EA Sports FC 24

Review game EA Sports FC 24, EA Soccer is entering a new chapter with a lot of promise and many of the same problems.

What role does a name play? We all wondered, as EA revealed it would rename its flagship soccer series from FIFA to EA Sports FC24, if this would be the year it finally made a significant breakthrough, emerging from the shadow of microtransactions and into the light of its true potential. That’s a resounding… kind of an answer. With several new mechanics like Evolutions and Tactical Visions demonstrating the series’ potential to improve, EA Sports FC 24 offers glimpses of greatness. Even with all of the exciting advancements, there are still far too many issues that have long frustrated me, such as subpar AI.

In terms of gameplay, everything feels familiar during the first few hours of EA Sports FC 24, both positively and negatively. HyperMotion V and the DualSense controller feedback on the PlayStation 5 produce a realistic match, enabling accurate ball and player physics, discernible field wear and tear, and goal post-shaking haptics. It’s difficult to dispute the meticulous attention to detail that goes into creating a realistic soccer environment.

Background interview segments are interspersed throughout Matchday’s pre-, mid-, and post-game segments, while new overlays highlight helpful metrics like shot volume and player fatigue mid-game. Even though there aren’t any real exchanges between the interviewers and players, it’s one of the many striking details that heightens the mood. You’ll even get a nice little first-person setup from the referee’s perspective if you foul someone to set up a free kick, exactly like you would on a live broadcast. Unfortunately, both ceremonial songs and team walkouts have been eliminated simultaneously. Instead, a few different images of players or fans getting ready for game day have taken their place. It’s unfortunate that even if I take a League Two team like Wrexham all the way to the Premier League, I will never get to see them perform their magnificent anthem or watch them take the stage for the first time.

The Hypermotion V AI component falls short of expectations.
Regretfully, the much-hyped artificial intelligence component of Hypermotion V technology falls short of expectations. Even with kinetic shielding, players still fall over each other in bizarre ways, making for some exciting battles. Additionally, the effectiveness of advanced machine learning—basically, a fancy term for continuously improving AI—varies widely. Your AI teammates will occasionally make poor attacking or defensive decisions that would make Harry Maguire blush; your goalkeepers will occasionally stand sideways and allow an easy shot to go in or punch a ball that could have been caught; and you will probably find yourself yelling more than once during a match about a passing input error, even though you know you angled a perfect through ball with your sticks.

Although it is annoying that these problems persist in the series, some changes—most notably Playstyles—help make coping with them less painful. Playstyles, as the name implies, tailor each player’s style of play to suit their unique set of advantages and disadvantages. Because of this, no two players can control each other in the same way, which gives gameplay and team management a new dimension. You can use Erling Haaland’s Power Shot to bully opponents off the ball and tear through nets, or James Ward-Prowse’s Dead Ball technique to make deft passes and set pieces. It’s truly amazing how EA managed to capture each player’s likeness.

The gameplay is enhanced by the fact that no two players control each other in the same way.
You will have to choose from 32 skills in six different categories to create your own personalized player’s playstyle: shooting, passing, defending, ball control, physical, and goalkeeping. Each skill has a multitude of distinct sub-abilities that determine how your character is built. This can make a big difference in terms of customizing your pre-built skills to complement your preferred style of play.

Having the Tiki Taka attribute makes it easy to control the middle of the pitch with quick passes to teammates because I always create a forward who dominates the middle of the pitch. This is especially true when combined with First Touch, which increases the likelihood of controlling the ball for the first time under pressure. My character’s exceptional ball control allows him to open up the field with wide passes that are immediately returned to him or his teammates, setting up numerous opportunities for goals.

Recognize that going into Ultimate Team will always feel unfair by nature.
After you’ve perfected your look, it’s time to explore the true reason EA Sports FC 24 is so well-liked: its trading-card game mode, also known as Sports Yu-Gi-Oh, FUT, or Ultimate Team. You should be aware going into Ultimate Team that the game always feels fundamentally unfair because those who are prepared to spend real money on microtransactions in order to obtain packs will have a stronger squad faster than those who don’t. The fundamental idea remains that microtransactions finance quantity, while quantity yields quality. Even though it’s annoying that the only ways to advance significantly are still grinding and spending a lot of money, other improvements contribute to making Ultimate Team one of the best experiences to date, even for non-paying players.

When you complete challenges in Ultimate Team, you can enhance a card’s base stats through evolutions—as long as the card meets the requirements, which differ depending on factors like overall, pace, and rarity. Thanks to the Founders Evolution, fans of Manchester United no longer have to wait to see Alexander Garnacho reach his full potential—he went from a Left Wing 75 rating to a Relentless Winger 82 rating. To accomplish this, simply complete the objectives divided into levels. Completing a set of requirements in a level will reward you with a stat boost. It’s nice that most of these objectives only require you to finish matches with your EVO player, unlike the more difficult ones in the series (yes, I’m talking about you, FUT 20). Long-term Ultimate Team players are attracted to improving the players they draw rather than relying on luck.

The inclusion of over 19,000 fully licensed players, 700 teams, and 30 leagues from the women’s soccer divisions to Ultimate Team represents another advancement for this mode; in contrast, FIFA 23 featured only 12 NWSL teams and four stadiums. In addition to allowing you to play as everyone from Sam Kerr to Kadidiatou Diani, EA Sports FC24 also equalizes statistics between men and women. This implies that Nadine Kessler can body players off the ball in the same manner as Adama Traore, which could lead to some interesting lineups and matchups involving mixed genders.

Although Volta didn’t change all that much, it was the mode I enjoyed using the most.
While it didn’t change all that much, my favorite multiplayer mode in EA Sports FC 24 was Volta, the other, sometimes ignored stepchild mode. There will undoubtedly be matches where someone is inactive or a total ball hog, but the ones where you connect with like-minded players are nostalgic for FIFA Street. After a fantastic build-up that results in multiple points, it is incredibly satisfying to wall bounce to a teammate who dekes around the keeper. To get the most out of Volta and achieve the best results, it is advised to assemble a strong group of four friends, as chemistry is crucial. The variety of stadiums makes matches more varied; some have higher walls to bounce the ball off, while others have larger goals. It’s a nice touch of variety to keep each game from getting monotonous.

The whole thing ruins what could have been an excellent opportunity to make up for the Career Modes’ inability to provide freedom of choice over one’s own path and direction. Additionally, dynamic moments fall short of fully capturing the gravity and weight of situations because, after a certain number of viewings, you start to wonder where the story-based content of FIFA 17’s Alex Hunter has disappeared.

The seven tactical identities that your coach can apply to their club make Manager Mode in EA Sports FC 24 a little more engaging. Playstyles for an individual are equivalent to tactical vision, but they are applied to an entire team. For an excellent defense, go with the more defensive Park the Bus option, or use Tiki-Taka to dominate the middle of the field. Nothing compares to sprinting down the field and crossing it into an open net, which is why I always favor wing play. Even so, not much has changed in this career mode either, with single players feeling like an afterthought once more, living in the shadow of Ultimate Teams for all time.

Conclusion
EA Sports FC 24 is not what you were expecting if you were hoping for a radical makeover of EA’s soccer simulation game in addition to the company renaming it FIFA. If you’ve ever played FIFA, you know exactly what kind of long-standing AI issues and small improvements to anticipate this year. Even though Evolutions is a new mechanic that requires you to put up with a lot of microtransactions, it demonstrates that EA can generally improve its RPG elements. However, this ability is currently limited to the Ultimate Team. In addition, the Career Modes continue to suffer from neglect that has been absent for years, as well as the irritation of poorly thought out RNG-based objectives. Overall, despite having a different name, EA Sports FC 24 is essentially the same beautiful but frustrating game.