There are many ways to interpret the beautiful game. Some teams prefer to keep the ball on the turf. Others prefer to launch it into the air. Defending deep in your own half is an option, as is pushing up the pitch towards the opposition. And do you play physically, or cerebrally? As long as you play by the rules, in football, there is no right or wrong approach.

PES 2017 continues this tradition. Barcelona, Manchester United, Juventus, and Paris-Saint Germain all play very differently in real life, and that's ably represented in PES. Football is a simple game made complex through myriad approaches it offers players, teams, and mangers. No other game comes as close to replicating those intricacies with a pair of analogue sticks as PES does.

Simply put, PES 2017 is the finest football game ever made.

As a Liverpool fan, the first thing I do as soon as I boot up a football game is take control of The Reds and employ Jurgen Klopp's frenetically-paced, heavy metal brand of football. Thanks to the game's slew of tactical options, this is easy to do. You can have Firmino, Coutinho, Mane, and Sturridge close down the opposition's defence whenever they've got the ball, putting them under pressure to either clear their lines quickly or make a mistake as they pass.

Combine that with instructions for fullbacks to attack higher up the pitch when in possession of the ball, and your wingers to cut inside at every opportunity, and you're extremely close to how real Liverpool currently plays under its German coach. All that's left to do is concede at least one goal every game and the reproduction is near perfect.

Implementing tactics is great, but they're meaningless unless the players themselves make best use of their abilities. A lot of time and effort has been spent upgrading player AI and actions—and it shows. Simple concepts such as players trapping the ball when under pressure, to more sophisticated ones like isolating a single defender against your best attacker, sync up in perfect harmony.













































Having your target player pluck a rushed clearance out of the air on his chest, followed up by a dainty layoff to a midfielder in a bid to launch the perfect counter-attack is a joy. All of the individual aspects of ball control—jostling, passing, sprinting, and shooting—layer snugly upon one another to create an engrossingly realised whole. It's wonderfully compelling: I polished off an entire season as Liverpool in a weekend, winning the FA Cup, while even managing to keep a couple of clean sheets along the way.

Vitally, all these different tactics are not unique to human players. When playing against the AI you're liable to come up against any number of strategies, with weaker teams often relying on punting the ball long to overcome a lacklustre midfield, while stronger teams play with far more confidence.

Combating this is means relying on your own computer-controlled players to pull their weight. If you get into trouble then you can take a gamble, throw yourself into a slide tackle, and hope that the referee doesn't blow his whistle. But there's less excuse than ever to resort to such desperate tactics in order to prevent goals. Defenders are adept at sticking to the instructions you give them, whether that's man-marking a key striker, or taking up zonal positions to cut out passing lanes. Sliding into an opponent's ankles should only be necessary if you're playing against someone with the dribbling talents of Messi or Griezmann.

There's a neat balance, then, between direct control and tactical management. Given the range of ways to play, you're at a distinct disadvantage if you think that only your individual skill on the ball will win a game. Maze-like runs and incredibly precise shots from outside of the box might net a few goals, but you won't win the cup if you can't figure out how to prevent Man City's midfielders overloading your defence, or West Brom's Rondon getting free headers in the box.

Embracing this combination of skillful play and management brainstorming opens up the game enormously. With the right approach you can nullify the best teams with your underdeveloped minnows, ridding PES 2017 of the fetishisation of only the world's greatest clubs and players. Playing as Huddersfield can be more satisfying than playing as Barcelona, because you're focusing your efforts on how to mitigate an opponent's strengths, rather than falling back on the innate talent of the team.

In this sense this a game for the football hipster, the kind of person that extols the virtues of managers, players, and formations few others have heard of. For certain, what's on offer benefits those able to draw on deep football knowledge and think outside the box.

As with even a Guardiola team, however, there are some weak spots. Goalkeepers make good decisions, and are rarely caught out when it comes to closing down a striker, or aggressively attacking a cross. But their shot stopping raises eyebrows. On a number of occasions, I've both scored and conceded from shots taken from long distance that have been hit straight at keepers, the ball sailing straight over their shoulders. The quality of the defence means scorelines stay realistic, but when such an error happens it messes with your suspension of disbelief.

Then there is the returning problem of what the game is like outside of matches. Menus are as hideous as they have always been, the crude, flat boxes used to frame match and formation options possessing nothing in the way of aesthetic charm. Conducting transfer negotiations in the career mode of Master League is, therefore, made more irritating and confusing than it otherwise should be. Even performing the basic task of scanning the league table is inexplicably painful.

As usual, brand licensing in PES is also very limited. A number of competitions are officially branded, as are some clubs, but the vast majority of teams are presented with the same false names and kits we've become used to: London FC are Chelsea, Hampshire Red is Southampton, Man Blue for Man City.

If you're playing on PlayStation 4 then overcoming the problem is easier than it has ever been given that you can download and apply a single options file that updates each and every kit, badge, and team name to the real thing. This is not officially produced by Konami, as that would have presumably violated licensing restrictions, but it's easy and safe enough to find nonetheless.

Still, the fact remains that the majority of players—particularly those that only play sports games—are unlikely to be charmed by the idea of having to download something on their PC and install it to their console. Given the dominance of a certain other football game in the Officially Licensed department—I'm looking at you FIFA 17—it's unclear how PES can come up with a solution at this point.

Even if you decide not to update your teams to the real thing, and taking into account the 1980s presentation, PES 2017 is the best game of digital football you can have. The precision of players, and the strategic options at your disposal results in a highly technical, but thoroughly engrossing game that gets closer to the real thing than any game has before. It inspires you to think up original ways to approach matches, and unorthodox tactics to employ across teams.

PES 2017 asks you how you want to interpret the beautiful game. There's no higher praise for a sports game.

The Good

AI is impressive in both attack and defence

Diverse tactical options

Individual player actions are precise enough that they can be combined in any number of ways

The Bad

Presentation is predictably dreadful

Goalkeepers could do with a few lessons in shot stopping

The Ugly

The lack of official licences continues to grate

Verdict: Consider yourself a thoughtful football fan? This is for you.