Developer: EA Vancouver
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: 1st October 2021
Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Stadia
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
▫️ Code provided by the publisher ▫️
Long term consumers of our content will know that football games hold a special place in my heart. I don’t have an online shooter of choice that I sink hours into every week, nor do I dabble in MMO’s. The nature of reviewing games and keeping up with the latest releases for our weekly podcast means I am constantly moving on to the latest release. However, football is my one constant. Each year I extensively test out both FIFA and PES (RIP), decide which clicks best and sink obscene amounts of hours into the winner.
In recent years, that has been PES (RIP). In fact, you would need to go all the way back to FIFA 16 to find a time where EA’s yearly football sim was my go-to. A quick check of my EA Origin account on PC reveals I logged over 1,000 hours each on FIFA 13, 14, 15 & 16, before switching to Konami’s more realistic product as EA’s take on football became more arcade-like to cater to the Ultimate Team crowd. So with eFootball squeaking out like a wet fart this year, it was the perfect time for FIFA to come back and claim the gameplay crown.
Finally! A realistic FIFA
It is easy to get disenchanted with annualised games. Short development cycles don’t allow much time to make sweeping changes. However, the jump to next-gen technology does open up new possibilities and that is exactly what the team over at EA Vancouver utilised. Enter “Hypermotion”. A term that led to many a LOL on Twitter after the initial reveal. Turns out – it really is a game-changer. All over the pitch players are subtly going about their business in a more realistic manner.
Stepping onto the field for the first time will feel very familiar. At its core, this is still a FIFA game on the divisive Frostbite engine. However, this year brings improvements to almost every facet of play. The first thing you’ll notice is that the game speed has been slowed down – much more in line with the beautiful game (although I personally still set the speed to slow in the settings). The more you play, the more the nuanced changes become apparent.
The AI attack in much more varied and creative ways. To counteract this, you can now player switch much more efficiently. Pressing L1/LB is still a viable method, but a click of the right stick now displays a prompt above the four closest players so that you can instantly take control of the player you want. Defending now feels like more of a battle than ever, and you’ll want to have your wits about you to keep the opposition at bay.
Attacking also allows for more creativity. The long balls have been vastly improved and you can now switch play with ease. This is often followed by one of the various new first touches, whether it be improved chest control or players cushioning the ball on their knee. Through balls are now harder to execute, but when you get it right the results can be spectacular as shown in my tweet below.
While in possession you can force movement from those around you. Tapping L1/LB will initiate a run from a nearby player, while R1/RB will result in a player coming short for a pass. These extra mechanics aren’t required, as AI controlled players will still make intelligent runs on their own, but the extra layer of depth is a welcome addition and can give you a real edge in a tight match.
Full immersion
While not a huge leap forward from the next-gen release of FIFA 21, there is no doubting that FIFA 22 looks absolutely stunning. More than once over the last week my son has come through and asked me if I am playing or watching football. As someone coming back from PES (RIP), the grass is a particular highlight. Whether you play during the day or at night the whole experience is so vibrant and bursting with detail.
In recent years EA has made great strides in adding real faces to a large number of players, but I would still like to see them dedicate even more time to this. These days you can create a perfect face render from a decent quality picture, so contact clubs, ask for a profile picture of each player in the squad and have a small team import them all. With the rise of Ultimate Team, player identity is more important than ever, and this is a great way to add more realism.
Playing in licensed leagues such as the English Premier league or the Bundesliga is a joy. Clubs have specific chants and songs that play during matches. The crowd noise is implemented really well and commentary is stellar as always. Alex Scott reporting during career mode in the place of Alan McNally is a great touch and the dualsense controller on the PlayStation 5 utilises haptic feedback to great effect throughout.
Modes galore
What can you say about the modes in FIFA at this point? There really is something for everyone here. Exhibition alone has enough match variants to keep many players going, but that is just the beginning. Ultimate Team, Pro Clubs and Volta still remain, with a few tweaks. I actually enjoyed my time with Volta this year and while it still remains a half step towards what I truly want – a standalone sequel to FIFA Street, it does veer more towards OTT skill-based football than it previously did.
Every year it’s the manager career mode that brings me back to my football game of choice. FIFA’s big addition this time around is creating your own club. It’s a great idea, but one that has been implemented with varying results. The actual club creation itself feels too limited, for instance restricting you to selecting one of the generic stadiums and asking you to pick better net-type/colour, seat colour and pitch design. As a Celtic supporter, I grew weary of EA’s created stadiums years ago. There is a real obvious reduction in quality between those and their real-life counterparts.
You can then choose the star rating of your team, along with the starting budget, which presumably would render the whole thing pointless. You can’t edit the random player’s names or appearances, which no doubt made a whole generation of Ted Lasso fans sigh in unison. Thankfully the manager editor still allows us to craft Ted to stand in the dugouts.
I’m not saying the idea is dead in the water, but it needs a real re-think ahead of FIFA 23. Allow the user to seek out sponsorship deals, which was removed from career mode about 7 years ago. Whatever sponsor they choose can then appear on the teams kit that season. Also, why not be allowed to choose a small capacity stadium and then as you progress through the leagues use money generated to upgrade the teams ground and training capabilities. There is a real gem of a mode in here, but it needs to be fleshed out a lot more.
Player career has arguably been given the biggest overhaul, with new RPG style upgrade trees allowing you more agency over your player than ever before. Again, with the number of modes in FIFA 22, it would be impossible to sink significant time into everything and so people will naturally gravitate towards their favourites, but if player career has ever interested you this may well be the time to jump back in.
Stick to in-game trophies/achievements
As tends to be the case with FIFA, the trophy/achievement list is not something you are likely to blast through. According to PSN Profiles, which houses the hardest of hardcore trophy hunters, 21 of the 37 trophies/achievements on offer have been obtained by less than 10% of users. To date, not a single person has earned the platinum trophy either. The list not only tasks you with extensively playing each mode but also being pretty good at them. Online trophies aplenty mean you’ll need to dig deep for this one.
State of play
So what this all adds up to is FIFA 22 being the best it has been in years. Certainly in the Frostbite era. Changes to modes are oftentimes minimal, but at this point, it really is hard to knock a game that offers more modes than almost any other game on the market. Instead this year, EA has focused on what matters most – the gameplay. Subtle changes and additions all over the place have resulted in the number one sports game in the world finally, once again, feeling like a true representation of the sport.
-Craig 🧐