Another year and another EA Sports FC title: EA Sports FC 25. Every football fan asks the same question every year: Is it worth picking up this new title? Are the new features worth the £60-70 investment, or is it worth hanging up the boots?
As always, if you are expecting a ground-breaking new game, you will be bitterly disappointed. If you are a veteran of EA Sports FC 24, you will not notice anything too dissimilar to last year’s entry, so hopefully, this review can help you determine whether there is enough to make it worth a pick up.
Graphics and Gameplay
When another EA Sports FC title comes along, the least you expect is an improvement in the graphical fidelity of what you see on-screen. Yes, you will notice that, in general, players look more like their corresponding real-life selves than they ever have.
If you were to ask me whether this is a significant improvement on last year, I would struggle to tell the difference between a game of FC 24 and FC 25, if I’m being brutally honest. That can be in itself a backhanded compliment. Sports games, at the highest level, have come so far that there truly isn’t much more developers can do to improve the visual offering.
Stadiums and match presentation are just as high a level as always, and there is an almost Sky Sports-esque style about how each game is played. Each game has these over-the-top animations of ball speed, and expected goals graphics chucked on, which is nice, but after the 100th, the game does get a little boring.
The first-person camera view of the player scoring the goal is a nice touch, but it gets tiresome after a while. There is also the referee’s perspective on yellow and red cards. Again, this is a nice touch, but after a while, you can easily tell when your player is heading for an early bath.
In terms of gameplay, there is always a reliance on pace across all modes, but thankfully, there seems to be a lower reliance on getting a pacy winger to get the by-line and do a cutback than there was in FC 24.
The gameplay, though, does throw up several inconsistencies. It is well documented that Tottenham defender Micky Van de Ven is the fastest player in the Premier League. Yet, on multiple occasions, he was outpaced by attackers who, even on face card stats, had less pace than him, which makes no sense.
Again, some players seem to be winning headers that should never happen, and sometimes you still see limbs contort into bizarre configurations to score goals, and you’re just like, “There is nothing I can do,”.
The other major gripe I have had is around two key points: AI defending and the glitches. AI defending has gone up another level, which is great in terms of technological advancement, but on the flip side, you now have people online who never control a defender as the AI does a better job than them. This is made worse because the most common formations you find when you play Ultimate Team are five-at-the-back teams because they are the most effective way to stop your opponent from scoring goals, which is infuriating at best.
The glitches are back, and as I have seen mentioned online, it feels like they just hit copy and paste on the original FC 24 code onto FC 25 as it is riddled with stupid glitches. There is the L1 speed boost, which makes it impossible to catch certain players when performed correctly. Also, there are some instances when my player is missing from five yards out, but someone with a Raphinha hits it top bins from 35 yards out with a finesse shot while pressed by two defenders; there is nothing you can do.
There are also times when your defenders just watch the ball go under their legs like they are in awe of what is happening.
Overall, EA Sports FC 25 is just as controller-breaking as FC 24 was, if not worse.
EA Sports FC 25 Modes
The headline addition is Rush. Rush is very similar to the old Volta game as it is a small-sided, fast-paced game that looks to connect all areas of the game. Linked to each area of the game, it does feel like a much better version of Volta, but again, it seems like a rush job (if you pardon the pun). There are no divisions or anything more than just quick single matches with friends or randoms, which feels like a missed opportunity.
The cash cow that is Ultimate Team has a number of slight tweaks to try and make it look different. Gone are the days of basic tactical setups, and now there are deep almost Football Manager-esque tactics.
Each player in your team now has changeable roles, which you’d think would make the game more fun to play with different ways of playing with the same players. However, if you don’t put them in their ++, if they have them, the likes of Haaland feel like a 64-rated bronze.
The worst part of the new tactics system is around defending. Gone are the days of being able to tell your team to press the ball back after losing possession. Now, it feels more rigid and almost a waste of time to change.
Overall, the old issue with Ultimate Team is present. If you have a large bank account, you will win games. I would say I am a decent player, but I don’t put a penny into the game, and once I hit Division 4 in the game, I was coming up against Icons, Heroes and top-end players. When you have low-80 rated players and come up against Van Dijk and Mbappe, you are in for a hard game.
It’s not like the glory days of FIFA when you could rock up with a 10k team in Division 1 and win; it is definitely a pay-to-win mode.
Career mode has had the tactical overhaul that was introduced in Ultimate Team. The issue here is that the menus are genuinely laborious to navigate and make the experience of tweaking your team a boring task.
Again, clubs have been mildly neglected, as usual, but you can really make some very interesting-looking players with the pro creator.
Conclusion
Another minimal improvement from EA will see die-hard football fans picking it up, but casual players really won’t see any point in picking up this title.
The improvements that have been made are honestly to the game’s detriment and feel like such an unneeded change.
As this review comes out around two or so weeks after the Ultimate Edition has been released, there have already been a million missed SBCs and promotions that the Credit Card FCs have sunk their teeth into, so if you pick this game any time soon, you’ll see so many promo cards that you’ll be left with a headache.
Overall, if you play FIFA or FC every year, you’ll probably have this game already, and if you don’t, I doubt this review will have convinced you to pick this one up.
Developer: EA Sports Vancouver
Publisher: EA Sports
Platforms: PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X and Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 27th September 2024
