‘eFootball 2022’ update to be released this month, game gets ‘overwhelmingly negative’ reviews on Steam

The launch of Konami’s first football sim after the “Pro Evolution Soccer” era has caused disappointment to many fans. The developer has since apologized and promised to release an update this month, but the PC gamers did not hold back in their reviews. Now, “eFootball 2022” has an “overwhelmingly negative” rating on Steam.

Konami addressed the backlash it received due to the quality of “eFootball 2022” at launch and told fans they are taking all the feedback seriously. “We would also like to acknowledge that there have been reports of problems users have experienced with cut-scenes, facial expressions, movements of players and the behaviour of the ball,” the developer wrote. “From next week onward, we will prepare for an update in October, while receiving further opinions through questionnaires to our users.”

Photo from Steam

“eFootball 2022” has only been out since Sept. 30, but the game has been reviewed by 17,611 players on Steam as of this writing. More is not always merrier, though, in the case of Konami’s latest football sim. Only 10 percent of those reviews were positive, leading to the game’s current “Overwhelmingly Negative” rating on the PC digital storefront.

The situation is not any better on other review aggregator sites. On Metacritic, user ratings are much fewer, but the “eFootball 2022” average user scores currently range from 0.2 to 0.5 (out of 10) on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Fans who have tried “eFootball 2022” have been sharing screenshots and videos of their plays online. Several images show unrealistic player face models while the crowd looks like paper dolls. There are also several glitches spotted in the game. In this clip, a player model appears to have multiplied while it weirdly lies face down on the pitch.

One Steam player gave “eFootball 2022” a thumbs down and called it “horrible” after playing it for more than 18 hours. Another player provided a long list of the “negatives” they experienced in playing the football sim after almost 9 hours, including graphics, UI, missing animations, and facial expressions. Others are more forgiving. One gave “eFootball 2022” a positive review after 45 hours of playing time and said, “Matchmaking now are very quick and stable, that’s one big improvement. Take your time and learn boys.”