I always find it hard to preview EA FC games, just as I did the FIFA games of old. This week, I had hands-on time with FC 25, getting the chance to check out the basic offline gameplay of this year’s game.
Every year, it takes weeks to get a complete sense of how an EA Sports football game plays on the pitch. As players learn the balance of mechanics, what tactics are powerful, and which players are the best, we are able to form full opinions.
Therefore, I don’t feel like my experience with three teams in Kick-Off mode tells us much about what has or hasn’t improved. Online play and much more time with FC 25 are needed for that. So, I want to focus on analyzing what issues I can still identify, as well as the initial impact of what new features EA Sports has revealed.
Maybe more so than in any other year, that’s not much of a concern, as on-pitch changes for FC 25 are as limited as they have ever been, with the excitement coming in the form of a new mode and some very welcome quality of life changes in existing ones.
The biggest gameplay change is the introduction of FC IQ, which is a revamp of the tactical play aspects of FC 25. They allow you to alter team and player tactics and instructions in more detail, both pre- and during matches, with some tactics being tied to managers to match their real-world ideologies. Pep will have high press, possession-based tactics, while Gareth Southgate will have a tactic that sees you attack initially, go 1-0 up, then defend for your lives afterwards.
Players will also have defined roles, which change how they play and fit into tactical set-ups. For example, a Jude Bellingham card in Ultimate Team could have the ‘Deep-lying Playmaker’ role, and Harry Kane could have the ‘play in midfield only’ striker role. Sorry, that second one doesn’t exist; I’ll leave my England frustrations there. Bellingham’s role would change how he moves off the ball, and you’ll need to work to fit that into how you play and set up your squad. This also means the standard work-rates players have are gone, with that built into roles and IQ.
With access to limited players and teams, I couldn’t play around with player roles and the impact of FC IQ much, but it’ll be interesting to see how the balance is managed in more competitive modes and whether it really impacts how teams are set up. EA Sports also said that roles can be changed completely for promo items in Ultimate Team, creating very different versions of the same base player, which is exciting.
My only concern is any limitations it puts on team building and whether it leads to you being pigeonholed into choosing a small selection of players who fit how you want to play. Time will tell.
Elsewhere on the pitch, left-stick dribbling has been reworked to make it more fluid and natural, and that was by far the change I noticed the most in my time with the game.
PlayStyles, which have become an arcadey nightmare as FC 24’s lifecycle reaches its end, are still a focus. EA Sports says 1.66 billion goals have been scored in the last 10 months using the finesse playstyle. I was confused by that, as I thought that was how many I’ve conceded myself to Greats of the Game Puskas in the last week alone… but apparently not.
New goalkeeper playstyles are being added, but there was no suggestion that their general AI and intelligence are improving. Also, there was still no indication that PlayStyle Pluses and Ultimate Team evolutions will be possible for goalkeepers this year, after their unexplained absence in FC 24.
There is still something fundamentally wrong with goalkeepers in EA FC. No PlayStyle Plus attributes, no evolutions, and still no base player stats like Reactions increasing for special cards. I get the sense EA Sports can’t figure out how to get things working properly without starting from scratch with goalkeepers.
In my brief time with the game offline, passing still felt wildly inconsistent, as did the intelligence and positioning of the defensive AI, but dribbling felt good. As I say, though, it’s so hard to give definitive thoughts on the gameplay without testing it online and the modes in which it’ll be predominantly played over the next 12 months.
What I can give more complete thoughts on are the new modes and quality of life changes. FC 25’s big new feature is Rush mode, a 4v4 (5v5 with AI controlled keeper) online mode that’s essentially replacing Volta (which was alive for longer than I anticipated a few years ago), albeit with more integration into existing modes.
Much like Clubs, you take control of one player, with Rush featuring otherwise unchanged gameplay from the 11v11 action (beyond smaller pitches and altered kick-offs). It’s built to be a social mode that takes advantage of the depth of existing mechanics. In standard modes, we’ll have to see if it’ll take any players away from the similar Clubs experience and prove more of a success than Volta, but I think it’s just what Ultimate Team has needed.
As EA Sports told us in a deep-dive on the new features, Ultimate Team has long felt like a lonely experience in a mode that’s somehow inherently social. Friendlies and co-op were a good start, but it never took the social aspect beyond what you could get playing with one friend on your sofa.
Taking eight players into one match, each controlling their own favorite player item has the potential to be a lot of fun, as it’ll be a great chance to show off that cool pack pull of yours or unique evolution. A large part of Ultimate Team’s appeal comes from showing off your best team and players, and the integration of Rush might be the best way to do that beyond texting your friend a picture of your TV screen when you pack someone worth a lot of coins.
Elsewhere in Ultimate Team, the changes EA Sports are making for FC 25 are small in theory but have a huge impact on how fun the mode could be.
A 100-player duplicate storage box will be added to ensure you’re not wasting untradeable items and don’t have to memorize the players you just packed but need to use in an SBC. Friendlies matchmaking will also no longer be tied to your Rivals rank, which will finally make the mode the casual option it was always designed to be. At last, FUT Champions won’t be the easiest mode in the game, when it’s supposed to be the competitive one.
Also, there will be significantly more evolution options going forward, and Rivals progression is being reworked to a points system so that draws are no longer a waste of time and relegation is possible. Alongside that, Rivals rewards will be far more varied between ranks and divisions, ensuring high-level players are actually rewarded fairly. All of this is music to the Ultimate Team community’s ears.
In the other existing modes, there are some equally welcome changes. Season Pass progression now covers all modes where XP is involved, so Clubs play helps you unlock new levels and items in Ultimate Team, and vice versa.
Relegation also finally returns to Clubs, with the ability to do so coming down to whether you win or lose a play-off game at the end of a season. That’s on top of a massive amount of both club and player-specific customization options being added. In Career Mode, the biggest addition is the inclusion of Women’s league players in leagues and teams you can take over for the coming seasons.
I’m looking forward to getting a more complete look at FC 25 and the new changes in the coming months. My time with the game didn’t tell me much about the gameplay beyond that dribbling feels smooth and some familiar issues remain, but the welcome mode changes away from the pitch should make for a less frustrating and more social game this year.
Published: Jul 17, 2024 12:00 pm