Let's just set this out on the table right away: If you're looking for realism, you have found your perfect match. Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 is like a Wikipedia entry for the game of soccer. You can browse from a huge variety of custom options and a great many of them involve changing the look and feel of your game. Personally I prefer to just play some good soccer without the rigamarole, but that's just my style. I can tell fans of the game will be in heaven if they want to recreate their "perfect" team or play with that custom ball they can't afford until next month's paycheck. The beautiful thing is how well Winning Eleven Pro Evo 2007 built the interface for all the custom options. The easiest thing to do in a situation where there are umpteen modes and multiple set-up screens is to get lost and frustrated. Konami avoids this through good visual design and a clear path toward a quick-start game if that is all you want. The real power of Winning Eleven Pro Evo 2007 is in the custom options so quick-starting seems like missing the point...

Visuals in the actual game are just okay. The motion capture is nicely done, but the players are awfully small on the screen. The upside to this is seeing more of the action. Passing and kicking are easier when you can actually see the goal. The player uniforms and arena details do not end up being as prominent as you might think, since setting up custom uniform and ball design options play into starting a traditional game. The arena setting isn't terribly exciting. One element that shines is the replay feature. You can record movies from your replay to watch later and you can freeze the action and cycle through any of the players or the ball. This lets you take note of player positions and how your opponent worked the play. In another game, this might seem silly, but Winning Eleven Pro Evo 2007 does feature some strong A.I. The sounds of the game come through from air horns to crowds surging. There's more than just a big list of features that makes this an immersive title.

The main modes for play in Winning Eleven Pro Evolution 2007 are comprised of Match or League play with an Exhibition and Penalty Kick competition thrown in for good measure. These could be lighter options, but the range of customization offered is amazing. Winning Eleven Pro Evo 2007 lets you pull apart formations of players, choose the uniforms they'll wear in the first and second half, and select tactics that individual players will use on the field. This is in addition to setting weather conditions and other factors that influence play. Over time, you'll graduate through winning to purchasing special balls and opening other play options. The competitive play modes are deep enough to make up an entire game, but Winning Eleven Pro Evo 2007 doesn't stop there. The Master League mode attempts to provide the experience of managing each player's career in addition to leading the action on the field. Buying and selling players and dealing with injuries or other challenges is part of becoming the best team in the world. Master League is for the core soccer fan interested in major control and customization. An Edit Mode allows for even more customization of teams and you can practice with newly created teams in a Training Mode. There is wireless multiplayer, but nothing that allows you to play online as was the case with World Tour 2006. Online play has my vote but Winning Eleven Pro Evo 2007 at least allows you to square off in wireless mode with a friend. All the options here are exhaustive and can be exhausting... don't say I didn't warn you.

Setting custom levels of difficulty is what you would expect from a game that lets you set everything else. On the easiest difficulty, you'll have to kick a ball right in the face of a defender to have him steal it from you. The defensive techniques used by the A.I. are weak at best on the lowest setting. At higher settings, you'll find defenders filling in holes on the field and spiking you like crazy if you don't run and pass the ball smartly. A wide range of difficulty makes this a game that almost any level of player will appreciate. The controls are intuitive and the basic controls for passing and kicking will get beginning players by nicely on the lowest difficulty level.

One of the great things about a soccer game is that there aren't too many things that need to be controlled. Running, passing and kicking the ball are about as complicated as things get. In Winning Eleven Pro Evo 2007, we have an intuitive system for passing the ball that is built around how you push the analog stick as you shoot. There is a player radar that shows the location of your other team members so you're not passing to a defender. It helps to have line of sight and this goes back to my comment about shrinking the player models to gain more perspective on the field. The reaction time for most things in the game (passing, shooting, etc.) felt slow and draggy. This is probably a more realistic way to control a soccer game since we're talking about people running around a field kicking a ball. Realism or not, the controls didn't feel very crisp. Shoulder buttons are used to run with the ball and the defensive options for sliding, tackling and blocking are easy to learn. The game has a significant learning curve if you really want to master all the options. Without that requirement, you'll be able to jump in and play soon enough. At heart, Winning Eleven Pro Evolution 2007 is a game that really touts simulation and realism. The depth here is great and the players looking for depth are going to appreciate the work that went into the game. Players looking for more of a fast-paced, fun soccer game may find more to their liking in the World Tour 2006 series. Different strokes for different blokes, you know?