Konami's eFootball Is Available Now, Getting Hammered In Steam Reviews

In soccer, a score of eight is outstanding. You'll rarely see that many goals put up by one team, and it usually only happens in the case of a gross mismatch.

A score of eight on Steam is also rare and gross, but for other reasons.

That's where Konami's eFootball sits as of this writing, logging a putrid 8% positive on about 7,500 user reviews on Steam. The rechristened Pro Evolution Soccer is getting savaged by players for a myriad of reasons, mostly related to poor gameplay elements and graphic design. Here's a sample from the negative reviews:

• "The ball weighs 100kg, the contacts between players are chaotic, nothing feels right."
• "the ridiculous eye-sore background colour and design."
• "Watch in vain as 4 men stand around watching a ball because the computer has decided they are not due to receive it."
• "Forced vsync at only 60fps makes for slide show gameplay in comparison to the older games, while also looking significantly worse."
• "The menu is horrible, HORRIBLE."

Some of the reviews complain about a lack of content, though Konami has been up-front its rollout plans. Those aren't detailed anywhere I can see on the Steam page; there's just a mention that "New features, modes, events, and gameplay improvements are planned for the near future." Regardless of what information is out there, maybe this will alert Konami to the notion that this kind of staggered rollout is a really, really bad idea for players accustomed to receiving a full sports game on launch.

Even with that aspect taken out of the picture, it wouldn't excuse all the gameplay and technical hurdles that are being brought up, as well as that garish blue-and-yellow color scheme, which was mentioned more than a few times in the reviews. First impressions mean a lot, and even if eFootball improves in the coming months, the brand has likely been tainted for the forseeable future.

UPDATE, October 1: Konami is aware of eFootball's extreme negative reaction and has let players know that it's on the, er, ball. In the missive posted to Twitter today, Konami acknowledged many of the problems players experienced and that it will "take all concerns seriously and strive to improve the current situation."

Important info for #eFootball fans pic.twitter.com/Tp9RFhmXp9

— eFootball (@play_eFootball) October 1, 2021