eFootball 2023

I just do not see any situation where a football fan would play eFootball 2023 over its rival! I thought the previous year's game sucked big time and while this is an improvement, it is still very lacking. I have been a football fan my whole life and I have been playing football games since the days of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis so I feel like I know a good football game when I see one and this is not. It is free to play so I give it credit for that, but if you want a complete football experience, you need to look elsewhere.

The Former King Of The Field

eFootball 2023 used to be what was known as the Pro Evolution Soccer or PES series. Back in the PlayStation 2 days, I would say that the first four PES games were way above what FIFA was offering, but then something happened. EA worked very, very hard on improving FIFA and it took over as the kind of the field and the ultimate football game. It was not even because of the licenses. Over time, FIFA grew and PES simply did not.

A New Team For A New Season

Thankfully, eFootball 2023 has grown, well grown over the hot mess that was called eFootball 2022, my god that game was garbage! The on the field play here has been changed where defense has been given a pretty big overhaul. You can still dribble like Messi if you have the skills, but there is much more of an emphasis on quick passing moves than there was in last year's game. What I like about this is that it means that games are often back and forth, quick paced affairs that when playing with someone else can be a great deal of fun, speaking of which.

Fun With Friends

To get any fun out of eFootball 2023, you simply must play it with a friend. I am lucky that I have a couple of buddies who are also huge football fans and we have actually played quite a bit of this. When playing with a friend, chatting, laughing, and insulting each other, this can be a blast and you will be thinking to yourself, “Man this game is actually pretty awesome” However, when you then try and play it against AI or just random people, you start to realize, that this game is a much more frustrating and barebones experience than its FIFA counterpart.

What To Do, What To Do???

When the 2022 game launched, the lack of game modes was staggering. While eFootball 2023 does have more game modes the Dream Team thing that is like their take on FUT is just boring. The one fabled Master League of the PES series feels like it was a million years ago as what is on offer here feels so incredibly shallow. I would not say that it is straight up bad. However, I will say that we live in a day where FIFA is on game pass or it has been as PlayStation Plus game, even with this being free to play, I just do not see any reason to play this!

Pros:

• The game is free to play
• You can at least tell who the unlicensed teams are supposed to be
• The on the pitch action is pretty fast paced
• When you play with someone you know, it can be fun

Cons:

• There is still not much to do here
• And what there is to do is not very exciting!