Released in Europe this March, Konami's ISS Pro Evolution 2 is the sequel to ISS Pro Evolution which itself was released in North America and Europe about a year ago. Programmed by Konami's KCET team, ISSPE2 (also known as 'Winning Eleven 2000 U23 Medal heno Chousen' in Japan) improves upon its brilliant predecessor in almost every aspect and sets the standard for soccer games to come.
In ISSPE the franchise-like Master League consisted of one 16-team division comprised of European club teams. KCET have now added 8 more teams (including two South American teams) and a second division. The featured teams are Liverpool, Manchester United, Leeds, Arsenal, Chelsea, Juventus, Inter, Lazio, Fiorentina, Milan, Parma, Roma, West Ham, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia, Monaco, Marseille, Ajax, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, River Plate, and Vasco de Gama. The inclusion of mediocre West Ham is incredibly puzzling, and I would much rather have seen Deportivo, Schalke, PSV, or Boca Juniors featured instead.
There are 8 teams in Division 2, and 16 teams in Division 1. You start in Division 2, and as you've probably guessed by now you have to finish in the top two in Division 2 to get promoted up to Division 1, while the bottom two teams in Division 1 get relegated down to Division 2. The club teams in each division can be chosen randomly by the CPU, or you can allocate the teams yourself.
The rosters for both the club and international teams are accurate up till about Euro 2000. This is a shame because you still have Alan Shearer captaining England, Luis Figo is still with Barca, Aimar is still playing for River, and Batigol isn't yet playing for Roma; to mention a few of the disappointments. Thankfully, the authenticity in the player models, team formations, strategies, and the way individual players behave more than make-up for the dated rosters. Just as in ISSPE players and teams behave just like their real-life counterparts; when you play Brazil both Roberto Carlos and Cafu terrorize you down the wings, while Zidane and Davids dominate in Juve's midfield.
Finally, there are a plethora of pre-game options, such as setting the length of halves, the weather conditions, time of day, stadium, difficulty and kit clashing. You can also now make substitutions at the end of halves and whenever there is a stoppage of play as opposed to ISSPE where you had to announce the substitution before the stoppage of play occurred. Also returning is the Edit Mode where you can adjust the player's names and attributes, and you can also create players and assign them to teams. You can also now buy created players for your Master League team. The ability to save replays also makes a return, however I just wish the replay buffer was longer because the intricate build-up to goals is often just as impressive as the finish.
Manufacturer's description:
ISS Pro Evolution 2 is packed full of improvements. Matches are now even more fluid and true to life. Pitches are bigger and player movements much more comprehensive, giving the feeling of amazingly open gameplay. Characters have even more skills at their disposal, but shooting and passing now comes down to competence of the player.
Features:
- Third person perspectives
- 3D Graphics
- Soccer theme.
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