We’ve had more fun with EA Sports FC 25 than we have with any soccer sim for quite some time. Perhaps that’s because, outside of the review period, we largely abandoned EA Sports FC 24 – or perhaps, whisper it quietly, it’s because the footie franchise is in a good place. Either way, a ton of under-the-hood depth paired with the more accessible Rush mode has actually helped us to fall in love with the beautiful game again – and considering the state of our beloved Man United right now, that’s no mean feat.
While there is a lot to talk about in this review, the fundamentals remain unchanged. Football is football, and EA Sports is very much building upon the basics here, like Pep Guardiola trading a packet of Wotsits with one of Man City’s many sister clubs for a South American wunderkind. Add that to the 115, eh?
The biggest addition for us only applies offline, but it adds drama and intrigue like you find in real-life. A new set of simulation toggles add wind and water physics to the ball, meaning a torrential downpour may force you to sit in for an important away game, as your usual zippy tiki-taka tactics won’t work while the ball battles against the elements. It’s really cool seeing your crosses go awry as gusts swirl around small stadiums, and it forces you to think on your feet and change your approach – just like in real-life.
As mentioned, this feature is only available in Kick Off and Career – presumably EA Sports thinks the sweats who play online won’t appreciate the unpredictability – but it adds a lot to the single player gameplay that helps you get out of the rut of hammering weaker sides 7-0 every Saturday. In fact, we hope this is an area the developer continues to iterate on moving forwards.
Tactically, the game feels vastly improved, too. While defending still feels like it devolves into footraces, you have more ways to deploy your players than ever before. This is thanks to FC IQ, as the buzzword goes, which awards players different roles based on real-life data and alters their behaviour as a result. So, take cover star Jude Bellingham’s ability to crash the box and pop up with important goals: he’s assigned the Shadow Striker role, which will encourage him to make those lung busting runs to get on the end of attacks.
The behavioural changes are noticeable: inside forwards with a tendency to cut inside will do so, while marauding full-backs with a penchant for overloading the midfield will make themselves available. A new tactics system gives you greater control over how you want to set your team up, and you can even share your concoctions online, like you’re prime Jose Mourinho or something.
What’s really interesting is that all this density is contrasted by Rush mode, which is best described as Rocket League on legs. This is a completely original five-on-five take on football, and it extends across the entire game, including Career and Ultimate Team. The rules are completely unique: kick-offs see you sprint to the ball; red cards are replaced with NHL-style sin bins; offsides only count in the final third. It’s chaotic, crazy, and fun – and it all takes place inside a custom Nike stadium, which looks effortlessly awesome.
Rush mode replaces Volta, but it’s much more versatile than that. For example, you can use it to test out your youth team in Career mode, and get a feel for certain players before they’ve even graduated to your first team. Alternatively, you can select your favourite player from Ultimate Team and control them in online matches against real-life opponents, allowing you to show off your latest and greatest pull.
To be fair, if it wasn’t for Rush, we wouldn’t be spending much time in Ultimate Team this year – it all feels a bit too familiar. Yes, the aforementioned tactics give you greater control over how you build your team, and the live service element means Roles can be applied to different versions of star players – but the grind of completing Rivals matches and ticking off Squad Building Challenges remains. This mode is obviously enormously popular, but it all feels a bit stale for us; we’re much preferring the dynamism of the aforementioned Career mode, with all of its new simulation elements enabled.
One thing we will say is that the menus are starting to struggle with everything the game is trying to do. While we initially appreciated the tabs in FC 24, it’s all just getting a little slow and cumbersome for our tastes; important options get lost as you scroll through the list, and even on the PS5, it’s laggy and unresponsive. This is something the team will need to address for next year’s iteration of the game.
But there are a lot of other neat little improvements and additions that need to be mentioned. You can now start a Player Career as an Icon, realising your dream of Ruud van Nistelrooy inexplicably starting his path to striker stardom at Burton Albion; Cranium technology means your lower league team mates, without Face Scans, now have more accurate representations – although there’s still work to be done here, as your mileage will vary. And there’s even the promise of live Career starting points, so you may have the option to save Man United from relegation with ten games to go, for example – if that’s the situation the club finds itself in come April.
For all the talk of iteration, there’s a lot here. The presentation is largely excellent, although we’re still not keen on the commentary, which lacks the conversational aspect of American sports games – perhaps due to the faster pace of football compared to the likes of NFL and MLB. All of the dynamic UI elements, beaming possession statistics and player fatigue onto the pitch itself, feel like a glimpse of where football broadcasting is heading as technology improves.
Conclusion
EA Sports FC 25 is the best playing version of the annual soccer sim in quite some time, with more intelligent artificial intelligence and weather physics adding a layer of density and dynamism to the experience – albeit only offline. To us, Ultimate Team feels like it’s getting a bit stale, but we like the addition of Rush across the entire release, which offers something a little different for when you fancy a change of pace. And while the commentary and menus are below par, the overall quality of the presentation continues to be underappreciated.