Developer: EA Canada, EA Romania
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X (Reviewed) |S
Genre: Sports
Publisher: Electronic Arts
It’s autumn and football is back in full swing, and before you know it, the next edition of EA SPORTS FC will be out: FC 27 for this year’s version. Football fans all over the world are wanting their football fix, and EA is to offer the annual update.
I’m a massive football fan who has, luckily or unluckily, played a lot of football games, including every edition of FIFA and now the FC games. I have been through the Konami vs EA wars, the “was PES 5/6 the best ever football game?” debate and all the random games that appeared in between. I think there is a general malaise in the football games at the moment, and I’m feeling it this year. It’s hard to put a finger on it, but for the last few years the games have had minor tweaks from my perspective.
There have been changes to Career mode, including dynamic ratings, which make player growth less predictable than before. Transfers are more drawn-out (saga-esque), a phased process where you take incremental steps from declaring interest, through phased negotiations, and more contract options. This gives a real sense of realism to this aspect of career mode.
FUT has a gallery mode where you record the legends of your club and immortalise them. Improved squad-building challenges; this includes partial progress completion, and you can submit items whenever you want to complete a task.
Career mode and FUT wouldn’t be my favourite modes, but I do get the amount of hours people invest in them; I’m purely here for the more instant game types, and for me the biggest and most important changes are the gameplay.
The big one for me is the gameplay; while I like FUT and Career Mode, the standard game mode and not the admin of building a team isn’t my forte anymore. The first few things I noticed were the corners and extra tactics that can be used in-game. There are two phases for corners: you select the power and trajectory, and the second phase allows you to control your player; the initiative is for you to do the movement, and less AI assistance is provided here. AI has been reduced from a tackling perspective, and again, AI will assist in positioning, but you will ultimately have to tackle. From a jockey and containment point of view, it feels like the user is more in control and assistance from AI has been reduced. Passing has also been tweaked, with it feeling a lot more user-controlled and the reduction of assistance being quite noticeable. There are lots of tweaks, but the emphasis is on the player in this outing, with a reduction of assistance.
The game, as always, has a huge variety of offline and online modes that fill the football void you need filled! Online seasons are my go-to mode and the one that offers the unique challenge of dealing with gamers of all skill levels and styles of play that can’t be imitated by AI.
I can’t really fault the visuals and didn’t encounter glitches while I played; the players are rendered fantastically, and the whole look and feel, as usual, is super slick. The look and feel of menus sometimes just feels overwhelming, but you have a huge amount of game modes. Player movement is fluid; from striking a power shot to passing the ball, you do feel in control, and goals are satisfying like usual. The player roster is huge, and the likeness of players is spot on too. Everything from the tactics to the HUD is slick. I mean, I seem to be singing the praises of the game, and I am; it’s just an incremental improvement, and it seems very familiar to the last instalment.
EA FC 27 boosts a bumper soundtrack and decent commentary. Commentary is done well but at times, when you hear the same things over and over again just are boring but there are only so many ways you can comment on a game.
I suppose the question is: I like it so much, but what are the issues? It’s missing a competitor to really push the game to do more. Small refinements are fine, but it’s very similar to the game you have been playing over the last number of years. With no real competition in this space, it’s just a bit of the same all over again.
EA Sports FC 27 will scratch that itch of the football you need to play for another year; the huge amount of game choices will keep you occupied. I will be playing this until the next revision next year. I find the amount of menus and options just overwhelming at times; there are issues with online games at times and the odd graphical glitch. In general, it does what it sets out to do, with small refinements on the previous instalment.
It’s the de facto standard of football games that will be played until this time next year; it’s a good football game that you will most likely get your money’s worth. Nothing revolutionary, but a solid football game.
Overall: 7.5/10
Enjoys more than the odd game, long time gamer, somewhat a technologist and everything else in between.
Also enjoys a good solid game of FIFA online. Currently PS4, XBOX 360 and STEAM.
