This generation has seen the FIFA series be just as dominant in the one that came before it. EA Sports has maintained its competition with Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer, keeping its place as the go-to game for soccer simulation through its authentic licences, even when the gameplay hasn’t been as sure-footed as its rival. FIFA 21 sees out the era for the franchise, although it will receive PS5 and Xbox Series X enhancements.
FIFA fans might have expected a last hoorah for the end of the console generation. After all, there have been some additions made over the last few entries, including last year’s street soccer Volta Football and the story-based Journey mode. However, FIFA 21 is in a holding pattern of sorts, without any major new game modes to excite.
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Of course, these often prove more of a distraction from the core game modes, so those who pick up FIFA 21 just to get the latest version of FIFA Ultimate Team or Career Mode won’t mind the lack of a major addition. Instead there have been some updates across the board, with the most impactful coming in Career Mode.
It’s something that single player FIFA users will be rejoicing over, with Career Mode only receiving small tweaks here and there for the better part of a decade. The core play remains the same, with the player either taking control of an individual avatar or acting as a manager, wheeling and dealing through transfer windows and making the choice to cement their legacy at a single club or jumping across multiple leagues. Within the mode there are plenty of quality of life updates that make the experience better.
Perhaps the most important of these to returning Career Mode players is the development system. Players are now put onto a specific development path for their position, to either grow their balanced play or focus on a certain area of their role to raise their game. At long last, the user can also change a player’s position, meaning that those who look to build a team of youth academy graduates can morph them as the manager sees fit.
It’s not without its teething problems, though. Some of the position change options feel quite restrictive as they are based around the player’s existing skill set rather than the proximity of their new position, meaning that changing a central midfielder into a defensive midfielder often takes much longer than it should do. Meanwhile other changes – such as from a wide midfielder or winger to a striker – seem to work much more effectively than they do in real life.
The rest of the development side works much better, particularly with the option to guide older players in a way that adds some longevity to the top tier of their career. However, this authenticity comes at the expense of control. Since the development routes are less specific than in previous games, player growth can feel more on rails than in years gone by, so as an example those who wish to fast track youth players into the main squad will need to be more patient.
Other tweaks within Career Mode are more successful. A switch up of player training adds a whole new dimension to the game, removing the one-off choice training options for players and instead focusing on options for large portions of the squad. Rather than this being used to train the players, instead the training now focuses on morale, energy, and sharpness.
It’s a nice shake up, with the user needing to balance their squad in very different ways to previous FIFA entries. Players who sit on the sidelines won’t just grow disheartened, but when thrown into the mix will actually perform worse if they have not been trained. If each game is being played directly it doesn’t make a noticeable difference, but has an obvious impact when simulating games.
This is another area where Career Mode has been updated, with the inclusion of an interactive match sim option. Exactly how much this will be used is up for debate – those who don’t want to play the beautiful game will likely turn their stat-focused minds to the more comprehensive Football Manager – but it will be handy for those looking to speed through a particular season.
The actual play has seen a few tweaks as well, with better animations and improved AI being the two standouts. It still feels like other FIFA games, with a resistance to change that’s been a part of the overall feel of the physicality of the game since it moved over to the Frostbite engine with FIFA 17. However there’s enough of a change here for it to be noticeable, with more fluid dribbling and passing against a slightly more lively opponent.
FIFA Ultimate Team has had some updates too, as to be expected from the EA Sports premier cash cow. While Career Mode has doubled down on team management and fitness, instead FUT has streamlined these elements to focus on the gameplay. The introduction of co-operative team-ups with FUT also has plenty of potential for those looking to go through FUT with friends, and could maybe aid EA Sports in its campaign to curb toxicity in the game.
This showcases that EA Sports may finally be looking to shape its different modes to their individual player bases, with the multiplayer nature of FUT much more focused on play and community. This bodes well for future games, and hopefully this is a direction that EA Sports is able to go in. After all, given the versatility of the beautiful game, why not expand it as much as possible?
Whether these changes are really enough for one of the most popular annual franchises around is another matter entirely. Other series like Codemasters’ F1 have managed to pull out some seriously big shifts between games, begging the question as to whether FIFA treading water with an admittedly fantastic core experience justifies its position. Expected updates to major game modes and the promotion of much-needed accessibility options are nice, but it’s fair to expect more at this point.
FIFA 21 is certainly a better game than last year’s entry, with more fun general play and specialisations between game modes that are long overdue. However, between the franchise’s never-ending controversies and the same old face models outside of the big teams, it does feel an awful lot like its predecessors. Hopefully the next gaming generation will see a more bold progression.
FIFA 21 releases 9 October 2020 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, with enhanced editions for PS5, Xbox Series X, and Google Stadia planned for a later date. Screen Rant was provided with a PS4 download code for the purposes of this review.
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