EA Sports FC 25 Review: Minor League Upgrades

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EA Sports' annual football title is back with incremental tweaks and diminishing returns.

EA Sports FC 25

EA Sports FC 25 :- It’s difficult to recognise granular changes in seemingly constant things. You don’t really notice a tree growing every year, but when you put those years together, the difference becomes apparent to the naked eye. The erstwhile FIFA series of football sims is somewhat like that. With a new edition released every year, the changes to the long-running and ridiculously popular sports franchise can be imperceptible over a year, or even more. These games only start feeling new after three or four subsequent editions when Electronic Arts is compelled to re-energise the series after a run of games becomes undeniably stale. To me, FIFA has always existed in eras. A spate of games follows the same language with minor improvements and tunings, before EA decides to freshen things up.

The franchise’s latest era began last year when it shed its decades-old FIFA identity and rechristened itself as EA Sports FC. But a new name didn’t bring a promised new beginning with FC 24. There was a new coat of paint, but underneath, the game was very much carved out of the same wood that has long been showing cracks. No one expected EA to upend a successful formula and re-imagine the game in a new light, but EA Sports FC 24 was desperately lacking fresh ideas. One year later, EA Sports FC 25, the second entry in EA’s new football video game timeline, is still very much a fruit from the same tree. But there are a few new ideas this time around, some of which elevate the game from its swamp of familiarity. On a visual level, there’s not much that differentiates FC 25 from its predecessor. You could boot it up and your flatmate might walk in on you playing and think its FC 24. But if they’d pick up the controller and jump in a game, the differences are likely to become a little more apparent.

Highlights
  • EA Sports FC 25 launched on September 27
  • The game introduces a new 5v5 Rush mode
  • EA Sports FC 25 features a new tactics system

Aside from Ultimate Team, other familiar modes like online Seasons, Clubs and Co-op Seasons are all here in the same form we’ve seen for years. As with all EA Sports football games, the comfort of consistency remains key. There are no radical changes, no upending of norms, no risk-taking. But one can hardly begrudge EA to rip apart things that have continued to work for years for reasons as flimsy as creativity and innovation. But it’s the minor visual upgrades that leave a bad taste in the mouth. EA Sports FC 25 runs and looks as we’ve come to expect games in the series to run and look for the past few years.

As I mentioned, when it comes to the naked eye test, there’s little that differentiates the game from its predecessor. Sure, certain player faces are more detailed now, as is the norm with every new edition, and a fresh set of animations try and add a bit more realism to player movement, but these don’t amount to a perceptible visual upgrade on the pitch. Annoyingly though, cloth physics gets an upgrade that makes player kits comedically bouncy. Shirts and shorts look like they are going through a panic attack, wiggling as if they have a mind of their own. The ever-present general layer of visual glitches and jank hasn’t been ironed out, as well. Whether you’re on the pitch or in the menus, EA Sports FC 25 will often refuse to follow your lead.

When you put all of its new tricks and familiar frustrations into a bag, EA Sports FC 25 fails to offer an experience that makes you look at the series in a new light. And that seems to be the recurring problem with the franchise as a whole. EA has constantly favoured reiteration over rejuvenation, and sadly that approach has only led to regurgitation. Every new edition of its annual football sim feels like meeting an old friend, asking “how you’ve been” and getting “same old, same old” in reply. There are some new ideas, most notably the Rocket League-style Rush mode that adds a much needed, well, rush to an otherwise stale table of contents. And while the tactical overhaul brings a new way to engage with team strategy and player instructions, it does so at the cost of mechanical flexibility.

The on-pitch gameplay takes a few steps forward in the right direction, empowering the defensive side of the game, but FC 25 stops short of taking necessary strides towards meaningful upgrades that could change the game for good. The continued apathy towards career mode, however, remains the biggest complaint. Gaping cracks in the quintessential mode have repeatedly been ignored for surface-level improvements — as if a new coat of paint would change the fact that the underlying wall is rotting. EA Sports FC 25, disappointingly, opts to do the same, even though a foundational change is long overdue. Over the past few years, EA’s long-running football franchise has essentially embraced a live service strategy, with minor seasonal upgrades rolled out annually to an audience hooked to its unethical commercial model. The only difference is that EA asks you to pay full price every year for a “new” game.

Pros

  • Engaging and addictive Rush mode
  • Deeper tactical control with Player Roles
  • Greater emphasis on defending
  • Focus on realism with Simulation setting
  • Improved animations

Cons

  • Minor changes to career mode
  • UI and gameplay jank
  • Lack of noticeable visual upgrades
  • Rigid new tactics system
  • Frustrating AI player behaviour

Rating (out of 10): 6

EA Sports FC 25 released September 27 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X and Nintendo Switch.

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