We can’t for a minute imagine that the big dogs at Konami HQ have been happy with how their eFootball series of games has run, but if we’re honest, slowly and surely things are starting to come together, giving players a slight alternative to the footballing champs. Today sees more changes come to eFootball 2023, as the offline Trial Match options increase, player transfers kick in and further improvements are made.
We can’t pretend that eFootball 2023 is the greatest football game of all time, it’s not a patch on the PES franchise which came before it, nor does it get near to EA’s offerings, but it is a game that has got a teeny tiny bit better with each iteration, so much so that eFootball 2023 is capable of offering up some fluid off-the-ball gameplay. Perhaps the on ball stuff ain’t quite so good, and it’s still pretty clunky and full of broken menus, but as our full review of eFootball 2023 on Xbox Series X|S states, “Much like Manchester United in the post-Sir Alex era, eFootball 2023 is a shadow of its former self, but signs are there to suggest it will eventually become a decent free-to-play football game.”. That’s what makes it worthy of a 2.5/5 score.
But even since that review went live in September 2022, eFootball 2023 has evolved, with Konami welcoming the Football Festival in Season 2 and the arrival of Back to Clubs in Season 3. It’s with that in which things continue today.
The headline act of the latest eFootball 2023 update is that there are now a total of 97 clubs available in the offline Trial Match mode, including those from the big four European leagues. Expect to find Manchester United in place, alongside FC Barcelona and Inter Milan, or any of the other clubs from those leagues, as you play offline or with friends online in the Friend Match mode.
There are also new packs to grab for the Dream Team mode – another positive from our review. This sees Pep Guardiola pushed to the fore as part of a Manager Pack alongside Johan Cruyff and Fabio Cannavaro. Managers can increase the game experience gained for player progression of “Dream Team” squad players in specific positions by 400%,
Further, Manchester United fans will find Shinji Kagawa, Diego Forlan and Dennis Law amongst the highlights of the Red Devil’s past with their own “Epic” card for “Dream Team” managers to acquire.
There will also be a couple of new player cards that will appear in-game from each of the participating clubs to feature in the eFootball Championship Pro: FC Barcelona, Manchester United, FC Bayern München, Arsenal FC, AS Monaco, AC Milan, FC Internazionale Milano, and AS Roma. And you should also expect to find some of the major player transfers from the Winter Transfer window in place. We’re not totally sure who and what are included as these ‘major’ players, and honestly, if Konami can’t push ALL transfers, then what is the point, but who are we to judge.
eFootball 2023 players should also find some changes to the graphics and gameplay, improvements to the dribbling and manoeuvrability, allowing you to also adjust your ball touch after trapping. You know, stuff that we’d expect to find in a major footballing title from the off.
eFootball 2023 is free to play from the usual digital stores. Us Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S folk can grab it from the Xbox Store.
