Drop, charge, and lose the cords
GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Outstanding
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 04/30/2004
- Released on: 04/09/2004
- Originally published on GameSpot: World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International (PC) Review
It may have official FIFA PC licensing; it may have dominated the genre for the better part of a decade; and it may have climbed to such a lofty position of strength that it's driven away virtually every contender. However, Electronic Arts' celebrated FIFA Soccer series may not have the PC footie market cornered after all. Fresh off its 2004 revision, in which the game's producers have once again shown a disturbing recent penchant for sitting idly upon the throne, the FIFA series is also now in the midst of taking a full-on broadside from an exciting newcomer. With World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International, Konami brings its console soccer hit to the PC for the first time and, in the process, proves that EA's reign is suddenly as shaky as the San Andreas Fault. Whether it's superior overall to the durable EA franchise is open to interpretation, but one thing is clear: Winning Eleven 7 is a superb game that sounds great, looks impressive, and gets the most important element--playability--just right. No true PC soccer fan should buy into the EA FIFA machine this year without first investigating Konami's superb alternative.
Just like his mom advised him when he was a tiny tot, this player uses his head to its fullest potential.
As the title suggests ("Winning Eleven" stands for the number of players on a soccer side and "7" stands for the number of annual revisions in the game's history), Winning Eleven 7 is far from a brand-new series. In fact, it has existed in the console realm since 1996. Granted, North America didn't get its first taste of the game until 2003's Winning Eleven 6, when Konami released it for the PlayStation 2 crowd. But this is the first time we've seen it in PC form, and it's not a moment too soon.
When EA's FIFA Soccer rose to prominence in the latter part of the last decade, it did so with a solid combination of presentation and user immersion. Featuring full FIFA licensing--which allowed EA to use all the real-world players, teams, and stadiums--and EA's masterful 3D graphics and animation technology, FIFA's visuals simply blew its competitors away. Its lengthy roster of user options certainly didn't hurt, nor did its gameplay experience, which represented a clever balance of detailed team management and coaching decisions, as well as an ever-growing inventory of player actions and moves. Still, recent editions have not exactly been filled with innovations, especially in terms of the product on the pitch. What had once seemed like amazing gameplay back in the late '90s began to feel arcadelike and fanciful. Could real-life players pull off the moves you'd see on a FIFA Soccer pitch? No. Could one real-life team completely dominate another in every facet of the game and outshoot and out-chance them by the widest of margins, only to ultimately lose because some unseen force wanted it that way? No. Did an EA game really feel like the pass-happy, calculated, and sometimes plodding experience of a real-world FIFA game? Not usually.
Conversely, Winning Eleven 7 plays very realistically indeed. In all truth, very casual PC soccer players may not notice much of a difference between the two approaches. Moreover, those who prefer a fast and more-whimsical game that often keeps things interesting by maintaining an undeserved tight score may even prefer the EA game. Nonetheless, Konami's latest soccer extravaganza will most likely satisfy those serious soccer students who've grown somewhat disenchanted with the EA methodology.
The Winning Eleven 7 pitch can get very crowded at times, as evidenced by this scoring opportunity.
In Winning Eleven 7, you'll really feel in control of the proceedings. Unlike FIFA Soccer, where you can often let go of your controller completely and can then grab it again a couple of minutes later--with nary a goal scored against you--Winning Eleven 7 compels you to play and play well. Furthermore, it penalizes you heavily if it detects no skillful movements and actions. Here, you can't let your artificially intelligent opposition swirl around in your own end for very long at all without falling victim to yet another goal against. This is the way soccer should be. Moreover, you can't expect your players to naturally be in prime position to receive thread-the-needle passes. Yes, your team generally moves to the correct zone--based on current management strategy, of course--but it is you who must ultimately take control of any and all players who receive passes, even before they touch the ball. In this way, the game is extremely challenging. But it's all the more rewarding when you finally come to grips with its myriad control possibilities.
Indeed, if you venture from Winning Eleven 7's Easy setting without having first investigated the helpful Practice mode, the controls chapter of the printed manual, and the game's informative and wholly interactive Lesson component, you may well feel very much out of control. Goals will be almost impossible to come by, unless you make lengthy end-to-end dashes that will probably not be successful but will exhaust your players by the end of the match (and will cumulatively exhaust them into the next match during season or cup play). Ultimately, it is mandatory to learn at least some of the many complex advanced maneuvers if you want to seriously contend at any level above Easy.
Using the game's wonderfully comprehensive player editor, you too can take to the pitch with the best soccer players in the world.
The game's developers have also done a masterful job of harmonizing the number of goals, the final score, and the eventual victor with the run of the play. This is clearly one of the most difficult elements to correctly code into any sports game, but it's particularly difficult in soccer, where goals are few and far between. In fact, EA's FIFA series has never really seemed capable of accurately figuring it out. The program must take into account the aggregate times of possession, the aggregate times of threatening possession, the total number of shots, the total number of true scoring opportunities, the quality and frequency of passing, the level of gamepad mastery, and so much more. Then it must intelligently deduce who should score, when they should score, and what the final relative tally should be.
Despite a few quirks, Winning Eleven 7 also feels less preordained than FIFA Soccer. Its ratio of goals scored versus opportunities seems more believable. And it doesn't go out of its way to produce last-second goals or final flurries of goals just to keep a contest even. In other words--depending, again, upon which level of difficulty you've selected--you can generally expect to win if you dominate the most important aspects of a contest. On the other hand, if you've assumed a lead against the run of play and are consistently under pressure, your players will eventually fatigue and will crumble. As a result, you will lose. Not many miracles here...
Like any good soccer game, Winning Eleven 7 doesn't base final tallies solely on reflexes and gamepad mastery. Indeed, Konami has gone even further than EA in this regard, both in the number of available management options and in the effectiveness of selecting a truly sound formation and strategy for the current situation. One word of warning: If you select an all-out attack strategy, you'd best be confident in your abilities to both hem the other side in its own zone and score the goal you so desperately desire, or you risk leaving yourself wide-open for the plucking. You should also be aware that a given strategy will work very well in some situations (with certain teams) but not nearly as well in others. In any case, whether you want to enact a quick one-click general strategy and formation or go through an intricately detailed piece-by-piece setup, the options are there.
Fortunately, Konami realized it would take more than great gameplay to effectively compete with FIFA Soccer. To that end, the game features an impressive number of user options and management duties. When playing an exhibition match, for example, you'll not only select from five difficulty settings but also from one of five levels of physical condition for both your opponent and your own squad. And, of course, more talent variations are found in the team selection screen, where you'll choose from 64 club or 56 international sides.
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