Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 Critic Reviews

PES has refined year on year in this generation, continuing to improve, but PES 2017 is the crowning moment. With different tactics and styles that are effective, and unique players, great goal feel and lovely control, PES 2017 just feels so good to play. It may well be the greatest football game ever made.

If PES 2016 was the best entry in around a decade, then PES 2017 is arguably among the greatest in the series full stop. With extra care and attention paid to improving on many of its predecessor’s strengths, as well as tweaking and fixing adhered to its issues, PES 2017 comes out of it as a fantastic football game.

With smarter AI opposition and an altogether smoother online experience, PES 2017 is close to the complete package. FIFA’s new story mode might be the most headline-grabbing feature of either game this year, but it’s clear Konami is in no mood to relinquish its title as king of the virtual pitch.

The title is not perfect, but its gameplay is so natural that it feels like there's little between you and what happens onscreen. It's modes aren't complete, but they are absorbing. Like anything that is loved, the answers may be incomplete but the feeling is total.

PES 2017 keeps doing what PES has been doing really well in the latest years: it's a joy to play and to watch, but it needs some new features.

PES 2017 is another step in the right direction. Konami thus capitalizes further on their strong formula. While not everything is perfect, the core gameplay is really on point: a real joy for lovers of football games.

A long-overdue return to form that finally surpasses Pro Evo's PS2 glory days – and, assuming presentation woes are fixed, lays the foundations for an all-new footballing empire.

Strange refereeing aside, none of those issues are more than oddities and PES 2017 is a wonderful football game that just begs to be played. Give me another 200 hours and I'll tell you definitively how PES 2017 ranks against the series' best, but right now I'm enjoying it an awful lot. Fun yet unfair, thrilling yet at times borderline broken, but it just wouldn't be PES if it was perfect.

an excellent football game in which fun and realism are balanced. Every pass, every tackle, every goal feels like it has meaning, and Konami has done a great job of creating the ultimate matchday atmosphere. Master League, with its new improvements, is more fun than ever and oozes personality, while the myClub mode offers good competition to FIFA's behemoth Ultimate Team. The huge array of customisation and the game's excellent community prevent the lack of licensing from being a problem.

More a refinement than a revolution, but this builds on the achievements of last year’s game to ensure one of the finest sports games ever created.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2017‘s Master League is one of the best career modes I’ve ever played in a sports game, and it’s backed up by incredibly solid gameplay. Once you look at the disappointing lack of team licenses, players will find one of the most rewarding sports games available.

While the upgrades made outside of the match this year are barely worthy of the name, the improved action on PES 2017's pitches is more than enough to warrant the asking price. Superb stuff, indeed.

PES 2017 is a fantastic representation of the beautiful. You could play this game for months on end and still find new ways to beat opponents while being amazed at what you just saw. Those who are brave enough to swim against the FIFA stream will be rewarded with arguably the best football video game representation to date.

The realism has really been ramped up this year, making every pass, tackle and goal attempt feel accurate and worthwhile. The goalkeepers and graphics have vastly improved too, even if the more realistic referees might frustrate you at first – just as they do in the real game...The only let down is that there are very few genuinely new features, but with this refinement of the excellent work done in PES 2016, PES 2017 could be the new Leicester.

What Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 manages to do is make last year’s excellent effort feel out of step. The improved AI gives the matches a more dynamic and tactical edge and offers you a real challenge. The presentation still feels like something stuck in the past and the motion blur feels like an odd aesthetic choice but the gameplay on display is second to none. It’s the best the series has ever been and that’s a seriously high bar to surpass.

If PES 2017 can't overcome licensing shortcomings, then no sports video game can. It delivers a fantastic gameplay experience that is well-balanced and exceedingly rewarding.

This is the beautiful game in its greatest digital form, oozing gameplay from every sweaty pore. If someone wants to pass on the experience because the names aren’t right, more fool them, I say.

Konami shoots, Konami scores. As long as you mute the commentary track, that is.

Pro Evolution Soccer is one step closer to perfection. Gameplay in PES 2017 is fantastic and engaging, but many of the elements not directly related to kicking the ball need more attention, especially licenses and interface. Fortunately, Konami is on the right path.

This year's iterations has the same sharp gameplay as last year and has gotten closer to the mass appeal of FIFA. It's going to be exciting to see what the playing field looks like next year.