Did you know that EA has gotten the rights to the Champions League this year? If you missed this news don’t feel bad, they have been pretty laid back about the acquisition. 🚨 <– That right there is sarcasm alarm beacon and it should be blasting through the screen at you right now.
EA’s latest entry in the FIFA series takes the Champions league license and milks it for all it is worth. I’m not saying this is a bad move, it is after all the biggest club tournament in world football. But does this years game do enough to warrant a purchase? Let’s break it down.
Graphically for the most part FIFA 19 is beautiful. Over 70 perfectly recreated stadiums, including every English Premier League ground and many that have previously fell to relegation. Also for the first time 19 Spanish grounds make the list, with the Camp Nou being the exception. This authenticity is something EA Sports have always been able to hang their hat on and continually adding to the roster of stadiums year upon year shows their commitment to it.
The lighting is also much better this year. Anyone who read my review of FIFA 18 will know I was critical of the over the top lighting in last years game. This time around it is applied in a much more realistic manner and it results in a much better all round presentation. If I had one gripe it would be with some of the player faces. In most cases EA have done an excellent job with face scans, but prominent players like Lukaku and even Pogba are suspect.
In future editions I would like to see EA expand out to adding face scans of young players with high potential at smaller teams. Heck, given EA’s considerable resources I would like to see them add faces for all players in the game. Many don’t know this but super high quality face scans can be done from pictures of a player. It is not necessary to send a team to every training ground from here to Timbuktu to gain results.
EA have done an excellent job with stadium atmosphere. The crowd respond to the ebbs and flows of each match and some high profile clubs have signature chants that you can hear being belted out from the stands. Other in-game noises such as the ball being struck and the woodwork being hit all sound exactly as you would expect.
Commentary as usual is very well delivered. As someone who has predominantly played Pro Evolution Soccer for the last few years I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to hear a more varied and in-depth commentary. An entirely new team consisting of Derek Rae and Lee Dixon has been added for Champions League games and while they often times don’t hit the heights of Martin Tyler and Alan Smith, you have to factor in that this is year one. They will build on this each year adding more sound bites, stats and info.
Game modes is an area where EA have always shinned, but they have pushed the boat way out this year. Career mode is my mode of choice and always will be in football games. I prefer to play offline and so the idea of taking on a team, building a youth system, making my own signings and taking them on a journey is greatly appealing. FIFA 19 career mode allows you to do all this and also now has the inclusion of the Champions League which adds to the authenticity even more. One downside is that aside from the Champions League barely anything has changed. The interactive transfer negotiations were a cool edition last year but they got old fast. Now they are more groan inducing than anything else.
Ultimate Team is as always the blockbuster mode and will also include Champions League content this year in the form of live content updates. The main addition to FUT this year is Division Rivals, which lets you compete against others of an equivalent skill level in a battle to gain weekly rewards. Microtransactions are still present though. You can earn coins the hard way (winning many, many matches), but if you really want to build that superstar team you need to be prepared to lay down a lot more cash on FIFA Points.
The biggest movement in modes this year surprisingly comes from Kick-Off. For years this exhibition mode simply allowed you to pit two teams against each other at a stadium of your choice, but in FIFA 19 EA Sports have opened the floodgates to a bevy of new options like headers and volley’s, long range (goals outside the box count for 2), No rules (no fouls or offside calls) and their very own answer to the Battle Royale craze, Survival Mode. In Survival Mode each time a goal is scored a random player from that team is chosen to leave the pitch. While completely unrealistic and not something you would necessarily sit down and play against the AI often, as a drinking game? Ideal!
The Journey also returns for it’s third and final chapter. This year you can play as Alex Hunter, now a Galactico at Real Madrid, Kim Hunter, Alex’s half sister and finally Danny Williams who is Alex’s best friend from the first instalment back in FIFA 17. You have the option of playing through one complete story that incorporates all three narratives woven together or you can play through each one individually. This choice is a welcome addition as the entire thing is about 16 hours long, so if there is a story you aren’t particularly bothered about you can skip it.
While The Journey does continue in the same vein and fans of the mode will continue to enjoy the work EA has put in to it, I do think it has now ran it’s course. Not to say this should be the end of a FIFA story mode, but I would like to see them go back to the drawing board and return with something original featuring a new cast of characters for FIFA 20. The mode also at times feels like it is being padded by constant training drills, which in fairness you can skip, but you have to do so at the expense of a lower score.
While on the surface not much has changed from FIFA 18, when you dig in more extensively the differences start to show. The gameplay has once again been slowed down a bit which is a welcome change. I myself still go into settings and alter the game speed to the slow setting for realism though. Timed finishing is the biggest inclusion this year which if pulled off correctly will see strikes soar into the net. Personally I haven’t bothered with it much as it seems completely overpowered but if you intend to play online at any respectable level I imagine you will need to have the timing down.
Similar to last year the gameplay does still suffer from some poor transition animations. This leaves the game looking more like a computer game than an actual game of football at times but it is unlikely to be an issue that will bother many fans. One animation that will however is power shots often being hit side-footed instead of through the laces, although we have been told a patch for this is incoming for that. Ball physics have also improved from last year although more work is required. Overall with about twenty hours logged on the game so far I feel that it is a real step in the right direction.
Between modes like Career, Ultimate Team, Online Seasons and now the addition of several kick off options, the sky is your limit with FIFA 19. I play football games all year round, with 95% of my time usually being spent in Career Mode building squads for years to come with help from the youth system, but with so much else on offer I think even I may branch out. I honestly cannot remember a sports title offering so much diversity. While totally optional it is worth noting under this section though that many users will spend extra money in FUT, which might alter your idea of the value for money FIFA 19 provides.
This is EA’s best FIFA in years. While some modes like career and FUT haven’t received massive updates they feel fresh due to the gameplay tweaks and Champions League integration. The inclusion of House Rules in kick off mode mean there is something here for everyone, even non football fans. The last few years I have been vocal about PES being the better game on the pitch and while that is still true, the gap is much narrower than it has been the previous two years. Once you add in the presentation, licenses and sheer number of modes, FIFA 19 is the most complete footballing game to date.
Reviewed on PS4. This game is also available on Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch. Review code provided by the publisher.