ISS Pro Evolution – review

• Game: ISS Pro Evolution (1999)
• Platform: PSOne
• Developer: Konami

This game is not your typical game.

This is not the yearly version of a game series you happen to like, one you’ll play for a couple of months, then forget about it, and eventually sell and be done with it entirely; that is, until the next version comes along and the cycle continues.

Oh no. Not at all.

This game is one that forever changed the course of football gaming history, set a path and an example for every football game that came after it ever since, and in doing so it conquered the hearts of every football fan worldwide like few – if any – simulation before of after it.

Two decades have passed since its release. Does ISS Pro Evolution stand the test of time and provide any value for the modern player, or should it only be remembered as an all-time great, and retire for good?

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Ok, it’s go time. The PlayStation is ready, the man is as well, and ISS Pro Evolution’s disk is spinning in the tray.

Let’s play an exhibition match. As we begin, we’re faced with a selection of the best National Teams of the world. On some level it’s a shame this game doesn’t have club teams available on all modes, but in a way, it’s a good thing they saved them for the special environment of the Master League.

On the formation screen, one can’t help but notice the fake player names. While some of them are much more recognizable than others, almost all of them are not that different from the real-life counterparts. You have your Ronnaldos and Rommarios, Fegos and Rui Castas, but then, out of the blue, comes a “Ponto Vera” that leaves you absolutely astonished, anxious for an answer to solve this particular puzzle. Ponto Vera is a striker on Portugal’s NT and despite being a Portuguese man myself, I spent almost a decade trying to figure out who this player actually was in real-life. No Google searches, said to myself, no asking any friends about it…you’ll discover it for yourself! Finally, many years later, it occurred to me it could be former Benfica and Sporting striker, João Pinto. I should’ve guessed just by looking at his ingame hair…

Anyway, I’ve always loved the charm of Konami’s fake names. It lets you know you’re not playing with an actual Schmeichel, Zidane or Ortega, you’re actually diving deep on a virtual, parallel world where a 5-year-old is in charge of registering the names of every player in the game. And then, it’s much more a matter of trying to find out whether Del Perio is better than Del Piero, Rivaldho or Rivaldo…

The player attributes’ sheet is much shorter than on later games of the series, and have a 1-9 scale instead of a 1-99. This is ideal for the casual retro-player to dive in and be able to get an accurate idea of the qualities and issues of every player without having to lose a lot of time in the process. Also, for those who might be too young to know about the footballers of the past millennium, this system allows them to be introduced to those players in a somewhat detailed manner. Unlike on some later PES games, the stats themselves are quite realistic and accurately portray the vast majority of the players ingame. The shorter attribute scale surely helped a lot.

But forget everything you’ve read so far. We’re about to jump on the pitch, and no one has ever been the same before and after playing a match of ISS Pro Evolution.

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Few football games have nailed the simulation of one of the basic rules of football.

If you think it’s stupid, don’t do it.

Too much time on the ball with a big, bulky and skill-less center-back. Going all-out-R1 like a headless chicken to meet a lone striker, who can potentially dribble you out and face the keeper on a one-on-one scoring situation. Passing the ball without looking. Tiki-taka-eing your way out of France’s midfield when you’re using Nigeria. All absolute nos.

ISS Pro Evolution absolutely nails all of the above, and more. To put it simply, not long after you begin playing a match on this game you’ll realize that you’ll be (at times severely) punished for doing stupid things, vis-a-vis, things a professional footballer would be heavily shouted at by his team’s entire staff if he ever thought of doing, and possibly even sidelined for the next few matches. In many ways, ISS Pro Evo is the daddy of football gaming, and here also it teaches you the ways of football like no other game had ever done, and few – if any at all – have done ever since. Play a match on the hardest setting without any knowledge of the fundamentals of football and you’ll be in for a spanking. Eventually, after being Pavlov-conditioned to do the right thing, anyone will begin to understand how to play this sport, and apply that knowledge on the ISS platform in order to get better at it and be able to start winning matches.

Even I, a seasoned football gamer, who has seen twenty years of yearly releases of at least two franchises, and one that has played this game for thousands of hours over the last decades, had indeed a lot of trouble when it came to re-adapting to this platform. I too, now a grown man, have admittedly been spanked a hell of a lot more once again by daddy ISS Pro Evo. And rightfully so: I was committing all kinds of mistakes that newer versions of Konami’s game (and other franchises’ titles) often let pass without an austere punishment. If I was playing “videogame football” on my first few minutes on ISS Pro Evo, half an hour later I was already brainwashed to play realistic football, and a couple of hours after that, I was ready to apply for a coaching license.

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It’s therefore not at all a surprise that the CPU on this game is very much worth praising.

When off-the-ball, the AI is very aggressive when it comes to intercepting passing lanes – on this regard ISS Pro Evo falls short to no other football game in history – and won’t give space for free at all. Typically, on most games there’s always some exploit that eventually a seasoned gamer will find and will be able to take advantage of, but the CPU’s defensive behaviour in this game, whether as a team or down to the actions of each individual, is rock-solid all-around.

When on-the-ball, ISS Pro Evo’s AI is highly adaptable, creative and prolific. It is not afraid of trying many different offensive approaches, particularly as a response to the player’s method. For example, often I’d lose the ball on my transition-based, fast-pace offensive approach, and the CPU would immediately counter-attack to take advantage of the gaps I’d leave behind. When I tried a more possession-based type of football, and therefore was more ready to deal with being dispossessed, the CPU would not find any usable space on my defense after getting the ball back, so it’d usually go for a slower, more patient build-up instead of betting on the counter right away.

And here too the CPU shows its merciless, cynical side. Often when I applied pressure with one of my centre-backs on an opponent’s striker who was controlling the ball, in doing so leaving a gap behind him, the CPU would immediately look towards attacking the space I’d just opened up, be it by sending a through pass, or a lob to an incoming off-the-ball CPU-controlled player, while he himself was attacking that same space to give a passing lane. The AI doesn’t seem to follow a strict plan, rather it often adapts to the mistakes you commit and tries to exploit it – but of course, the best teams and players will be more successful at it.

The intelligent AI of ISS Pro Evo proves itself able to provide a challenge every single time. Playing with Portugal, I managed to pull off some rather interesting match sequences, like grabbing a win against Brazil only to lose to Australia on the very next fixture. Even the typically lesser teams will be able to hurt your chances, as despite having lesser-able players, they’ll more often than not behave as a strong unit offensively and defensively, blessed by this wonderful AI. Sometimes, these lesser teams will prove to be the more difficult to break down because their formations and tactics are built to ensure their defensive stability.

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On the player’s side, daddy ISS Pro Evo doesn’t stop the spanking.

I have this habit of using a lot of the triangle button, in order to perform a through pass, even when I’m building up play. On your typical football game, this is a good way of recreating the transition-based football I’m so fond of; but ISS Pro Evo is not your typical football game at all. So you’re passing the ball to the space on the middle of a packed midfield? Son, you’re going to lose the ball right away. And so I did, many many times. The through pass on ISS is as much of a powerful as it is a delicate weapon; use it at your own peril. But let it be known that it’s not at all wise to overuse it, as the hyper-aggressive CPU will be incredibly fast on cutting the overly-optimistic passing lane, as well as the pass itself will have too much power and speed for it not to be intercepted even by the laziest of all of the opponent’s players. On the other hand though, a triangle killer-pass will often be the most effective way to get yourself a clear-cut-chance at goal. As in real-life, it’s a matter of seizing the opportunity and get the timing right when performing the action.

Another interesting way in which this game shines is the usage of the R1, on both the CPU and the player’s side as well. ISS Pro Evo is hands-down on the top of the list of the football games which best portrayed the potential risk/potential reward of using the R1 (sprint) when a player’s on the ball. In real-life, opting for a speed burst is a great way to leave your opponent behind, but at the cost of losing a lot of control over the ball. ISS Pro Evo reflects this situation almost in a perfect way. Most players that are not called Ronnaldo or Fego will often give you the feel that they’re practically huge trains without breaks when on a top-speed running venture, which is pretty much the feeling of doing that in a real-life football match. And even Ronnaldo and Fego, despite having superior skillsets, won’t allow you to sprint-and-dribble past every opponent at will. Now, try this with a low-speed, low-dribbling player and I promise you’ll feel bad about driving him to such madness of a choice; his awkward control and sprinting will be a tragically comical thing to witness. That is, if you don’ lose the ball before you’re able to laugh – which you probably will.

Again, the usage of the R1 when on-the-ball is one to be wary of. It’s very effective as a means to get past your defender, but at the cost of losing almost all of the control over the ball. A world class winger or striker will decrease the “penalty” for using R1, but it’ll still be enough to make you lose the ball often.

Add all this to the CPU’s off-the-ball performance and you have the recipe for a thinking man’s football game. I found myself having to stop the player with possession of the ball, look around and then execute the action, as it happens in reality. I almost never do this on any other football game, simply because I can get away with either lowering the player’s running speed before choosing what to do with the ball; or I don’t even need to slow the player down at all.

On my first few plays I played this out as I do on any other game and lost the ball too many times, either by having my pass intercepted or by being dispossessed by a nearby opponent. As you already know, daddy ISS Pro Evo likes realism a lot, so here too I had to be Pavlov-conditioned to act more like a professional football player would, and temporarily forget I was just playing a videogame: I stopped, looked around, and then executed. Et voilà, it works!

There will be times when you’re able to get away with an imitation of Klopp’s fast-paced, transition-based football, particularly when using better teams, but there’s no other way around the issue: ISS Pro Evo forces you to play intelligent football, and very rarely lets you get away with anything that doesn’t resemble that.

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ISS Pro Evolution was, in many ways, revolutionary.

But perhaps the single most important reason why this game is legendary is because it was the title that introduced the Master League to its audience; a game mode that would end up becoming the favourite pastime of a whole generation of football gamers.

As we’d expect, being the first installment of it, ISS Pro Evo’s ML is barebones at best. You’re only allowed to start a save with the ML default players – fake, invented ones – and while you can choose one of the 16 teams as your club, the chosen team’s original roster will be replaced by the ML defaults.

The structure of the competition is quite simple, as there’s just one league comprised of 16 of the best football clubs – all of them have real players under fake names, just like the National Teams on this game.

You can acquire players in a very accessible manner, all it takes is having enough money (PES points) to seal the deal, and you’ll get your desired player(s) right away.

This is pretty much all there is to it. Play matches, win points, use the points to get better players, rinse and repeat – forever, as there’s no season limit to the Master League. The lack of depth, while understandable, is coherent with the overall theme of this game as being a humble, honest and straight-forward football videogame, one that offers a very simple platform which can attract players of all ages. I do wish we could increase the match time on this mode, as you can only play 10 minute matches…

The Good

• The gameplay of all gameplays. Football in its pure essence. This game will pull you in, tie you up, spank you badly and leave you begging for more.
• Realism-meets-fun; hides a world behind it’s simplicity and teaches football to anyone willing to learn.
• Aged like wine and looks charismatic and full of charm. Could be the visual posterboy for the retro-football experience.

The Meh

• Features only playable National Teams; club teams appear only as opponents on the Master League mode.
• The Master League is mostly a plug-and-play version of a franchise mode. Great for the casuals and the ones short on time, not so much for the fan wanting a more complex experience.

The Bad

• As usual with ISS/PES, the sound experience is utterly forgettable. Might as well comment the games yourself…

Score: 9.5

Most football games are just games. ISS Pro Evolution is the daddy of them all. It forever changed the path that football gaming would end up travelling for two decades after its release, such was its powerful impact; it set the example for what a football simulation should play like.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not at all, the game has aged like a fine wine and is as able to provide a fun, challenging and didactic experience nowadays as well as it did twenty years ago; all of this while looking as cool as a game can look, rugged as a man who has seen a lot looks – simple, honest, mature and with a magnetic personality you can’t get tired of.

ISS Pro Evo is the equivalent of Steve McQueen riding a motorbike wearing boots, jeans, a plain white t-shirt and sunglasses. There he goes, riding onto the sunset, the movie ends. Could be the ending of a kind of modern western-spaghetti but no, it’s ISS Pro Evo in all its glory.

It’s fair to say the game is not perfect. But ISS Pro Evo comes, steals the show, and leaves you wondering why the hell have you spent 2 hours trying to win the World Cup with UAE’s national team. In the end, you shrug and accept that you’ve just witnessed firsthand the magical world of ISS Pro Evo.

So, why the hell are you still reading this and not playing the game?

…seriously, do it.