EA Sports FC 25 Review: Minor League Upgrades

It's difficult to recognise granular changes in seemingly constant things. You don't really notice a tree growing every year, but when you put those years together, the difference becomes apparent to the naked eye. The erstwhile FIFA series of football sims is somewhat like that. With a new edition released every year, the changes to the long-running and ridiculously popular sports franchise can be imperceptible over a year, or even more. These games only start feeling new after three or four subsequent editions when Electronic Arts is compelled to re-energise the series after a run of games becomes undeniably stale. To me, FIFA has always existed in eras. A spate of games follows the same language with minor improvements and tunings, before EA decides to freshen things up.

The franchise's latest era began last year when it shed its decades-old FIFA identity and rechristened itself as EA Sports FC. But a new name didn't bring a promised new beginning with FC 24. There was a new coat of paint, but underneath, the game was very much carved out of the same wood that has long been showing cracks. No one expected EA to upend a successful formula and re-imagine the game in a new light, but EA Sports FC 24 was desperately lacking fresh ideas. One year later, EA Sports FC 25, the second entry in EA's new football video game timeline, is still very much a fruit from the same tree. But there are a few new ideas this time around, some of which elevate the game from its swamp of familiarity. On a visual level, there's not much that differentiates FC 25 from its predecessor. You could boot it up and your flatmate might walk in on you playing and think its FC 24. But if they'd pick up the controller and jump in a game, the differences are likely to become a little more apparent.

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To begin with, EA Sports FC 25 is harder, especially for those who are used to running at defences with a pacy winger, cutting through the entire opponent half and scoring a worldie –– that's harder to pull off here. There's a greater (and much needed) emphasis on defending in FC 25 that hands players a little more power to dictate play when they are off the ball. Defenders and defensive midfielders have more of a commanding presence and are clearly more empowered to disrupt quick offensive moves. At first, this is a bit jarring. When attacking, you tend to lose the ball often and quickly if you're not carefully constructing your passes and relying on a single player to break down the defence. Defenders pick your pocket or win the second ball before you have the time to adjust, turn or take a second touch. This forces you to craft more considered plays and graft for your goals.

Defenders can now also make a tactical foul in a last-ditch attempt to nullify an attack. These are fun to pull off in the game and of course will result in your player being penalised, but the new ability is only useful in certain circumstances and doesn't strengthen defences as a whole. Even with their newfound powers, however, defenders still seem to be playing with their hands tied behind their backs. When facing up to an oncoming attacker, big centre-backs are potent in their tackling. But if a pacy forward slips past them, you could kiss defensive recovery goodbye. There's little that's stopping the forward from scoring at that point as defenders are woefully inept when chasing down attackers and making recoveries. This has long been an issue in EA's football games, and FC 25 doesn't address the glaring defensive weakness either.

Defenders still struggle to make recoveries against pacy forwards
Photo Credit: EA

EA's football franchise has always favoured an arcade-style recreation of the world's game. It's faster, leaner, and meaner. For a more authentic on-pitch gameplay, purists like me have preferred the more deliberate playstyle and pacing of Pro Evolution Soccer (rest in peace). But EA Sports FC 25, to its credit, attempts to bring a bit of realism to its otherwise hyper-kinetic simulacrum of football made for 16-year-olds brought up on TikTok and Twitter (also, RIP). EA has burned in a Simulation Settings master switch in the game this time, that lets you swap out the classic FIFA experience –– akin to a run-and-gun sort of playstyle –– for a more grounded simulation of the sport –– much like a tactical shooter. EA says that the Simulation gameplay type is “closer to what you'd see in a live football match.” While that's an exaggeration, the option does slow down things on the pitch, underscoring the action with real-time decision making. Once I toggled the Simulation mode on, I never went back.

This change isn't just apparent on the defensive third of the field; attacking now seems beholden to gravity and you can't simply fly around with the ball glued to your toes. Players are more prone to bad touches, more susceptible to losing one-on-one battles, and less likely to knock the ball past the opponent in a sudden burst of pace. Passing, too, is now a little less video gamey. It doesn't seem hard coded to be precise, and I found myself struggling to pass my way out of tight spaces in the midfield early on. With time, however, you grow into the rhythms of the sim and find solutions that help you build up efficient plays. This experience, of course, is subject to user customisation. If you prefer the manic intensity of classic FIFA gameplay, then you can stick to the default simulation setting or fine tune it the way you like by adjusting individual sliders for different gameplay elements.

With the simulation setting on, the gameplay is more realistic and considered
Photo Credit: EA/ Screenshot - Manas Mitul

The altered on-pitch experience is underpinned by an overhaul of tactical foundations across FC 25. This applies to how you tactically set up your team, assign player roles, and decide how they will play together on the pitch. When you head to team management in any mode, you're greeted by a revamped and streamlined tactics menu, where you can choose a tactical preset, pick a formation, a build-up style, and a defensive approach. All of this is a neater, but also a leaner experience. Some specific tactical adjustments present in past games have been stripped away, in essence giving you less control over your team's tactical set up. You also can't manually adjust the position of your players on the pitch and create your own formations like you were able to in previous games. These changes make for a less flexible, more guided tactical experience in FC 25.

The tactical streamlining, however, is counter-balanced by a deeper focus on individual player roles in your starting XI. Each position on the pitch comes with distinct positional role that can be assigned to the player. These player roles govern how individual members of your team will think, act and move on the pitch. For instance, you could set up you right-back as a Falseback; this role will task your right-back to push into the central midfield rather than staying out wide — Pep Guardiola style. Or you could play them as an Attacking Wingback, prioritising wide attacking output over defensive duties. Each Player Role comes with its unique benefits and drawbacks; you may get an extra pair of legs on the offensive side of the pitch to provide options when attacking, but that player will likely be stranded out of position when you lose the ball, making you susceptible to counters.

Player Roles add depth to the tactical set up of your team
Photo Credit: EA/ Screenshot - Manas Mitul

Each player on your team also comes with specific level of Role Familiarity, denoted by ‘plus' signs. A player's familiarity to a position and its corresponding roles and responsibilities guides how good they will be when starting from that position. A single plus sign next to a role indicates the player has mastered the position, while a double plus sign — only available for certain players — tells you that they are one of the world's best in that role. These options are quite helpful in guiding player-level behaviour on the pitch and offer you the freedom to tweak around and see what's working for you. The more role-familiar players you have in your starting XI, the more your team is likely to actually play like team.

Beyond menus and inputs, the AI-driven tactical core of EA Sports FC 25, however, remains annoyingly broken. EA says there's a new AI model guiding positional awareness and player behaviour in the game that utilises real-world data. And the new iteration of the Hypermotion technology claims to bring more authentic on-pitch player interactions, animations and visuals. But, when playing a match in FC 25, these changes are frankly imperceptible. There's barely any noticeable shift in visual fidelity from FC 24, and while there are newer animations for player actions in the game, AI player behaviour remains woeful. Despite spending hours setting up your tactics, it is often a struggle to get your team to behave like a real-life football club. You see glaring gaps in the midfield, AI-controlled defenders not rushing to mark attackers in space, and AI players constantly failing to adapt to evolving situations in a match.

FC 25 features Smart Tactics options that can be accessed with the D-pad
Photo Credit: EA

And it isn't just the on-pitch flaws that are carried over from previous games; general UI clunk, unresponsive inputs in menus, and stuttering transitions between screens are alive and well in FC 25. These recurring frustrations point to a callous approach from EA that mandates rushing out a new edition in time for a new football season over hammering out the dents in the chassis to deliver a polished product. You can also never quite shake the feeling that EA Sports FC 25 is residing under the skin of its predecessor. The main menu here is the clone of the new one seen last year. As is the lazy tradition, this will continue for a few editions before EA knows it's time to switch things up. The familiar DNA pervades every other screen in the game, with only a few strands swapped around to make sure players can see what's changed if they bring a magnifying glass.

Let's talk about the manager mode. The trademark Career mode, where I've sunk most of my time in my decades of playing FIFA, is as usual split between Manager and Player careers — I'll mostly be talking about the former. In FC 24, the Career mode felt largely ignored, with EA only bringing minor and cosmetic changes to the tired formula. In FC 25, the changes, unfortunately, remain aesthetic and stop way short of overhauling the manager mode experience. The ability to set an overarching tactical vision for your club, introduced last year, has been retained, and there are some tweaks across different aspects of the mode, but little is new in terms of impactful additions. The Career mode homepage now shows a rolling list of your tasks as a manager and a social media feed on the side providing updates on player transfers from football gossip god Fabrizio Romano and club and player news from The Athletic. After the initial novelty of checking every item off your list before you head to matchday, you start to groan at the repetitive tasks and eventually start ignoring them.

The new manager mode homescreen comes with a task list and a social media feed
Photo Credit: EA/ Screenshot - Manas Mitul

The new tactics system makes its way to the Career mode, changing the way you set up your club to win matches, but the all-important transfer hub remains the same for practical purposes. The way you set up your scouts, find players you need, engage in transfer negotiations is completely unchanged, following the set formats we've seen for years now. And there is still no VAR in EA Sports FC 25. I understand that implementing a video review system in online matches is not feasible, but playing manager mode in 2024 without VAR affecting matches and their outcomes seems outlandish. There is a greater focus on youth development and scouting; manager mode even lets you play bi-monthly five-a-side youth tournaments to accelerate the growth of your youth team. And now there's an option to embark on a manager career for a women's team from some of the top licensed leagues. While these additions are appreciated, EA has frustratingly again overlooked a core overhaul of the manager mode that fans have long demanded.

As expected, however, the money-spinning Ultimate Team mode gets the spotlight again. EA's biggest addition this time around is a quickfire 5v5 Rush mode, that in essence replaces the Volta street football mode. Rush comes with its own set of rules for offside, player penalties and set pieces, all of which fit naturally within the seven-minute match format. The new feature, available across different game modes, strips away the contrived “coolness” of Volta with simple, fun five-a-side matches that truly shine in the Ultimate Team mode. With Rush, EA is basically cribbing from Rocket League. In Ultimate Team Rush, you can either team up with friends or play with strangers online — each user controlling a player — and take on other teams of five online. As a former Rocket League addict, I can confirm that Rush has the same effect. It's fast, engaging and often frustrating — but never not fun.

Rocket league-style five-a-side Rush mode is fun and addictive
Photo Credit: EA

Playing with friends online naturally brings more cohesion to your game, but jumping into a match with strangers is as unpredictable as you'd expect it to be. If you're lucky, you'll match with players who want to work as a team, construct selfless plays and win together. Most of the time, however, you'll find yourself playing with pre-pubescent idiots who're in the habit of shouting “Siuuuuu” after eating their morning cereal. Nevertheless, Rush is cool, if derivative addition to EA Sports FC 25, and I found myself playing quickfire games online again and again. In fact, despite getting a good Ultimate Team together on paper, I played more Rush games than the traditional 11v11 matches in Ultimate Team Rivals.

The familiar stuff from Ultimate Team, like squad-building challenges and online competitions, are all here — and so is in-your-face case for microtransactions. The new tactical system and player roles make their way into mode, too. In addition to introducing the all-new Rush mode, FC 25 expands the Evolutions feature, which brings cosmetic and stat upgrades to your player cards in Ultimate Team. You can select an eligible player from your team and graft to complete challenges that upgrade your player cards. Or you can give EA more money and spend in-game currency to buy upgrades.

Ultimate Team remains the focus for EA
Photo Credit: EA/ Screenshot - Manas Mitul

Aside from Ultimate Team, other familiar modes like online Seasons, Clubs and Co-op Seasons are all here in the same form we've seen for years. As with all EA Sports football games, the comfort of consistency remains key. There are no radical changes, no upending of norms, no risk-taking. But one can hardly begrudge EA to rip apart things that have continued to work for years for reasons as flimsy as creativity and innovation. But it's the minor visual upgrades that leave a bad taste in the mouth. EA Sports FC 25 runs and looks as we've come to expect games in the series to run and look for the past few years.

As I mentioned, when it comes to the naked eye test, there's little that differentiates the game from its predecessor. Sure, certain player faces are more detailed now, as is the norm with every new edition, and a fresh set of animations try and add a bit more realism to player movement, but these don't amount to a perceptible visual upgrade on the pitch. Annoyingly though, cloth physics gets an upgrade that makes player kits comedically bouncy. Shirts and shorts look like they are going through a panic attack, wiggling as if they have a mind of their own. The ever-present general layer of visual glitches and jank hasn't been ironed out, as well. Whether you're on the pitch or in the menus, EA Sports FC 25 will often refuse to follow your lead.

Certain player faces and animations are improved in FC 25
Photo Credit: EA

When you put all of its new tricks and familiar frustrations into a bag, EA Sports FC 25 fails to offer an experience that makes you look at the series in a new light. And that seems to be the recurring problem with the franchise as a whole. EA has constantly favoured reiteration over rejuvenation, and sadly that approach has only led to regurgitation. Every new edition of its annual football sim feels like meeting an old friend, asking “how you've been” and getting “same old, same old” in reply. There are some new ideas, most notably the Rocket League-style Rush mode that adds a much needed, well, rush to an otherwise stale table of contents. And while the tactical overhaul brings a new way to engage with team strategy and player instructions, it does so at the cost of mechanical flexibility.

The on-pitch gameplay takes a few steps forward in the right direction, empowering the defensive side of the game, but FC 25 stops short of taking necessary strides towards meaningful upgrades that could change the game for good. The continued apathy towards career mode, however, remains the biggest complaint. Gaping cracks in the quintessential mode have repeatedly been ignored for surface-level improvements — as if a new coat of paint would change the fact that the underlying wall is rotting. EA Sports FC 25, disappointingly, opts to do the same, even though a foundational change is long overdue. Over the past few years, EA's long-running football franchise has essentially embraced a live service strategy, with minor seasonal upgrades rolled out annually to an audience hooked to its unethical commercial model. The only difference is that EA asks you to pay full price every year for a “new” game.

Pros

• Engaging and addictive Rush mode
• Deeper tactical control with Player Roles
• Greater emphasis on defending
• Focus on realism with Simulation setting
• Improved animations

Cons

• Minor changes to career mode
• UI and gameplay jank
• Lack of noticeable visual upgrades
• Rigid new tactics system
• Frustrating AI player behaviour

Rating (out of 10): 6

EA Sports FC 25 released September 27 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X and Nintendo Switch.

Pricing starts at Rs. 3,999 for the Standard Edition on Steam and Epic Games Store for PC, and Rs. 4,499 on PlayStation Store for PS5 and PS4, and Microsoft Store for Xbox Series S/X and Xbox One.