Only 8% of positive evaluations a few hours after the launch of the PC version on Steam... out of more than 7,000 reviews left by users.
While the world of "videogame soccer" was expecting a new duel between FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer (PES), on July 21, Konami surprised all the players. The Japanese publisher of PES announced that its game was abandoning its historical name to keep only the "particle" eFootball added in 2019. eFootball 2022 even made a second and perhaps more important turn towards the free-to-play business model, and there seemed to be no question of offering a next-gen version of the title for the PlayStation 5 and other Xbox Series X|S.
Some observers felt that these points were a bad omen for Konami's involvement in this new version of its soccer game. The release ofa first gameplay video that was quite disturbing only added water to their mill... until the September 30th release. Despite the fears, despite the apprehension, many PC gamers were stunned and, distributed on the Steam dematerialized platform, eFootball 2022 was a real "performance": within a few hours, negative reviews flooded in and the game reached more than 7,000 reviews with only 8% favorable. In the memory of a gamer, never a "big license" had known such a disappointment.
The problems reported by the players are located at almost all levels. There are problems with the players' animations, whether on the field or during cinematics. We talk about ridiculous facial expressions (see above) and a management of the ball at the limit of fantasy. The control of the passes, the balance of the game, the management of the speed, the attack or the defense are not spared and we can say without wetting ourselves too much that it is a fiasco on all the line.
Constantly aware of the extent of the discontent, Konami was quick to react by publishing a press release in which it does not try to minimize the problems: " After the release of eFootball 2022, we have received numerous feedbacks and requests regarding the general balance of the game, including the speed of the passes and the handling of the defense. We would also like to acknowledge the issues users have raised with cinematics, facial expressions, player movement and ball handling," he continued. " We are very sorry about these issues and want to assure everyone that we will take them seriously and do our best to improve the current situation.
Given the state of eFootball 2022 today, it's hard to see how Konami is going to fix it, especially since the publisher deliberately decided to distribute it when they knew the state of their game. Some observers believe that the switch from the FOX Engine to the Unreal Engine 4 is partly responsible for the countless bugs observed, but others also point out that the budget was insufficient to allow for a change of engine in good conditions. By making the franchise free-to-play, Konami couldn't expect to make a lot of money at launch, and even more so with a title in this state: who's going to pay for the Master League mode in DLC when the game is a technical fiasco?
