As football fans will know by now Pro Evolution Soccer is no more, it is now eFootball 2022. A free-to-play football alternative for those out there that don’t like FIFA, or just want something a bit more friendly to their wallet. Obviously, with it being free-to-play, that means there will be plenty of microtransactions. There will also be a lot of things added post-launch.
We attended a preview event recently and got to find out plenty of information about the game during a question and answer session. It covers a lot of important things that are useful to know before diving in.
eFootball 2022 releases on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Android, and iOS on September 30th. It’s only releasing digitally at the moment but physical versions will be considered.
It is also the first game in the franchise to use Unreal Engine 4 and will not be using Fox Engine at all. When it launches there will only be nine teams in the game with more teams coming later.
When Will More Teams be Added?
“Many more Authentic Teams will be added as part of the upcoming autumn update. These can then be used as base teams for building your Creative Team. There will then be a further update in winter, where users can enjoy “Match (Authentic)” with all the available teams.”
Will the console version be downgraded?
With the game also being available on mobile it’s obvious that some people will be worried that it may have issues of downgrading. During the Q+A we were told:
“The game will take full advantage of the hardware capabilities of each supported device. Therefore, users can enjoy higher quality gameplay on next-generation game consoles and high-performance gaming PCs.
We will make graphical adjustments such as simplification of some stadium displays to match the specification of mobile version, but the next-generation graphics on consoles and PC will not be downgraded.“
Although it’s definitely going to look better on new-gen consoles and will no doubt have an advantage if you’re playing on a controller it will be easy to see what platform produces the best players.
If you don’t feel like playing cross-platform you can also turn off cross-platform matchmaking.
Master League ANd Updates
Master League is a mode that has a lot of history in Pro Evolution Soccer. Right now though it is not in eFootball 2022. It will be coming though according to the Q+A. Although it might not be free.
“We plan to implement additional modes in the future, such as Master League, which will be available on mobile as well for the first time. Certain modes will be sold as premium content.
Live Updates for player data (real-world performance, condition, etc.) will be available weekly. In addition, there will be frequent platform and content updates.”
Camera
Getting the right camera angle is important in a football game. From the gameplay I saw during the preview event the camera moves in by default when you have the ball to help increase the immersion. We were told the full list of camera options for both offline and online modes, although we don’t currently know how they’ll look.
They are: “Duel, Mid Range, Long, Wide, Dynamic Wide, Live Broadcast, Fan View, Vertical, Player, Blimp, Stadium. In addition to Custom, Dynamic Wide Custom and Stadium (Custom).”
eFootball 2022 Servers
eFootball 2022 will have dedicated servers for online matches. Dedicated servers are important for online games so this is great to hear.
Cross-Save/Cross-Progression
With eFootball 2022 on PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Android, and iOS cross-progression/cross-save could be very useful. Unfortunately, it won’t be in. At least not at launch. They did say during the Q+A that they will “aspire to include this in the future” so there’s still a chance.
Commentary
We have a complete list of the commentators for all supported languages below.
| Language | Role | Name |
| Japanese | Live Broadcasting | Jon Kabira |
| Japanese | Commentary | Tsuyoshi Kitazawa |
| English | Live Broadcasting | Peter Drury |
| English | Commentary | Jim Beglin |
| German | Live Broadcasting | Marco Hagemann |
| German | Commentary | Hansi Küpper |
| French | Live Broadcasting | Grégoire Margotton |
| French | Commentary | Darren Tulett |
| Italian | Live Broadcasting | Fabio Caressa |
| Italian | Commentary | Luca Marchegiani |
| Spanish | Live Broadcasting | Carlos Martínez |
| Spanish | Commentary | Julio Maldonado “Maldini” |
| Mexican Spanish | Live Broadcasting | Christián Martinoli |
| Mexican Spanish | Commentary | Luis García |
| Portuguese | Live Broadcasting | Pedro Sousa |
| Portuguese | Commentary | Luis Freitas Lobo |
| Greek | Live Broadcasting | Christos Sotirakopoulos |
| Greek | Commentary | Yiorgos Thanailakis |
| Brazilian Portuguese | Live Broadcasting | Milton Leite |
| Brazilian Portuguese | Commentary | Mauro Beting |
| Arabic | Live Broadcasting | Fahad Khalid Alotaibi |
| Argentina-Spanish | Live Broadcasting | Rodolfo Depaoli |
| Argentina-Spanish | Commentary | Diego Latorre |
| Chile-Spanish | Live Broadcasting | Claudio Palma |
| Chile-Spanish | Commentary | Aldo R. Schiappacasse |
| Cantonese | Live Broadcasting | Ka Him NG |
| Cantonese | Commentary | Ma Kai Yan |
| Mandarin | Live Broadcasting | Miao Kun |
| Mandarin | Commentary | Cai Huiqiang |
| Korean | Live Broadcasting | JUNIL SO |
| Korean | Commentary | JUNEHEA HAHN |
Thoughts on eFootball 2022
It’s tough to judge a free-to-play game before it’s live. Due to the preview not being hands-on I had to go with the gameplay I was shown. The matches looked nice and it looks like it would be fun to play with a big focus on defence and attack. As long as it doesn’t become pay-to-win it could be an ideal game for those that want a football game they can play a few games of every now and then.
With it featuring only a fraction of the teams we’re used to seeing in licensed football games though it will not be for those that want to recreate the season as it happens. For casual fans though it’ll be ideal. It’s unlikely it’ll beat FIFA 22 but it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to. Hopefully, it can deliver a fun alternative to EA’s behemoth whilst making a modern football game accessible to more people.
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Featured image credit: Konami