After an incredible 30-year run, FIFA 23 had to peak – and to be fair, we think it just about happened. Fans of EA Sports’ flagship football franchise will be familiar with the formula: this is more sophistication than revolution, but FIFA 22 went through some of the best virtual football we’ve seen from the juggernaut publisher in recent years, and the latest episode then repeats without tearing up the tactics sheet.
Much to the chagrin of big-mouthed YouTubers and even bigger followers, the gameplay is a lot slower, with a greater emphasis on passing the ball between players rather than running rings around defenders with Lionel Messi. Tackling has also been improved, meaning it’s now possible – albeit risky, as you might expect – to slide in and poke the ball away from five star attackers. All of this leads to a more purposeful, physical football game that more closely mimics the real thing – with the possible exception of the arcade-style Power Shots, which have an exaggerated winding time but are lethal if aimed correctly.
Of course, with such complicated physics at play, you’ll inevitably run into some strange clashes that break the immersion, like Erling Haaland against a Premier League rearguard. If you turn a blind eye to these moments, however, the newly captured HyperMotion 2.0 animations – coupled with a continued improvement in Machine Learning from last year – really help sell the illusion of being the puppeteer of a professional soccer team. It’s impressive!
But beyond the moment-to-moment gameplay, the improvements are a little harder to find. Ultimate Team, being such a big backer, may have received the bulk of the project budget – and to be honest, the changes border on brave. The company has done away with the old Chemistry system, a crucial part of team building, and replaced the iconic green lines with a tiered system that allows you to gain buffs while adding more complementary players to your team.
Personally, we’re not really big fans. While we can understand that this is easier for newbies to understand, and in fact opens up new opportunities for team building, the flexibility takes away a lot of the rewards of finding the perfect piece for any given puzzle. This, of course, extends to the Squad Building Challenges, popular team building exercises you can complete for rewards – just not as engaging as it once was.
There are also other problems. In an effort to expand more single-player content, FIFA mobile-inspired FUT Moments seems like a ridiculously clever addition: bite-sized gameplay challenges that you can complete with your team in exchange for tradable stars. But where in games like Madden NFL 23 you can tackle a whole set in a row, FIFA 23 aims to take you through several screens of menus before moving on to the next goal – it all feels a bit disjointed and laborious.
And of course old habits die hard: this is still by far the most expensive sports game on the market when it comes to microtransactions. While rivals like NBA 2K23 allow you to put together a decent team with little to no investment, the reality is that you’ll have to cough up even the lower rungs of the FUT Champions ladder, as barely above-average players make an absolute fortune. on the transfer market.
While it’s possible to earn a lot of packs through gameplay, the odds are always in EA Sports’ favor: pull an 83+ player and you can guarantee you’ll get a random Eredivisie goalkeeper and not Kylian Mbappe – so it is exactly how the game is designed. It is true that competent players with weaker teams can conquer rich kids with god squads, but with pay-to-win elements at play here, it belittles the competitive aspect of the whole experience.
What about single player then? Well, there’s not that much to talk about, really. Career mode largely takes the same form, albeit with new cutscenes to add flavor, context and atmosphere to key moments. It’s good, though still way too heavy on the UI, but it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. The Player Career, meanwhile – a major focus last year – has added a salary system and personality points that can help you better refine what type of player you want to be. To us it mostly feels like superfluous fluff, but it does add a dollop of depth to last year.
Elsewhere, the Fall Guys-inspired party minigame compilation Volta has received a number of new minigames – and combined with eleven-on-eleven option Pro Clubs. This means a lot of your progress is shared between the two modes, and it feels like the first step to EA Sports introducing a highly anticipated MyPlayer-esque campaign, like the one in NBA 2K23. The publisher has hinted at the governing body FIFA clipping its wings here, so maybe that’s the next step for EA Sports FC.
However, the offer in the here and now is sufficient; some of the Volta minigames feel a little awkward to us because they’re built around the main game’s motion mechanics, and it just doesn’t feel tight enough to carry out its ambition. But we appreciate the organisation’s ambition to offer more than just competitive football matches: the football world is wide, from five-a-side to sweaters-as-goalposts, so it’s important that the franchise reflect as much of this as possible.
And we’ll add that this year it has gone even further by integrating the women’s game, with dozens of licensed teams from England and France, and implementing an entirely unique set of animations to better differentiate them from the men’s game. As the women’s game continues to grow in popularity after this summer’s transformative European tournament, it is imperative that EA Sports keep up with its progress.
Likewise, we should note that this is the first FIFA game to feature full console crossplay on same-generation systems. While this comes with caveats – such as the fact that it’s limited to one-on-one modes – it works well and should help break down barriers for people who want to play together. While this has never been the type of series that yearns for a bigger player pool to keep it alive, it’s nice to know that you can compete against friends or family, even if they subscribe to the green side.
Conclusion
FIFA 23’s gameplay tweaks make for a more intentional, physical portrayal of the beautiful game – and while it won’t appeal to the sweaty feet accustomed to five-star skills to work their way up Division Rivals, personally we value the commitment to authenticity. As a total package, this is a strong end to an impressive 30-year run, but an overemphasis on microtransactions and some cumbersome UI decisions underscore everything that has been frustrating about this franchise over the past decade. Make no mistake, with crossplay and a wealth of things to do, this is the best form the series has been in – but we hope EA Sports FC, detached from the overbearing eyes of governing body FIFA, brings a little Lake to the field.
0 Comments