I buy FIFA every year, and each time people tell me it’s just the same game and I’m wasting my money. Full disclosure - I’ve reviewed FIFA for the past few years and therefore have been sent the game by the publisher, but I’ve been buying FIFA every year since 2002, which oddly, was the year of FIFA 2003. For seven or eight years, FIFA was the only new game I bought on launch day. I’ve served my time. This year, FIFA goes next gen, bringing the surprisingly effective HyperMotion technology I mention in my review, as well as the new create-a-club mechanic to refresh Career Mode. But I’m not here to talk about FIFA - I’m here to talk about the disaster that is eFootball. How did so many things go so wrong for it?
eFootball is the successor to Pro Evo, a series that for a time, ten or 15 years ago, was a valiant runner-up to FIFA. A bit like Liverpool ten or 15 years ago, it never won the title, but it was a respected opponent always in contention. These days, while Liverpool ascend to the summit of Europe, Pro Evo is more like Liverpool’s local rivals - Tranmere. Pro Evo had fallen well off the pace in the past few years, so much so that it’s ditching its name completely and going free-to-play. For some reason known only to the boffins at Konami, eFootball launched last week, the day before FIFA 22. I know eFootball is free and FIFA costs upwards of £70, but the comparison between the two realistic football sims was always going to be made anyway. Konami choosing to compete is just asinine.
I’ve already said I’m not here to talk about FIFA, but at times that feels impossible. eFootball is a disaster - free-to-play games have had rocky launches before, sure, but rarely on this scale. It opted for photorealistic players, and while a few select screenshots look incredible for a free-to-play game, far too many more are meme fodder. That the players look ghoulish when they move their mouths yet still move them all the time anyway doesn’t help, nor does - once more - the comparison to FIFA. It also still doesn’t have all the kicking yet (a joke that writes itself for a football game), has referees that fall flat and swim around the pitch, plus a plethora of other bugs. It is the worst rated game in the history of Steam, but it’s not just the bugs responsible for this - even when it works, eFootball feels underbaked.
While eFootball tries to replicate realistic football rather than FIFA’s arcade brand, that means the game is much more sluggish. While it’s arguably a positive that passes need to be more precise, players behave in such strange ways when a ball not intended for them comes near them that the whole system is pointless. The zoomed in camera for one on one battles closes off your options for a pass unnecessarily, and tackles are clunky, poorly animated, and far too heavy. Newcastle United don’t even play in black and white. It’s a very odd, very bad football game that seems to hope doing the exact opposite of what FIFA does will yield results.
Here is, for the last time, where FIFA comes in. eFootball was made with a decent enough budget to get facial capture for every notable player, and comes from Konami rather than a small indie dynamo. The ‘it’s free’ excuse only goes so far. eFootball is a bad football game, and its failure only highlights FIFA’s success.
FIFA might be the same game every year, but its only major challenger as ‘best sports sim’ is NBA 2K, a series that has taken its eye off the ball a little in favour of spectacle. FIFA has seen off This Is Football, Pro Evo, and likely very soon, eFootball. Konami’s second go at football could improve over time as a live-service, free-to-play title that revolutionises what it means to be a football game, but I doubt it. There will be no Final Fantasy 14 moment here. eFootball isn’t even Avengers.
eFootball proves why FIFA is king. FIFA is George Weah - it makes football look easy. eFootball is Ali Dia - it reminds us football is hard. eFootball might eventually get itself into a playable state, and might be worth the £0.00 investment which currently looks a bit steep. But FIFA is the master of its craft, and maybe it needed eFootball to remind us all of that.