EDIT6. (March 2024) The only enjoyable mode right now is CO-OP. It used to be available all week long. Unfortunately, Konami decided we enjoyed it too much, and didn't play other modes, so now it's only available from Thursday to Sunday.

Moreover, gameplay changed in a way that encourages to use ping pong passes with Pass Assist 1 (fully automatic). I play on Pass Assist 3 and it's no longer enjoyable to play 1v1 in any mode. It's a shame really, but I change the review to negative.

EDIT5. (December 2023) They finally added co-op events with matchmaking. Also My League mode against AI, which isn't a career mode yet, but you can play specific league with your dream team players as specific team from the league. There's also crossplay between Xbox and Windows Store version of the game, so they're finally testing crossplay with consoles. Everything goes in the right direction.

EDIT4. (June 2023) Co-op beta is available (Dream Team - Friends - Co-op). It's the best mode in this game and we had a lot of fun with friends. Finally :) I hope the competitive co-op mode will be added soon after the beta.

EDIT3. (October 2022) You can play friendly matches against friends now, the gameplay is good and better than any FIFA (although they made it a bit too fast with the latest patch) and there are events and some modes to compete. It's still not enough, but it's getting there. We still need the co-op mode, especially that you can find traces of it in the game files, and we still don't have single player modes that would be worth playing.

EDIT2. (May 2022) We need co-op mode. It was the esports mode in PES 2021 and that's the mode we played the most with friends. Now you can't even play against your friends. There's not a single mode where you'd be able to match up with your friend.

EDIT. Matchmaking doesn't exist. Doesn't matter if you're in division 9 or 3, you still play against all players, so it often happens that players from division 1 play against division 9 (my friend is in div1). I am in division 3 and sometimes I'm paired against similar level players, but usually I end up winning by a lot of goals against someone in division 9 or 8 OR I play against division 1 player and get destroyed (I even played against someone around #30 in ranking). With current matchmaking system, I can't recommend the game, even if I like the gameplay, especially that there are no other modes that you can play.

//old

This guide from Konami is very helpful. You may think that some things are bugs, but it's just new controls that you don't understand:
https://www.konami.com/efootball/en/page/2022/season1_patch-notes

1.0 release made the game way better. Gameplay still isn't perfect, but is much better than it used to be and already is better than FIFA 22, which is just so arcade, like a game for kids. eFootball isn't exactly simulation, at least not as much as PES 2021, it's more like a mix between simulation and arcade. They made the animations a bit less realistic to make it more responsive and faster, but it's still not as instantaneous as in FIFA, at least if the player has to turn to opposite direction. It's still more based on player's inertia, you can't turn in a way that player wouldn't be able to in real life (and in FIFA you can change direction a few times in a matter of seconds without regard to player's balance).

For now there's only two modes - quick match (no progress, just for fun) and events with rewards. The latter let's your players gain XP points and when the player gains a level, you can choose how to spend progression points - to any attributes that you want. This way two people can have exactly the same player with entirely different attributes, which will create more variety in squads. It also helps, that you are not restricted to players from one league or country in a squad - chemistry is based on familiarity with playstyle/tactics that you use and you can increase it when the player levels up. So basically you can create a team with any players that you want. You can also buy any player in the store for the currency that you earn by playing events. It only applies to normal versions of their cards, so team of the week and similar cards will be probably locked behind more difficult to earn currencies (the ones that you'll be able to buy with microtransactions). Special versions of cards won't be getting any progression, no leveling them up, so normal versions of the cards can sometimes become better if you play enough games with them.

The first season starts on the 21st of April and we'll get more modes then, but so far the game is really fun and way better than FIFA 22 (which I played during free weekend).

EDIT6. (March 2024) The only enjoyable mode right now is CO-OP. It used to be available all week long. Unfortunately, Konami decided we enjoyed it too much, and didn't play other modes, so now it's only available from Thursday to Sunday. Moreover, gameplay changed in a way that encourages to use ping pong passes with Pass Assist 1 (fully automatic). I play on Pass Assist 3 and it's no longer enjoyable to play 1v1 in any mode. It's a shame really, but I change the review to negative. EDIT5. (December 2023) They finally added co-op events with matchmaking. Also My League mode against AI, which isn't a career mode yet, but you can play specific league with your dream team players as specific team from the league. There's also crossplay between Xbox and Windows Store version of the game, so they're finally testing crossplay with consoles. Everything goes in the right direction. EDIT4. (June 2023) Co-op beta is available (Dream Team - Friends - Co-op). It's the best mode in this game and we had a lot of fun with friends. Finally :) I hope the competitive co-op mode will be added soon after the beta. EDIT3. (October 2022) You can play friendly matches against friends now, the gameplay is good and better than any FIFA (although they made it a bit too fast with the latest patch) and there are events and some modes to compete. It's still not enough, but it's getting there. We still need the co-op mode, especially that you can find traces of it in the game files, and we still don't have single player modes that would be worth playing. EDIT2. (May 2022) We need co-op mode. It was the esports mode in PES 2021 and that's the mode we played the most with friends. Now you can't even play against your friends. There's not a single mode where you'd be able to match up with your friend. EDIT. Matchmaking doesn't exist. Doesn't matter if you're in division 9 or 3, you still play against all players, so it often happens that players from division 1 play against division 9 (my friend is in div1). I am in division 3 and sometimes I'm paired against similar level players, but usually I end up winning by a lot of goals against someone in division 9 or 8 OR I play against division 1 player and get destroyed (I even played against someone around #30 in ranking). With current matchmaking system, I can't recommend the game, even if I like the gameplay, especially that there are no other modes that you can play. //old This guide from Konami is very helpful. You may think that some things are bugs, but it's just new controls that you don't understand: https://www.konami.com/efootball/en/page/2022/season1_patch-notes 1.0 release made the game way better. Gameplay still isn't perfect, but is much better than it used to be and already is better than FIFA 22, which is just so arcade, like a game for kids. eFootball isn't exactly simulation, at least not as much as PES 2021, it's more like a mix between simulation and arcade. They made the animations a bit less realistic to make it more responsive and faster, but it's still not as instantaneous as in FIFA, at least if the player has to turn to opposite direction. It's still more based on player's inertia, you can't turn in a way that player wouldn't be able to in real life (and in FIFA you can change direction a few times in a matter of seconds without regard to player's balance). For now there's only two modes - quick match (no progress, just for fun) and events with rewards. The latter let's your players gain XP points and when the player gains a level, you can choose how to spend progression points - to any attributes that you want. This way two people can have exactly the same player with entirely different attributes, which will create more variety in squads. It also helps, that you are not restricted to players from one league or country in a squad - chemistry is based on familiarity with playstyle/tactics that you use and you can increase it when the player levels up. So basically you can create a team with any players that you want. You can also buy any player in the store for the currency that you earn by playing events. It only applies to normal versions of their cards, so team of the week and similar cards will be probably locked behind more difficult to earn currencies (the ones that you'll be able to buy with microtransactions). Special versions of cards won't be getting any progression, no leveling them up, so normal versions of the cards can sometimes become better if you play enough games with them. The first season starts on the 21st of April and we'll get more modes then, but so far the game is really fun and way better than FIFA 22 (which I played during free weekend).