Evaluating sports games is an extremely difficult discipline. At first glance, nothing changes at all in hockey, basketball and football, so many players are calling for developers to sell their licenses to someone else and, if possible, never make any more games in their lives. But then there are players for whom the given sport and its video game processing is a hobby, they play basically continuously from one year to the next, and they see the changes, so to speak, the first good. No matter how small they are, hundreds and thousands of hours have to show up somewhere, which is why you can regularly read the same comments year after year about amateurs who don’t understand anything and on the other hand about crazy nerds who are willing to spend full payouts online and crush match after match. In the case of FIFY, these scissors have opened considerably in the last two or three years, and I honestly can no longer determine for whom this series is intended, or for what purpose. Is it an attempt at the most robust football game possible, or an easy way to withdraw money from people in a mode whereby the whole brand could easily be renamed? FIFA 21 cannot answer this, just as it stands still last year, and if it moves at least a little, then the vast majority of people will not notice it at all.
The whole process of evaluating the PC version of the current year of FIFY can be facilitated right at the beginning of the review by stating that in terms of the game offer, submission of matches and visual processing, it is basically a copy of last year. Even before regular players start protesting – yes, FIFA 21 brings some change here and there – but it was not worth the attention of the developers this year either, and large, usually curiously named improvements simply do not come. So what has undergone at least some evolution, you ask? Of the game modes, especially career and FIFA Ultimate Team, the processing of which partly affects the overall experience and in some respects still offers something new.
Not exactly a new career…
In terms of career, the main shift is reflected in a more robust management of one’s own team. For example, you can change the preferred position of a selected player within a few weeks of play and thus affect their overall rating. Alternatively, a system of trainings awaits you with the possibility of involving specific groups of charges and assigning them appropriate exercises. Unfortunately, the only effect of training is to change the amount of readiness for matches, which the players of the basic set do not really need due to the match load, so it is effective to train only fighters from the reserve. In any case, there is a lot of training and I personally slid through the pre-season part for a quick simulation and did not really deal with the notorious minigames. It is also worth mentioning in the career that there is also a slightly reworked negotiation of new contracts and an effort to gravitate to exchanges for players, instead of direct redemption, respectively. sales. But I wish then, the bidding on the contract would not be accompanied again by stupid silent scenes with shots in suits, which is quite lengthy and lacks any charge, oh yeah.
The online game crashes uncomfortably often, either for you or your opponents, which significantly reduces the overall experience and it is a question of how much people from EA will be willing to solve these problems.
The most significant novelty remains the special mode for watching and playing matches, reminiscent of a moving game plan from football managers. You can watch your charges in real game time and at least jump on the game almost instantly on the computer, if the fate of the match does not go according to your ideas. Just as elegantly, you can then jump back and influence the match again only by taking turns. But we could still talk about the fact that you can’t copy individual tactics across different layouts, you are still waiting for terribly boring and generic press conferences, you will still come across meaningless results of other teams and you will still see repetitive faces of sports managers on benches. trainers, because it is probably extremely difficult to randomly generate 100 different faces.
Tireless
Not much can be said about the news in FUT mode. There is an opportunity to modify the stadium, which is visually and acoustically quite a good thing. What I probably welcome by far is the elimination of player fatigue, so you don’t have to check with your line-up so often. If you are bored of playing solo all the time, you can immerse yourself in the new cooperation mode. It’s a pity that the online game crashes uncomfortably often, either for you or your opponents, which significantly reduces the overall experience and it is a question of how much people from EA will be willing to solve these problems. If I don’t count the slightly lighter form of the menu and quick access to your line-up from almost any subpage, this year’s FUT is still the same mode in which you build your own team of players that you can either buy or find in the obligatory packages. Just be prepared for the fact that there is always a player out there who is more willing to spend money on superstars compared to you, and in fact it does not surprise me at all that even at the time of early accession, crowds of football with an extraterrestrial rating crowded in my opponents.
We’re playing!
From the game offer, however, let’s go to the game itself, the evaluation of which is further carried in the spirit of only very slight and rather unreadable progress. The basis is the pattern used for several years, to which the artificial intelligence during the attack speaks more significantly this year. The players’ approach is more intuitive and teammates quickly form effective triangles in which one or two defenders can be kicked out and the ball rolled onto the goal. In some places, moving forward was too easy for me, but I admit to the veterans of the series with a clear conscience that I rate the level of difficulty professional. Hand in hand with this feeling is a slight slowdown of the defenders and their cumbersomeness, which gives a lot more space to fast attackers. In combination with a slightly overshot and properly arcade agile dribble and again effective centers, a lot of goals fall into the area of small lime, and I have such a hunch that this is exactly the aspect that developers will want to tune into a bit. In addition, the recording is also a bit faster and does not try to slow you down in anything, which is true on both sides if you play one of the offline modes. Goalkeepers are traditionally relatively weak, in one-on-one fights with almost no chance, but I look at their setting with considerable respect and I don’t see anything fundamentally wrong with it. Unfortunately, the problem is that you can’t try this year’s FIFU for free before making a purchase, because EA didn’t release a demo version and locked access due to the need to have an active EA Play subscription. I also still stand behind the fact that the perception of the gameplay itself is quite individual and I, as an occasional player, really do not find any significant progress in it.
Bad linguists claim that apart from FUT and two-player matches in front of one television, nothing else has been played in this series for years. Nevertheless, EA completes the offer with almost identical processing of Pro Clubs as last year and does not forget about the Freestyle mode Volta. Last year I came a little extra, especially in terms of story, but this year it is the essence of embarrassment and artifice, which really has no analogues. Yes, I see, someone may enjoy watching the awkward Kaka or Henry staring familiarly at generic characters who want cool football on cobblestones in Paris, but not for me. Playing Volta online, putting one or two futsal swords, I certainly don’t see anything wrong with that, but it’s an unwanted sticker, which differs from last year’s version only in higher speed and increased difficulty in defending the opponent for a balloon. Accompanied by a ton of cosmetic improvements, but it’s nothing explicitly catchy, and I guess the Volta will fall very deep in popularity this year as well.
In addition, the Slovak brothers have been sharpening completely for several years, so there is no Slovak club or national team.
Before we say goodbye, it is also worth noting that the graphic presentation is really getting old before our eyes and some of the scenes are already very striking. Hair, often not very fluid animations in collisions or awkward spectators, which we probably shouldn’t swear too much at in the current situation. I was also surprised that the commentary by Martin Taylor and Alan Smith has completely disappeared from the game, so now you only have to rely on the Rae-Dixon pair in the English version. And the remark about the included teams must not be left out, where again the competition was a bit fought, so the result is not only the absent Juventus, but also AS Roma, the second Italian league and the complete Chilean and Colombian competition. Although you will find some of the teams in the rest of the world – including Pilsen, Sparta and the other Prague team on the S – it is nothing full-fledged. In addition, the Slovak brothers have been sharpening completely for several years, so there is no Slovak club or national team, I’m sorry. And if you happen to be waiting for an evaluation, you have a fantastic opportunity to rewind the failed situation and try to repair it. Yes, it’s in the game, it can only be used in offline friends and it’s nothing but a not very interesting gimmick.
Believe me, I don’t take game ratings lightly and I try to be as fair as I can. But if I gave an average rating to last year’s work, I can’t overcome this mark in the case of FIFY 21. Everything that has seen a slight shift is withdrawn in the same way by the fact that we have been receiving more or less the same title several times, for which Electronic Arts is also asking for the full price. I want to believe that the move to a new console will really kick off the whole development, and I firmly hope that after the euphoria caused by the next-gen version of the current year, or another part, the same played song about recycled content and loss of faith in any meaningful progress will not come.
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