FIFA 22 Review – Focus op social en customization

FIFA 22

FIFA 22 places even more emphasis on social and customization than its predecessors. Of course Ultimate Team, which now also includes Preview Packs, remains central and that mode promises to keep players busy for another year. Beyond that, the rinse is thinner. For example, nothing has changed in the Career Mode on the manager side. The less popular player career has undergone some changes and for Pro Clubs the ‘drop-in’ system works considerably lowering the threshold. However, Volta is considerably stripped down compared to previous editions and also does not feel good. The gameplay is varied on the large field. There are positive developments, such as improved goalkeepers, smarter defenders and more effective dribbling and acceleration, but too many weird things are happening. Players passing a ball to each other over two meters with a lob, for example. In addition, the ball sometimes goes through a leg or hand and legs can also move around perfectly in FIFA 22. Of course that doesn’t make it any better. FIFA 22 still has a fantastic atmosphere, which makes an upgrade for gamers with a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X a lot easier to justify, because the game looks beautiful on those platforms. Those who don’t have one of those consoles or who generally ignore FUT, have little reason to get FIFA 22.

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Games as a service: it’s not new, it’s no surprise and we’ve long accepted it as part of the current era. This service naturally includes a periodic amount, although this can be incorporated in the game in various ways. Other basic ingredients are periodic new content, ongoing support and often primary on social and online focused gameplay. That jacket does not immediately fit a game like FIFA, but it is not far from it. The monthly promotions in Ultimate Team, the increasingly online balance in the game modes and of course the continuous flow of money that is started year after year by the sale of packs in Ultimate Team: FIFA has long ceased to be the football game in which the Career mode yearly is the main game mode. Is that bad? Not necessarily. But it does affect all sorts of development choices, which are noticeable when the new game hits stores.

One of those choices was a literally mandatory number: the preview packs return in FIFA 22. After all, EA had to do something about the gambling element in FIFA from the games of chance authority and preview packs appeared in FIFA 21 as an answer. Players can view a pack before buying it. If you don’t buy it then, it will take 24 hours before the next preview pack becomes available. In the meantime, you can only buy ‘blind’ packs. We can say from experience that it is quite difficult to wait 24 hours for the next safe package, so that the temptation to gamble on closed packages remains. That doesn’t sound like a solution to the underlying problem to us – namely that the parcel system can be seen as gambling and can get people into trouble in that way – but it is a step forward from the situation in previous games.

When we were introduced to FIFA 22 a few months ago, a lot of attention was paid to the gameplay. That is good and we will of course come back to that in the coming pages. Shortly after the gameplay, however, there was a lot of attention for the innovations in FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) and FIFA Volta. The Red Thread? Customizability of your avatar. In Volta this means that there are tons of stuff that can make your player, literally your avatar, look hip. In Ultimate Team, you can style and dress up your own club in more ways than ever before, with a variety of collectible tickets to further expand your stadium. Both game modes ultimately revolve around online confrontations with other players, while you can also import your avatar to the Career Mode and Pro Clubs. Central character, unlocking new packs: it’s all more modern than ever.

Of course you can ignore that part if you want; those who just want to start their game of career mode can still do that. If you want to use FIFA 22 as a Friday night game with friends, you still have that option – with more mutual stats and fun minigames than ever. What we’re just trying to explain is that the center of gravity in the game has changed permanently and this has consequences. This FIFA, for example, has fewer really new features than many previous games in the series. Volta even feels a bit stripped down compared to last year and the Career Mode has hardly changed in content. So it’s a more streamlined football game. Almost like a service.

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