EA FC 27 offers a crucial improvement on last year’s gameplay despite new features disappointing (Image: EA Sports)
Fans are always divided on a new EA Sports football game. When one launches, like EA FC 27 is about to, it is always deemed either the best or worst entry in the long-running franchise.
While plenty of fans might still call it FIFA from its heyday, EA Sports FC has truly carved its own identity over the last few years. Arcade, high-scoring online matches have been the standard for some time. But now, that might actually be about to change.
Before getting to grips with EA FC 27, it might have appeared as though developers have spent time adding in fancy new features that nobody asked for. But there’s one crucial change to on-pitch action that saves EA FC 27 from being one of the most middling titles EA Sports has offered.
That change is a much-wanted tweak to AI defending. EA FC 26 players complained frequently and loudly that gamers could get away with barely trying to defend – leaving the AI to do something that many felt was too difficult.
It reduced the skill gap but was also immensely frustrating. Imagine finally breaking through a top-level backline, while your opponent controls a defensive midfielder sitting deep, only to see the likes of Virgil van Dijk or Micky van de Ven steaming through to literally shove you off the ball.
Thankfully, the mechanics that allowed this have been truly nerfed. Not only is the Bruiser PlayStyle+ less effective – and in fact, most of the PlayStyles seem less important in EA FC 27 – but leaving your AI to defend for you will punish you dearly.
Don’t fancy trying to time a tackle to perfection? The AI won’t engage in the same way as it used to, and trying to storm in with a defender from the backline will leave wide open gaps that any half-competent player will exploit with ease.
The result of this is that you end up with a more grounded, deliberate football game. Knocking the ball around while being patient is crucial and counter attacks can be launched with a bit more nous than simply spamming a lobbed or driven through ball.
It finally means that EA FC 27’s gameplay is where many hope it stays. But there’s always the first major patch of the game cycle to ruin that, as has been the case for many years before now.
The Grounds – a major new addition that nobody asked for
As for the new features, the long-rumoured ‘open world’ mode The Grounds – although it’s not that open and more like a free-roam football village with three distinct areas – was finally revealed over the summer. And fans were not sold on it at all.
The thing about The Grounds is that, for all its sheen, it isn’t that engaging. There are plenty of things to do, but they don’t feel especially fulfilling or rewarding.
Players can drop-kick a football to smash targets dotted around the three districts, all based on the footballing heritage areas of Paris, northern England and South America. But other than that, there’s not an awful lot to keep players navigating.
While exploring The Grounds, you discover the authentic feel of the three areas, and there are plenty of nice little nods to football history. But other than the actual mini games, Clubs venue and Rush stadium, it feels like a way to shoehorn in more microtransaction opportunities.
That being said, it’s still quite satisfying to eliminate the targets as you roam through The Grounds, and it does link to objectives rewarding Season Points. At least that way, players can level up through the Season Pass, and the mini games are genuinely fun, if not actually needed or wanted by fans.
The Grounds has plenty of interesting features, but not enough to keep players engaged (Image: EA Sports)
FUT Gallery offers a new way to celebrate your Ultimate Team journey
The other rather eye-raising major new feature is the FUT Gallery. In Ultimate Team this year, a new stickerbook-lite collection mode rewards gamers for submitting their player items, gaining higher scores if they have rarer items or fulfil certain criteria.
This seems like a fun little addition on the face of it. But completing the FUT Gallery is a time-consuming slog, as players have to go into each set to manually ‘optimise’ the players included each time.
It would be much better if it were streamlined so that players that fit the set – a league, club or particular rarity – were automatically pulled from the FUT club first, and then allow gamers to optimise from there. It just seems like an unnecessary extra layer on top of a process that is already lengthy if you’re trying to trade your way to a complete set.
Career Mode has also had an overhaul, with Dynamic Overall Ratings introduced to make players’ ratings more reflective of what’s happening in game. Form, fitness and morale all pitch in to contribute to a player’s overall stats, which will make for unique saves.
Changes to the transfers in Career Mode are quite welcome, too, so overall we have a very promising start to EA FC 27’s life. The proof, however, is in the pudding.
As of this moment, EA FC 27 is much more challenging and therefore rewarding than EA FC 26 ever was. It’s up to EA Sports to uphold their end of the bargain and let players get a chance to find their feet with the new, slower style of gameplay and ignore the noise calling for an early, radical update.
