PES 4 polishes ball touch and spatial reading even further. Football turns into a demanding, almost magical dance on the pad. For many fans, an absolute series peak.
Your verdict
Category
Sports4 players3+
Description
A Konami sequel released in 2004 (Europe, Italy), the fourth European entry. 2003-2004 rosters, an Edit mode to customize stadiums and kits and a gameplay system that reached a maturity recognized by critics. Often cited among the best football games of the PS2 generation in Europe.
Pro Evolution Soccer 4 review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
3/5
Music
★★★★★
"Memorable"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
The art direction foregrounds the player's creation tools. This entry deepens the Edit mode, where you customize teams, jerseys, logos and players to make up for the absence of official licenses. The imagery tends these workshop screens: kit editors with free colors, roster lists to reshape, an interface inviting you to recreate real football yourself.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
This edition refines the game mechanic further, with more natural animation and a responsiveness that makes every play rewarding. Turning a match around with a lightning break or a long-range strike delivers an instant thrill. Mode-rich and thrilling with several players, a football simulation whose gameplay quality made it the benchmark of an entire era.
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Building your play pass after pass, feeling the weight of the ball and then finishing with a clean strike turns every match into a tactile pleasure you relaunch without stopping. The Master League mode and a season's progression feed constant objectives. The licenses are missing and the editions resemble one another, but this finesse of gameplay keeps a lasting pull on the pitch.
Difficulty
"Easy"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Fine-tuning your tactics over countless matches unfolds a football simulation of great subtlety, where mastery comes first. The Master League, the leagues and multiplayer stretch the content well beyond a single match. That richness of play, with bottomless replay value, earns the title a stubborn reputation as a genre benchmark.
The fourth European Pro Evolution Soccer, often ranked among the generation's best football games for its mature play. That changes nothing about its collector status: colossal print run, quickly obsolete rosters and a rock-bottom price. Its interest is limited to embodying a gameplay peak for the nostalgic, with the Italian edition as the only regional variant to tick off.
Better with friends
An acclaimed fourth installment of tactical football, of a fluidity and accuracy that lift the two-player duel into an art. The competition rewards total tempo mastery, where every feint, pass and razor-sharp shot can swing a nerve-wracking game. Demanding yet exhilaratingly deep, it forges passionate rivalries and turns every one-goal finish into a vibrant memory to retell.
Is Pro Evolution Soccer 4 still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2004 on PS2, Konami's project pushes the simulation toward more realism with refined handling of duels, pressing and fatigue, while finally integrating more licensed leagues. The feel of play, dense and tactical, asks you to build your moves with patience and rewards reading the pitch. The Master League, deep and time consuming, remains a pillar of replay value. The production gains readability. A few animation rigidities remain. An excellent vintage of the series, recommended for purists of football video games and for fans of demanding tactical simulation that values thought over speed.
