Ironically, the buzz surrounding EA Sports’ soccer games is the same year after year. The uninitiated wonder why these seemingly minor changes can’t be added in an update, while hardcore fans, perhaps importing their tribal fan culture from real-life soccer, fret over every new face and feature.
I’m definitely one of those people who’s been obsessed with FIFA and EA Sports FC for over 20 years (which is a devastating revelation), but it feels like, through a mix of inconsistent and unsatisfying gameplay, the constant push for increasingly expensive Ultimate Team bundles, and the ossification of every other game mode at the expense of Ultimate Team, anger within the community is turning to apathy – especially with competition reportedly coming from FIFA and 2K Games.
EA Sports FC 25 looks to address this by modernizing fundamental parts of the gameplay, adding more social and casual spaces to put a renewed emphasis on fun over constant grinding, and updating a long-underserved mode by creating a more well-rounded experience.
The first of these updates is what EA is calling FC IQ, a complete redesign of the underlying tactical systems that control players’ actions on the pitch, designed to bring a whole new level of realistic tactical flexibility to EA Sports FC 25.
While the backend has obviously improved, the tactical interface in EA Sports games has been the same for a long time. I remember as a kid telling the striker to “go around to the back” and setting the DM to “fall back when attacking.”
In the xG era, football fans have generally become more knowledgeable about in-depth analysis, but the tools FIFA and then EA Sports FC 24 have given players have been woefully inadequate to the task, especially compared to the suit, tie and spreadsheet-equipped Football Manager that lets you simulate Liverpool’s high press, Guardiola’s 5-5 split possession, or Spurs’ attacking play with a left-back up front.
After deciding on a position, players can choose from one of more than 50 new roles, including a “false fullback” (a defender who moves into midfield like Trent Alexander-Arnold) or a “half-winger” (a midfielder who roams out wide and uses their crossing ability, like Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne).
Gone are the vague high, medium and low work rates, and now you can set a player’s “focus” to attack, roam or defend on the new campaign map, where you can see how they’ll play their position and player role. Players also have different proficiency levels in each role, with a “+” if they know what they’re doing and a “++” if they’re world-class at it. EA says this is more about the best players excelling in their roles rather than having unfamiliar players underperform when thrown onto the field, but it’s all about giving players more individuality and making the game feel more engaging to play rather than robotic overall.
You can also set your tactics independently for when you’re on and off the ball, which is an impressive change indeed. Whether this new tactical focus can break away from the past reliance on drop-backs, abusing pace, and exploiting overpowered mechanics is a question, but EA says there will be more viable tactical styles than ever before, rather than everyone being able to copy the same hyper-defensive meta from the pros.
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Play styles have also been reworked, with goalkeepers being the biggest beneficiaries, with new special abilities like “Footwork” (basically a beefed-up “Save with your feet” trait) and the incredibly exciting “Reflector” (when the goalkeeper saves a shot, they push the ball further to prevent it from rebounding).
Another highlight update is Rush, a new five-a-side match type that will replace VOLTA and will be integrated into all major game modes rather than existing independently. It is a fast-paced, short-field, smaller-field game with a brand new rulebook. Offside starts from the team’s defensive zone rather than the halfway line, and persistent or serious fouls will be punished with a “blue card” rather than a straight red card.
I loved the VOLTA concept before, but no doubt after playing a few games of the novelty game, it became a secondary idea. This time around, EA is positioning Rush as a less competitive social space in the other modes, but one that still contributes to your overall season progress so you don’t feel like you’re wasting precious time that could be better spent elsewhere. Each Rush match will still count toward Ultimate Team goals or progress toward a pro club, but hopefully the competition won’t be as intense.
In Ultimate Team, you can play Rush with four friends (plus an AI goalie), or jump into the matchmaking system and play with a team of similar players. Each of you will bring a player from your UT collection, which EA says is a great place to show off the great players you just packed, as well as work up a sweat in Rivals and Champs matches.
Then, in Pro Clubs, Rush is basically just a stripped-down version of the full game where you earn Rush points to unlock rewards. The best implementation, though, is definitely in Career Mode, where you can now participate in Rush tournaments with your youth team at certain points throughout the season.
You can judge your young players’ suitability for the first team based on their current ability, but you can also see their full potential when they play against rival teams of other young players – just like Youssoufa Moukoko scored a billion goals in the youth team.
Having more ways to interact with your youth team has long been a dream feature for Career Mode fans, and being able to develop your youth players to their full potential (when the realities of life mean you don’t always get as far in Career Mode as you’d like) is a truly tantalizing prospect that could inject some life into a struggling game mode.
These tournaments will apparently also give your best young players a big boost, allowing them to break into the scene with more usable overall form (like Ramin Yamal, basically) – another aspect of creating your own storyline in career mode that has felt lacking in the past.
From what I’ve played of Rush, the pitch size is better than VOLTA, and goalkeepers are less dominant due to the bigger goals. Goalkeeper movement has apparently been nerfed as well, meaning they can only take one step instead of sprinting all the way across the court, reducing angles to absurd proportions, which is a huge win for every game mode.
But it means Rush has a genuine arcade feel, with maze-like runs, Hollywood passes and fluid moves that you can pull off in a more relaxed, less tense environment. However, I’m slightly skeptical about its staying power in game modes outside of career. Just as Ultimate Team friendly matches are just as tense, if not more so, than basic Rivals, the EA Sports FC community has been hardened by years of intense competition and an uncompromising attitude towards toxic grid warfare. Could everyone really just be going to quit because this is the game? should
EA has made some efforts to start to moderate this hyper-competitive feel across different game modes, starting with decoupling matchmaking from opponent ELO in friendly games, which should appeal to more casual players and reduce the incentive to actively play smurf games.
Weekly rewards were then adjusted to a points-based system, with wins giving three points and draws giving one point, reducing the win-at-all-costs mentality and the frustration of stagnating after a tournament. You can also now relegate from Rivals leagues, so no more getting stuck in a demotivating, hard-working division. All of these changes happen in Ultimate Team and Pro Clubs.
Ultimate Team now finally has duplicate storage, which will save multiple players you get from packs. My biggest gripe with FC 24 is that after you log in, claim your rewards, drop Edin Dzeko, Mats Hummels and Borja Inglesias and, if you’re lucky, Chris Smalling, and then start wondering why you’ve started the process all over again, it feels like you’ve received little reward for your time invested.
One of my biggest complaints has also been thoroughly improved. The system EA calls “Cranium,” which lets players without actual head scans see their portraits get a massive upgrade — feels like it’s been dormant for a long, long time.
I think a lot of the changes EA has made in FC 25 are very positive, especially considering that FC IQ, Rush, and Cranium will finally bring meaningful changes to Career Mode, but the question is always how these changes will manifest over the course of the season. Ultimate Team in particular will suffer for any weaknesses, so while FC IQ Tactics looks interesting, it will be more interesting to see how the meta emerges.
EA Sports FC 25 will be released on September 27th.
