As a familiar but slightly updated entry into the long running football simulation franchise, “EA Sports FC 25” has arrived. There’s an oddness to it, now after Aston Villa’s improbable Champions League win, building a strong Ultimate Team and (by now) mastering formations to ward off online humiliation.
The gameplay is solid but the magic feels kinda dull, like the series is just not bringing anything new out with every passing year.
This feels a lot more like ‘FC 24’ too, which is just rehashing what came before. The incremental changes are noticeable, but given together they don’t feel like enough to warrant a full price release.
Some new tactical controls and 5v5 Rush mode are tacked on to freshen things up, but it’s not such that this annualized series is starting to grow old.
On PC, their performance has improved. “FC 25” runs better, smoother, than the predecessor player ‘FC 22’ with locked 60fps for better gameplay.
Previously, frame pacing issues and slowdowns during matches had plagued the experience, but this time around the game feels well and stable. It’s not a game changing reason to buy the game, but a welcome change for PC players.
One of the first things you’ll see in “FC 25” is a cameo by Zinedine Zidane who explains the importance of tactics. Despite this, it did offer some hopes for a more depth based tactical customization like “Football Manager” but really its mostly superficial.
Yet new midgame tactical adjustments also allow you to switch play styles with a few D-pad taps, giving you a loose sort of strategic flexibility.
If you’re not interested in a possession-based Tiki Taka approach or a more direct counter attacking one, these options will allow you more control over how your team plays. Nothing feels as good as tactical tweaking leading to a well-deserved victory.
But in online play those tactical nuances gets lost. The quicker the players, the better; so, them opting for the quickest available players, who just rush around doing stepovers, with a bit of pace, just come into the box and hope to score goals.
The new systems in the game are there for players to discover, but many will bypass them to specialize in brute force methods in the competitive world of online multiplayer.
Some minor but welcome changes have been made to Ultimate Team. Removed contracts, simplify the experience, and reduce menu heavy resource management from the past.
Player evolutions now have custom visual elements on your favorite player cards, and now up to 100 untradeable cards for squad building challenges in the future.
The tweaks here make the maneuvering through Ultimate Team’s many strata a little easier, but otherwise the experience is still fundamentally pretty much the same.
The much slower playing speed is perhaps the biggest gameplay change in “FC 25.” After all, the FIFA series has been a staple of breakneck counterattacks where everyone is running down the pitch at jet fuel speeds for eons.
In ‘FC 25’ we’ve dialed the action back a little just enough to feel that difference. More time to think, more chance to plan on attacks, less need for pure speed.
It provides players with a more realistic football experience, and actually forces players to think of tactical options they could use and experiment with various styles of play, this change.
Conclusion
EA Sports FC 25 is a small step forward, rather than a giant leap. While the game adds some new tactical elements, better PC performance, and a merciful by 5v5 Rush mode, it’s mostly a rehash of the earlier ones.
The slower pace of play is, of course, a welcome change, a breath of fresh air, encouraging players to think more about what they want to do with their pieces rather than just shifting their pieces around quickly, but the series has become a bit stagnant.
For fans of the series, “FC 25” is like a well-worn but comfortable sweater: It’s familiar, it’s reliable, it’s enjoyable, but not particularly exciting. Perhaps that’s worth a full release, perhaps not.
Also read: Europa Review – A Soothing Escape from Conventional Gaming