Last year around this time we were all wowed by the PES 2018 beta, which ultimately turned out to be quite different from the demo and full release. Passes, whether they be on the ground or in the air, are more diverse in terms of spin while not rolling along the pitch like a bowling ball on ice — an issue that plagued recent PES games. Shot Error — Far too accurate shooting has plagued PES for the past few iterations. Dribbling — Dribbling last year in the beta felt amazing. Players like Mbappe and Griezmann were as lethal as they are in real life with the ability to change directions, wrong-footing defenders along the way. Unfortunately when the full game dropped, nearly everyone could dribble the length of the pitch slaloming through defenders on their way to goal. Clunky center backs get caught in possession if you dwell on it too long, while swift wingers feel dangerous in 1-on-1 situations. Try using Monaco and getting on the ball with Gilk to see how he turns like a 16 wheeler. Olivier Giroud, renown for his hold-up play, feels like a proper target man while players like Messi are quick with their low center of gravity, which makes them a joy to play with. PES has implemented momentum and inertia better than FIFA, and this year it just feels right. As teams chase a result, you will notice that they ratchet up the aggression and start more ferociously closing down. Demo clubs like Sao Paolo and Liverpool will press you, albeit in different ways. AI Aggression — Going hand-in-hand with fouls, AI aggression is much more evident this year, especially around the box. PES 2018, even on the higher difficulty levels, suffered from passive AI, often letting you walk into the box and get off a shot. But now defenders will step up to block off shooting and passing lanes while putting in sensible challenges. AI Back Heels — Back heel be gone! Pinch me if this sounds familiar: You have the CPU pinned in their own half. They play a ball from the center back to their central midfielder who perfectly back heels it twenty-five yards on a dime to their striker who holds it up and back heels it out wide for an onrushing winger. Passing — Poorly implemented passing has plagued PES for years. From balls smoothly rolling across the pitch to laser precision by both the human and AI, passing has been improved thus far for PES 2019. On Pass Assistance 1 PA2 , I have misplaced several passes and even sent a few cross-field switches into the third row. Also tuned is the blind passing so often abused by the esports crowd. Simply put, when you attempt a pass and your body is not facing the intended target, the pass has a much higher likelihood to go astray. Passing by the CPU is much more believable as the ping-pong passes — seemingly introduced a few years back in an attempt to re-create tiki-taka football — have been toned down. The CPU is still capable of working a perfect triangle but overall the passing looks more realistic. While there still could be a little more error on PA1, passing feels a whole lot better this year. Graphics — Visually, the game looks stunning, especially in 4K. Player models, down to their individual tattoos, look photo realistic even in motion. Crowds also look enhanced, as do the stadiums. The tunnel cam in Camp Nou does a great job of capturing the build-up to playing in one of the most iconic stadiums in the world. Positioning — Positioning, specifically those on the backline, has improved over PES 2018. Too often in PES 2018, your backline would drop deep allowing acres of space in between your midfield and backline. This year that space has been condensed as defenders will step up and mark not only the player, but also the space. When instructed through tactics, strikers will actually come back into the their own half and defend in a way that would make Simeone shed a tear. Their reaction times are improved but still suffer from some unrealistic animations, especially catching the ball on angled shots. What is poor though, is their propensity to sit on their line as an attacker is converging on them, making one-on-one plays extremely easy to convert. This should be a simple fix, and hopefully the community notices this too and makes Konami aware. Odd AI At Times — There are occasions when PES takes a book from older FIFAs when players, especially wingers, will freak out on the ball by dribbling in circles even when not pressured before making a decision with the ball. Instead of just walking or stopping the ball for a second, they will burn unnecessary energy dribbling in circles as if they were channeling their inner Juan Cuadrado. Spotty AI occasionally applies to passing where the CPU will choose a more difficult option as opposed to playing the simple pass and keeping possession. Lobbing a defender near the touchline is an incredibly risky and tough pass to pull off. Hopefully Konami is taking feedback this time around and will tighten up the AI to make the offline experience that much more enjoyable. Short Match Time — Only applying to the demo, the idea of making the demo have such short match lengths is perplexing, especially when 12-minute matches were always the norm for PES demos. Similar to how FIFA does demos, shorter matches do nothing to showcase the game in a positive fashion. Manual Passing Zero Assistance — Look, manual passing is supposed to be challenging. Manual passing is supposed to add freedom to the game. This kind of issue should only happen when using assisted levels of passing, not zero assistance. Conclusion All in all, as you can tell by the long list of positives, the PES 2019 demo is off to a good start. While there still are plenty of little issues to clean up before release, the fun factor is back with PES 2019, and the tweaking of fouls and better positional AI have lead to immediate dividends. Is the demo more or less likely to influence your purchasing decision? Already got this pre-ordered! This game feels and looks incredible. Just a no brainer to me. Great review, by the way. I loved the demo myself and my sentiments fit yours exactly. Keep up the good work as always! Sent from my SM-G955U using Is anyone else getting the big blurry line at the bottom of the screen? I've played the demo a handful of times and occasionally I'll look down and things are fuzzy from about mid way on the radar to the bottom of the screen. I have a PS4 Pro and I'm not having any issues with any other games, so I don't think it's a system issue. In any event, I like the demo but it feels like a marginal improvement to me, the biggest leap being the graphics. Still too much space in the midfield and, while the CPU fouls me more, I still never find the need to use a slide tackle and therefore I never get any fouls called on me, ever. I also never see any cards shown, penalties taken, or the advantage played. Is anyone else getting the big blurry line at the bottom of the screen? I'm playing on PS4 and have not noticed this yet but I will try to look for it now and see. Asides all being spoken of, I hope the round-robin freely arranged league can be made to depend on user profiles and not teams. That is, more than one player should be able to use a particular team. Also, the showing of goal scorers and time scored at the restart of the match makes a lot of sense. It would be nice if it's made optional. This is surely an error because I don't remember any other PES being like this. Super cancel will allow you to slide, but it shouldn't be this way. Defensive AI is pretty bad. None of my players can mark at all. The fact that they are very unresponsive makes it a chore. I'm fighting with the controller. This was a huge problem for me in '17. They still haven't fixed it. Defender AI for you and the opposing team is the worst. GK's need to come off their line during 1v1's. This was also an issue in '17. Scoring a header from a cross is crazy hard. I've played a 100 games and scored maybe 4-5 headers. Playing on Superstar and Top Player, the way the AI attacks is very one dimensional. My defenders can't mark. AI seems to pass the ball around too quick and too accurate sometimes. It's to the point where I don't have time to close in on them. R1+X for defensive pressure is very aimless. I can't tell if they are going towards the man or the ball. Sometimes they run right by the ball and don't stick a foot out. General awareness of loose balls is poor. There appears to be an issue with dummies. The ball won't go to the nearest teammate afterwards. Needs more testing, but I believe it is broken right now. There is this awful dive the GK's do. A shot from outside the box and they full stretch dive and make a clean catch. A lot of it could be patched. The odds that I purchase totally depend on feedback around launch now. Really bummed that Italian and Spanish 2nd divisions were removed though.
