Game review 07 October 2020, 18:37

author: Karol Laska

FIFA 21 Review - EA Is at It Again

The new FIFA is as fun and annoying as its previous editions. Although there have been some noticeable changes, the new decade for the series certainly doesn't start with a breakthrough.

The review is based on the PS4 version. It's also relevant to XONE version(s).

There's a very technical term known in certain circles of popular Youtubers – "FIFA life cycle." What is the cycle about? It's simple: Around summertime, we're bombarded by news of the next installment of the football/soccer sim being the most innovative ever entry in one of the most popular sports games series of all times. Stage two is buying the game with hopes for amazing gameplay, and then learning all its flaws by heart in the subsequent months. Stage three is the firm declaration: "Not again. We won't get fooled again. Farewell, FIFA." And then, summer comes again, and a deceptive team of specialists dupes and bamboozles us again.

Will the 28th installment in the series be remembered by gamers as a high-quality production and, most importantly, a breakthrough? Unfortunately, this is not one of "those years," and the sceptics will once again have the right to point out EA's utter complacency. But I would be very unfair to say there are no changes. There are, and some of them even have a direct impact on the game and the feel, none of them actually gives FIFA 21 the right to call itself an actual, full blown product. Again, it's little but an update.

Disposal and recycling

There's one thing we need to get out of the way. The gameplay in FIFA never goes below a certain standard, and developers at Electronic Arts can deliver a game that suffices for hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours. However, the previous installment isn't remembered dearly by players, as it was ridden by problems in multiple departments. The collisions system was broken resulting numerous glitches in their behavior; ranged shots were almost completely neglected, forcing players to focus on pushing attacks deep into the opponents' penalty area.

EA didn't redesign the gameplay system from scratch, and it wasn't arguably mandatory, although would have certainly been welcome. They made a rather rational decision to eliminate the most troublesome mistakes and throw in a few new things. One welcome result of that is that players are no longer flimsy like it was Goat Simulator; they're able to enter physical collisions with a clearer, firmer feel. That doesn't mean player collisions aren't sketchy anymore: I learned this the hard way when a bulky defender from my own team rammed my keeper with the force of an angry rhino. The keeper fell into the goal, firmly clasping the ball, which cost me three points.

On the other hand, we can now take our chances every now and then and fire away from 25+ yards with reasonable hopes of scoring a spectacular goal, and headers make sense again. That's because they're fully manual now, so even the tiny tilt of the analog knob has an effect on the direction the ball.

Fast and furious

There's some changes in dribbling, too, but here, I wasn't entirely satisfied. I'm among the people, who frown upon FIFA's continuous attempts at making the game faster; it sometimes feels like basketball, or, worse still, like tennis. EA of course came up with a nice label for it, and "Agile Dribbling" indeed offers some new opportunities in getting an edge in one-on-one situations, but it overall seems another step towards a more arcade gameplay.

The answer, I'm sure, is that it's not really meant to be a simulator. Why, then, does EA always claim that the changes are meant to increase realism? There's a contradiction here. Besides, I have to add that this ball control system is hilarious, especially for the most technically gifted players – they move the ball from leg to leg at the speed of light. Defenders won't have it easy.

There's another new feature (in fact more than one, they're of the same kind), which in my opinion presents the most interesting of all the fresh things prepared by American developers. From this year onwards, we can build positional attacks in a much more unpredictable way. That's because a few complicated key configurations make it possible to control players off the ball.

This can have a particularly significant effect on online games, though I mostly used these moves to embarrass myself in front of the opponents and pose a serious threat only to my own defensive block. But I'm me. The usefulness of this solution will soon be verified by the pros around the world. You will find similar "innovations" on EA's official website – I decided to let you know only about the ones that are actually noticeable. It's far from evolution, though they certainly change a few things.

Fortunately, minor improvements were also introduced. And let's just say it's not the norm in this series. The ball still behaves the same way, and the instincts I developed over the years, such as quickly exchanging the ball in midfield, are still valid. But you can never know if the feel of the game won't change with a random patch in two or three months – it has happened before.

After a slightly longer adventure with FIFA 21, however, there are some other conclusions that were not so obvious after the intense but relatively short initial sessions. First of all, at the start I thought I was losing so many goals because of my poor skills and lack of patience in controlling the defensive formation. This seems quite natural, by the hour I was getting the hang of taking the ball away from my opponents, and I was also better at positioning my players inside and outside the penalty box. And while I felt an improvement in my game, the tally of goals lost spoke volumes. Scores like 5:5, 6:3, and even my favourite, which is 7:5 (I won, all goals scored in second leg), are not uncommon, which resembles futsal or hockey more than soccer. Admittedly, it's easy to get used to such a frenzied run of meetings, but the connection between FIFA 21 and reality is still very remote.

Let's build a stadium together

Now that we know how kicking feels, it's time to look at the game modes where we can test our skills. Almost none of them got any significant changes, especially Volta (which is the equivalent of FIFA Street first featured in FIFA 20 ) and the already legendary FIFA Ultimate Team, i.e. a real bonanza for EA. However, I'm quite delighted at how playing with friends was made more complex and rewarding in both of these modes. And even though I still haven't had a chance of competing with my friends on Stamford Bridge, nor the streets of Rio, I always welcome any attempt to make friendly sessions more accessible and fun.

However, all the remaining exploits (rather: lack thereof) in context of these two modes deserve criticism. It's a little sad that we could enjoy a pretty extensive story of Alex Hunter a few years ago, and right now we only get a rudimentary story in the Volta, which can be completed in mere 180 minutes. The only consolation is that the mode features players like Thierry Henry or Ricardo Kaka, the absolute legends. Of course, we can still enjoy dynamic gameplay with AI or other players while unlocking branded joggers in the digital version, but what's next? EA has given up on developing the Volta this year, and it's a sin because it's another thing that will likely fall into oblivion.

As for the aforementioned FUT, I actually didn't expect any major changes, because it's rich in content anyway. Squad Building Challenges, lots of different tasks, Squad Battles, Division Rivals or online friendlies – there's plenty. Electronic Arts, however, decided to go a step further and introduced a range of cosmetic, pardon my French, BS to be drawn from packs. They all have to do with the personalisation of our club and stadium.

Initially, I even liked this addition – additional flags in the stands, a few logos, the ability to select your anthem. Most importantly, I'm not forced to get any of these – I might as well use a ready-made stadium. And? And that's cool – at least on paper.

My opinion changed dramatically when I opened one of the golden packs, to which required considerable time and effort. They usually contained rare players, even the contracts were ok, but this time, things went a little too far. The mainstay of this package turned out to be... fireworks. For displaying before the game. This further decreases the probability of obtaining valuable players. Just sensational.

I also can't help but wonder why the creators prefer to invest time and money into insignificant, albeit fancy novelties, instead of focusing on polishing the game from the technical side of things. At first, I thought it was all the fault of the preview version, but the game was released since, and the main menu still reacts with a delay (microseconds, nevertheless apparent), not to mention bugs such as inability to find an opponent (I don't think it's because of empty servers) or random freezes forcing requiring a hard reset of the console. Really, the frustration from getting my ass whooped on the pitch is enough. Why, dear developers, do you insist on making my life harder outside the virtual stadium as well?

Practice makes perfect

I've always loved playing in FIFA – not just matches, but also managing the team, scouting the transfer market, catching talent – all the things that the manager mode allowed me to do. This year, it received a few fresh functions that I really like. One of them is match simulation panel, which feels like Football Manager. The AI plays the game for us and we can make tactical adjustments and take control of the team at any moment. It can save time, but also a lot of nerves.

The little cherry on the cake is giving the players total control over the training schedule. We can choose the days where we do profiled workouts and also find room for a bit of recovery. In addition, every player can develop in the direction we choose. Fast strikers, for example, can become midfield conductors – it all depends on our whim.

But it's hard to limit yourself to single-player, as it's often a pain. That's because of the AI. The challenge is either completely banal, with matches ending in results more common in hockey, or it's not as much difficult as it is tedious. Taking the ball away from these passive bores is usually neigh impossible. An attempt to do away with the standard artificial intelligence duels is the competition mode. When turned on, the computer tries to mimic the behaviour of professional players and actually pulls off moves that circus performers would never dream of. The game is more enjoyable then, but definitely harder. Well, you can't have everything.

Ver 21.0

And then, we have to address a vital question. Why isn't this game a DLC? On the one hand, I understand EA's approach, but on the other, most subsequent installments in the FIFA series are half-baked (for theoretically full-blown games). It's the one series that truly should have become a game-service years ago; yet every year, we get another installment that brings some new elements, but it's usually nothing major.

Perhaps it has to do with the development of a next-gen version of the game, or maybe it's the minimal effort – maximal profit rule at play here. None of these options, however, changes the fact that the new FIFA is a good, satisfying game, one that can liven up a lot of parties, and put some more dedicated fans into a gaming trance again. The game will suffice for another year of playing, but we'd really love to see the series truly evolve next year. To see it finally meet the hopes placed in this series, realize the true potential of this particular video game genre.