Good gameplay innovations and a great Rush mode are fun, but there are a few glitches and Ultimate Team remains pay-to-win.
There are things that come and go every year. Easter. Christmas. Birthdays. And the new FIFA, er, I mean EA Sports FC of course. Why should it be any different in 2024? Again, EA Sports FC 25 doesn’t revolutionize football gaming, how could it? But it does add an interesting new mode that brings back memories of the good old FIFA days. And what else? Changes here and there, that much was to be expected. But how big is the leap forward really?
EA Sports FC 25
- Release: 27.09.2024
- Available for: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One
- Tested version: Xbox Series X
- Genre: Sports game
- Entwickler: EA Sports / Electronic Arts
- Preis: ca. 60 Euro (Switch), ca. 70 Euro (PC), ca. 80 Euro (PlayStation, Xbox)
Small but nice
One of the most exciting new features for me is the Rush mode, which replaces Volta, which I find uninteresting. Here, posing and tricks are less important; it is more a smaller 5-on-5 version of normal football. Give me an indoor mode for this in the future and I’ll feel like I’m in FIFA 98 again. In any case, the playing area is of course smaller, it moves back and forth quickly and good positioning is the deciding factor.
Instead of red cards, there are time penalties in the form of blue cards and no classic penalty kicks, but something more reminiscent of a penalty in ice hockey. You rush towards the goal with the ball alone and have to beat the keeper. I really like Rush and EA has made an effort to integrate the new mode into several different game modes in EA Sports FC 25.
Although you can of course just play it in kick-off mode. How well it works online with others depends, as always, on the individual players. If you only have egoists on your team who don’t really work together, you won’t get very far. That can be frustrating, but offline it works pretty well.
Have a better career?
The Rush mode has also been implemented in the career mode of EA Sports FC 25, for example. There it is used in the youth section, because you regularly complete Rush tournaments to give young talents a boost in their development. This also gives you a bit of variety and you can familiarize yourself with your upcoming players early on.
The player and manager careers have been revised both visually and in terms of content. This particularly applies to the transfer options. You can now search even more precisely for what is exactly right for your team or how you want to align your style of play and strategy. But this always depends heavily on the situation and the team. If you take over one of the top teams in the world of football, there is actually little need for action at first. Only later or when taking over smaller clubs can you delve deeper into it.
Little has changed in the interviews and negotiations regarding transfers or contract extensions. Everything looks great, but the lack of language still makes it seem strange and lifeless. It’s like watching an interview with a player after a Bundesliga game and turning the sound off. I don’t see any real added value in that, especially since the process and the questions quickly become repetitive. It would all be much quicker with a simple menu.
It’s also nice that you have different entry points in your career or can choose them if you want. For example, as a star player you return after an injury and have to fight your way back. After the release, there will also be live starting points that are based on real starting situations. And you can now also complete your career in five top women’s football leagues. This was long overdue.
EA Sports FC 25 – Screenshots
What does FC IQ do?
A new feature that is particularly important for EA is called FC IQ. It influences the behavior of the players and also introduces different roles. It results in a greater emphasis on the respective positions, which means that the players slip more actively into their respective roles, such as fast wingers who break through into open space and wait for your pass. Or defenders like Virgil van Dijk, who are physically very tough and sometimes literally let opponents bounce off them.
Ultimately, this means that the individual players differ even more from one another. Some also support several roles at the same time, which makes it worthwhile to experiment with different formations and positions. This gives EA Sports FC 25 a little more tactical depth and flexibility. However, it doesn’t always work out well. In isolated situations, players showed inexplicable lapses, especially in defense. EA Sports should make a few adjustments here.
Apart from that, there are few changes to the regular gameplay. EA Sports FC 25 feels a bit slower than its direct predecessor, but at the same time you need more precision and sensitivity when passing and shooting so that you don’t completely miss. As always, positioning and timing also play an important role. Simply pressing the button and stick at random usually doesn’t achieve much. Watch the game, the position of your player and try to catch the perfect moment for the desired action.
Dribbling is not as strong as it was last year and long-range shots are still a good way to score goals. The AI also makes regular use of this, so make sure you don’t give them too much space in front of the goal. The goalkeepers, however, generally perform well on the pitch and have the penalty area in front of them relatively well under control. However, they are not immune to the occasional slip-up. Sometimes this is quite authentic when you look at reality, but when it happens to you, it is rather frustrating.
There is ultimately not much to say about Ultimate Team, except that they continue to follow the pay-to-win model, which works well for EA financially. It is nice that there are no longer any contract cards and the Rush mode has also been integrated as a new game variant. In short: anyone who has always had fun with Ultimate Team will also have fun with EA Sports FC 25. If the mode has not appealed to you so far, little will change this year.
EA Sports FC 25 – Conclusion
Well, it’s football. Basically. The various changes to the details mean that EA Sports FC 25 plays out a little differently than last year. Whether that’s good or bad is highly subjective. I like the gameplay changes on the whole, FC IQ and the player roles fit well into the game – with the exception of a few glitches – and you just have a good feeling when you play. I also really like the new Rush mode, much better than the cool Volta, which never really caught my attention for more than five minutes.
In the end, as always, it comes down to the question of whether you want to have the latest data and benefit from the new gameplay features. It’s definitely fun here, even if the predecessor doesn’t suddenly become or seem worse with the release of FC 25.
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You can play EA Sports FC 25 on Steamim Microsoft Storeim PlayStation Store and in Nintendo Switch eShop kaufen.
