics. Roy Hodgson’s West Brom, for example, certainly does not play possession football (Liverpool fans can tell you all about it). What this means is that if you play a game with the default tactics, some teams will play nothing like they do in real life. After some tweaking, however, things get better. I changed West Brom’s tactics to all out defending, and breathed a sigh of relief when I see them with nine men behind the ball, and only commit few players forward when attacking. It's not really a big deal as this can be fixed with a little knowledge and time. Basically, if you want to feel as realistic as possible when playing in the Master League, start tweaking, as it might take a while. In game, the CPU management does a good job of recognizing match situations and making changes according to the score. The pressing gets noticeably more intense if a team is down, and they will park the bus if they are up.

What is slightly more disconcerting, however, is that even after tweaking Barcelona’s tactics, they are still way too quick in going forward and do not keep possession well, even on the higher difficulty levels. While I can’t say so definitively at this moment, but this appears to be something that affects every team, and not just certain tactical settings. Basically, teams — even when using the possession strategy — are just too eager in going forward, don’t back pass enough, and end up trying too many high risk, high reward through balls. Consequently the on field action feels too end to end, with too many counter attacks going both ways.

Final Thoughts

There may have been slightly more negatives than positives in this impressions article, but I must stress that all things are not created equal. Yes, PES 2012 still feels rough around the edges in certain areas, and possession takes a back seat to attacking during gameplay, resulting in too much end to end action. But ironically, it’s during these fast paced end to end encounters that we see the best parts of the game, and the sheer satisfaction of playing alongside the revamped, oh-so-much-better AI will cover for a lot of the shortcomings.