EA Sports FC 25 Review: We Need to Go Back to Formula

It’s that time of the year where the sports game genre is heating up and there’s fierce competition for your gaming console/PC. From the rebooted EA College Football series to Madden to NBA 2K, there’s no time to dally on the ball when it comes the beautiful game. With EA promising big things this year, we’re excited to get our hands on their newest edition, EA Sports FC 25. So how does it measure up to the competition and last year’s FC 24? Well, like a Bruno Fernandes red card, let’s dive right in!

What I Like

Graphics & Presentation

If there’s one word to describe the visuals in EA FC 25 it’s stunning. Everything from the kits to the stadiums and players look as true to life as they ever have in this franchise. EA has fully come to grips with the power of these current-gen consoles and powerful gaming PCs. Nowhere is this displayed more prominently than in the game’s most popular league, the English Premier League, where the pageantry and atmosphere is captured to a tee.

With full match introductions returning, it’s nice to be able to set the controller down and watch in anticipation as the match builds, going from the fans entering the stadium to the lineup overlays that resemble the Sky Sports presentation package. Even in motion, where I’ve been very critical in past years, the game looks and moves as realistically as ever with kit physics and weather effects helping to enhance the authenticity of the world’s most popular sport.

Modes

Credit to EA here as they do a great job of making a game that is accessible to everyone, both in terms of inclusion and also in terms of game modes. Just look at all of the modes available this year:

• Exhibition
• Career Mode (Player & Team)
• Ultimate Team & Seasons
• Pro Clubs
• Rush
• Seasons

While I’m no huge fan of Ultimate Team, it seems like every year EA dedicates some time and resources into expanding each game mode, and apart from The Journey and Volta, most of these modes are keepers and will be here to stay with some like EA’s new Rush Mode (basically 5-a-side) being incorporated into career mode. Offering a variety of modes is a good way to not only attract new fans but also keep those existing ones around. Future articles will dive deeper into career mode, but so far I find myself enjoying jumping around from mode to mode when I want to play the game in a different way.

Improved Keepers

I mentioned this aspect in my early impressions article, but it’s worth promoting to the first team. Keepers were not only an eyesore last year but also a game breaker for me. The enjoyment of scoring a goal is one of the most adrenaline-pumping moments in all of sports, but last year that enjoyment was sucked out of me due to hilariously poor keepers who would make the routine save look difficult and then pull off a world-class save numerous times throughout a match. The consistency of saves, whether it was in covering your near post or coming off their line, was downright putrid.

With shooting accuracy always skewed towards the attack on default settings, the scorelines last year would get out of hand quickly, so if you fancied a good player career mode save you’d soon find yourself breaking long-standing records because of a combination of terrible defensive AI and poor goalkeeping. While far from perfect this year, keepers inspire much more confidence in a game where your defense often leaves you hanging out to dry (more on this later).

What I Don’t Like

Tactical Rigidity

There’s a big issue with EA’s newest catchphrase FC IQ. Simply put, the IQ isn’t IQ’ing. The new tactical system that along with HyperMotion IV was supposed to revolutionize the game and bring some much needed authenticity to it has proven quite the opposite.

Welcome to the latest Deep Dive on EA SPORTS FC™ 25, where we’re taking a look at FC IQ, the new tactical system designed to give you more strategic control and freedom while increasing gameplay variety. 

Instead of players using their actual IQ on the pitch, they instead follow their instructions to a tee, rarely deviating from their instructions and roles. The ramifications of such can be seen in both attack and and defense. In regards to the attack, instead of reading the game, your attackers will blindly follow their instructions even it means actually abandoning an attack:

Case in point, off a corner, with my attack winning the second ball and my forward (Nkunku) driving towards the byline, instead of supporting the attack and staying in the box they inexplicably drop back leaving me 2 vs. 8 in the box, despite me being on Attacking:

Not even the most defensive of managers would teach this tactic, especially considering the opposition had eight defenders in the box and two just sitting outside the box. Again, what threat is my defense preparing for so cautiously that they have to abandon the attack in order to get back into their shape?

The tactical rigidity on display in EA FC 25 contributes to stagnant attacks.

In the above sequence, Frankfurt is on the attack with Stuttgart in defense. The build-up is patient and methodical, something that’s often portrayed in the modern game. From a numbers perspective, Frankfurt is attacking with three while Stuttgart have essentially six defenders behind the ball.

In the modern game, it’s all about overloads (getting the ball into an area where you have more attackers than defenders thus freeing up an attacker), and while there are certainly situations where you wouldn’t want to go all-out in attack, this certainly isn’t one of them. However, as soon as the Frankfurt right winger makes a diagonal run, the Stuttgart defense falls apart. Despite Frankfurt only having one attacker ahead of the ball who’s not in an offside position, the defense parts like the Red Sea and a big chance is gifted:

This segues perfectly into the game’s biggest issue, defending.

Head-Empty Defenders

Simply put, EA’s intent with EA FC 25, like previous years, is to keep the scorelines high and minimize the “intelligence” in AI. The game does this in four aspects when it comes to defending attacks.

1. First and foremost, the amount of space afforded attackers is head-scratching:

This is Brighton versus Nottingham Forest, two teams rated relatively high as both are mid-table English clubs full of young talent (Brighton) and full Internationals (Forest & Brighton). Not even at the lowest levels will you see a striker afforded so much space in the middle of the opposition’s penalty box while the man on the ball has no resistance — allowing him a simple pass into the striker’s feet.

2. Second on this list, and a contributor to my first point (poor man-marking/recognition), is defenders dropping too deep:

I struggle to say that this is a result of tactical rigidity down to FC IQ because this issue has been existent in FIFA/EA FC for some years now. Defenders drop too far inside their own box and because midfielders don’t actually defend (next topic), there’s a gap between your defensive lines that any striker can settle into and enjoy a cup of tea. Instead of pushing up and either getting tight to the attacker or looking to play them offsides, they simply allow attackers the time and space to receive a pass and turn, getting a shot off where it seems as if EA’s counter to this is to increase the defender’s blocking ability to prime Gary Cahill levels.

3. Midfield oh midfield, where art thou midfield?

Another running theme in the FIFA/EA FC series is your midfielders being absolutely worthless off-the-ball. As a direct result of the competitive crowd complaining about the AI doing everything for you, EA has ignored the fact that midfielders are often your most important defensive line. They shield your back 4/5, cut down passing lanes, put in challenges, and often do the dirty work that is essential to a good defensive side. In an era where the likes of Rodri and Declan Rice put in shifts week-after-week, we’re left with teammates likes this:

The end result:

Ignoring the positive from this clip, that being the AI shooting from distance, take notice of the midfielder who gives no effort and allows the attacker to bear down on the defense, even if the shot has a low xG (expected goal).

4. Defenders not following attacking runs

To cap off the defensive issues on display this year in EA FC 25, there’s an evident issue with defenders not tracking the most basic of runs. In this situation, the attacking team gets in behind, creating a counter-attack even with the defense still outnumbering the attack 3 to 2.

This isn’t the ideal situation any manager would want to be in, but the defense should have it covered as evidenced by the player with the yellow arrow adjacent to them. While the passing lane is open for a through-ball into the space, the angle and head-start the defender has should result in them being able to deal with the attack. Instead, this is what happens:

Instead of following with the run and/or anticipating the pass, the defender backs off, goes into some weird jockey animation, and allows the attacker to run right across their face to ultimately get into a 1-on-1 with the keeper and score. Just poor from EA, especially when they tout their new FC IQ.

Sometimes you get moments like this where all of the defensive issues rear their ugly head in one clip:

Simulation Mode

When the news and Deep Dive dropped and simulation mode was touted, I was extremely excited. Finally, I thought us sim players would have a way to play the game that would be based on actual skill and intelligence (the use of tactics, situational football, and so on).

For those who enjoy a more strategic and simulated approach, the Simulation Mode introduces enhanced CPU AI, wind effects, and player-controlled sliders for fine-tuning gameplay.

Instead, we already know that the “enhanced CPU AI” isn’t really enhanced, but better yet, simulation mode is basically a pre-determined slider set. And if we’re being truthful, it’s a pretty awful one, especially when compared to OS’ own Community Sliders. If you’re going to utilize a slider set, why not use the methodology and hard work put in from the actual sim community? Playing on simulation mode (evidenced by the many clips in this article), is actually a more arcade-like experience with the only “sim” characteristic being slightly slower players (sprint speed/acceleration).

Bottom Line

There are may times when playing this game where I wonder to myself how this game could have gotten out of production at the state it’s in. On the surface, the game flatters but the deeper you get the more it deceives. Even additions like Youth Tournaments are shallow and just a shameless way to plug their new five-a-side mode, Rush, which is admittedly enjoyable at first but quickly loses its luster.

With the details of the game getting more nuanced, coupled with the advancement of artificial intelligence, EA should really explore scraping the marketing gimmicks and focus on their core mechanics and how they all function. At this point with very little competition in the football/soccer arena, EA doesn’t need catchy features like “HyperMotion” or “FC IQ” to move units. The brand, the licenses, and the modes are what bring people to EA FC 25 year on year. Next year, bring me EA FC 26: Back to Basics.