EA Sports FC 25 Review – Rushing Towards Goal

It’s that time once again. Get your Balance on, lace up your Mizunos and we’ll grab some soda and chips on the way as the season of Football begins anew, both in real life and virtually.

EA Sports FC has been building it’s blocks since last year, and while on the surface level it might not seem much, but the introduction of the ever rising side of the Women’s football content onto it’s single player component feels like the step in the right direction for it.

So, what’s in store for this year’s edition? Some good ideas here and there, and some foibles as well.

Presentation

Booting up for the first time will get you to see a introductory cutscene presented by footballing legend on both the pitch and management, one Zinedine Zidane as he talks about the IQ of the Football being interlinked between the player and the manager, which is quite a neat way to say “Hey, you can be both and the AI will react accordingly now”. 

Really, the new FCIQ stuff is quite technical, so that will come in a later section, but I do like how they have essentially made it more intuitive by being part of the game’s UI during key moments, like a small hint that suggests you to switch tactics to finally break a deadlock or just relax some players and slow the tempo when you’re in the lead, essentially being like an assistant manager during the many matches you’ll be partaking.

And after much complaints from the players, full match intros are back once again, which does make the match experience more authentic and there’s an option to skip them if you don’t feel like watching the whole thing. This coupled with both commentators pair of Derek Rae and Stewart Robson, along with Guy Mowbray and Sue Smith switching every other match you play in Career mode and even in Ultimate team, does make the play experience not slate quickly.

But one complaint as a long time fan of this game series that I have is, that the music choice this year feels off. And I know that’s quite of a nitpicky thing but the soundtrack, barring tracks from the likes of Bilish Elish, Phantogram and The Streets, doesn’t really embody the old music style that EA Vancover bought when they had the old moniker. 

And it feels more in-tune with the likes of NHL and NFL’s music lineup than what I would expect a EAFC soundtrack to be, making it more Americanised in my view, but it’s not really a negative point. Although I do miss the old bangers like “Love Me Again” and “Alive” being within the playlist (and one of them was in the trailer of the last game too).

The Career Mode gets a more comprehensive overhaul with how it looks once again, now adding a new Social Media tab that tracks the news and development of the sport, which was how the older News Ticker plays out back in their older titles, and it’s now filled with fans reacting to the news (albeit not as convincingly) and your dialogue choices being a post on the socials instead of a news article.

It’s the first big change within the career mode interface in quite sometimes, if you consider its previous name’s history as well, but it feels too much like their sister series, NHL within the design, which is fine but it does tends to bug out at times when you get a player from a swap deal and that sticks for the rest of the game, but it’s a good to see some changes in the presentation department. 

Gameplay

For the gameplay side on the surface, it’s not much of a change with how the moment-to-moment gameplay but rather in the tactics section, where their new system of FCIQ  does help make the match stuff like making changes to the strategy more seamless than what we had in the previous decade or so, where instead of a defensive or attacking sider, it’s more intuitive with how the game tells to do make changes to the tactics and have the player not needing to pause to menu for a strategic change.

It’s the sort of stuff that makes it so because the game doesn’t want players to break the flow of play when they are winning or losing in EAFC, all of which takes into account when you consider its gameplay loop is already quite hard to put down when the winning gets into a streak and vice versa, so now the AR style tactics of this makes gameplay the full focus, essentially.

As for the stuff in Career Mode,we finally caught up to the basketball group with the introduction of the Women’s career mode for both player and manager, complete with transfers scouting and the academy players, which also has gotten a overhaul as well to accommodate the new FCIQ integrations.

Now,the positions that you put onto your youngins will actually make them change their playstyle once you let the tactics board switch in the middle of a match. You can see them switching their roles from, say a young striker to a playmaker who sends the ball to your leading goal scorer since that is what you set their role as, so it makes investing towards  them early quite valuable as well.

And you get to see them perform even in this academy stage with the introduction of the RUSH mode, a 4v4 squad battle match between your youth squad versus a rival team that has condense the intense battles of a longer match to something smaller that helps you see how they feel on the pitch before making changes to their roles when they eventually integrate into the full squad.

It’s also a good way for players to be onboard with the new mode too, since most starting out the game in career mode would have a lengthy gap before an actual match plays out and the developers highlighting a Youth Tournament event at that starting checklist helps them notice this right away. 

One last note to point out, is that weather does have some effect during gameplay, where wind and pitch weather now takes into account how the ball glides and players chances to score, which is neat to see in action. So now a free kick with windy conditions might see a goal, who knows.

Content

The playable teams for both Men’s and Women’s feels unbalanced right now. This number of leagues within EAFC is quite still astounding when you do compare to its main rival, and while this is a big step for them adding the likes of the biggest Women’s competition within the base game, it does have some big holes, like the entirety of Italian side Serie A Femminile being absent (but the players are available to scout in the game for transfers) or no secondary tier football for the ones available, so no relegations.

And on the multiplayer side of things, it is a nice surprise to see the quite positive reaction of the long-time fans accepting the mixture of players from both sides joining together within the Ultimate Team mode. As long as it gives them the advantage, then might as well use it, no?

In any case, the content this year is quite solid for a yearly affair, and your typical shenanigans with Pro Clubs, Ultimate Team and the sorts has been popping up in the actual social media with people enjoying their time here so the job is done quite well.

Personal Enjoyment

Now, I’d admit that due to this series being a part of the starter pack for gaming in our region, EAFC does have a soft spot for me and many others for it’s the game of our childhood. When we’re not playing it outside, we’re on the console playing it as well. So this might feel like I’m being too lenient on this edition, but I do see some improvements on the game, though some parts could be better as always.

Like I could go on about how they have lost a major league in Asia to their rivals recently and could have substitute it with a smaller league in the same region, but decides to leave it bare is a rather interesting take, considering their main rival doesn’t even have a career mode to facilitate a single player mode, of which EAFC have, but that’s just me knowing that licensing issues are a complicated matter.

But as a video game in the year 2024, where even most of the competing sport series are catching up, EAFC still has some huge advantage on the pitch still. It’s why they are still leading the sales chart, they are still the standard for sports games, whether you like it or not.

Verdict

EA Sports FC 25 is a massive improvement with the many inclusions that they have added this season, but could it be a bit better? Perhaps so. If they could be more open in their choice of new leagues and more content for their newest additions, perhaps then we might see the full extent of what EAFC could be. 

Should you be in the middle of the fence right now, EA Play’s Trial is your friend to see if you wanna get this year’s edition. 

Played on Xbox Series S, Review copy provided by EA.

7.8

EA Sports FC 25

A massive improvement with the many inclusions that they have added this season, but could it be a bit better? Perhaps so.

  • Presentation 8
  • Gameplay 8
  • Content 7
  • Personal Enjoyment 8

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