UFL hands-on: is the Ronaldo-backed soccer game good enough to beat EA FC?

No leagues, no Neymar, no problem

UFL / Strikerz Inc.

Something funny happens during my hands-on with UFL. One game-tester discovers he’s been given unlimited in-game currency, so starts buying pack after pack of players. 

Slowly, a crowd starts forming around him. They’ve stopped watching the other matches unfolding to spectate the opening of virtual soccer cards. This is the compelling, can’t-look-away ritual UFL is built on. But does it have a shot against the mighty EA FC?

Due out in September on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, UFL is a rare sports title that eschews the bulk of official teams, leagues, kits, and tournaments in favour of player-created ones. Take FC Ultimate Team, make it free-to-play, and you have UFL. 

UFL / Strikerz Inc.

“Basically, it's like a fantasy,” says Eugene Nashilov, CEO at UFL developer Strikerz Inc., “so we wanted it to become this centerpiece of the product.”

As with EA FC’s mega-popular mode, you create your dream starting 11 by competing in online matches to earn currency then spending it on the transfer market. No, you can’t guide Barcelona to glory in La Liga or do the treble with Man City, but the data shows most EA FC players aren’t doing that anyway. 

They’re assembling monster squads with Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe and Haaland, dressing them in custom kits, and decorating their stadiums with banners and crests. That’s exactly what you do in UFL, only you won’t have to buy it at a premium every year for the privilege. 

UFL / Strikerz Inc.

Developer Strikerz Inc. says UFL is a living game, so live service is a priority. You won’t need to wait until next year’s edition for a gameplay change or balancing update, according to the developer, because it’ll just get patched in as and when. 

“We are a game-as-a-service business model,” says Nashilov, “which basically means we'll be updating the game regularly. This is not the same case as with our competitors.”

The same goes for every other facet of the game, from additional modes to vanity items - and there are plenty of them. In fact, that’s how UFL plans to make its money. You can buy everything from boots, balls, gloves, badges and kits to entire stadiums. There are also battle passes that speed up the rate at which you earn currency and experience. 

UFL / Strikerz Inc.

This ranges from a one-day pass to a 90-day pass, which both increase experience gained in ranked matches by 25% and credit points by 50%. Such a business model will never completely avoid ‘pay to win’ accusations, but keeping the community happy seems a core concern for a developer whose mantra is literally “fair to play.”

There are also skin packs to purchase, which can contain uncommon, rare, epic or legendary players. Some will have differently decorated cards, which can change the abilities of players, and this is where chemistry comes in.

Slot up to eight players of the same card type into a team and you’ll get a stat boost, such as faster stamina recovery. UFL lacks a tutorial explaining this mechanic, though, so there might well be other ways you can optimise team chemistry. 

UFL / Strikerz Inc.

Since UFL takes place in the realms of fantasy, the designers at Strikerz Inc. are free to let their imaginations run away with them. One stadium is set in front of an ancient Japanese temple flanked with beautiful pink blossom trees. It certainly beats a dreary night at Vicarage Road (unless you’re a Watford fan)

While the stadiums aren’t real, the players are. There are over 5000 officially licensed soccer players looking like their real-world counterparts, which saves you playing with generic stand-ins. There are a few absences, such as Neymar and Rodrygo, but by and large the sport’s most popular players are well-represented. 

Visually, they’re not quite as sharp as with EA FC or Konami’s eFootball, but that’s where UFL makes one of its many intelligent concessions. There’s no point, it argues, accurately rendering Saka’s teeth or capturing a bead of sweat running down the head of Lukaku because you’re not going to see that unless you pause the game and zoom in. 

UFL / Strikerz Inc.

Phil Foden is recognisably Phil Foden, lifelike forehead wrinkle photogrammetry be damned. There are also a few partner clubs that do have their official stadiums, kits, and squads represented. This includes West Ham, Celtic, Rangers, Shakhtar Donetsk, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Monaco, and Besiktas.

By and large, though, UFL is doggedly focused on the matches themselves rather than the ambience around them. The feel resembles the FIFA games of about five years ago, which is not necessarily a bad thing. 

Instead of adding features, UFL removes the ones that weren’t working, resulting in a stripped-down, arcade-like experience that puts responsiveness first. After all, there’s no point having complex physics and animation if you have to watch them play out before you regain control of your player. 

UFL / Strikerz Inc.

Where that falls down slightly in UFL is with player collisions. There’s no satisfying back-and-forth, with tacklers either outright winning possession or bouncing straight off the ball-carrier. The most effective way to tackle right now is by angling your player so the dribbler runs straight into you. 

Resultantly, crossing is a toss-up. There’s just not much physical negotiation in the box, so it’s difficult to purposefully pick out a player. It’s a case of banging it in and hoping for the best. 

Similarly, dribbling is less developed than EA FC 25, with fewer skill moves and reduced ways to beat your man. That puts the emphasis on passing and shooting, which is solid. You can string together a one-touch sequence all the way up the pitch culminating in a satisfying, well-earned goal. That’s the essence of virtual soccer.

UFL / Strikerz Inc.

There may be myriad ways to score in real life, but soccer video games are at their best when they’re predictable. You want to be in control, and you want that control to be rewarded. UFL does that - barring the odd unforced error, which for me comes when the game fails to switch to my nearest player fast enough. 

This is not to say the game won’t change. Nashilov says his team is currently working on improving “locomotion, dribbling, ball reception, ball physics and collisions,” as well as “attacking and defensive AI” and “general responsiveness.”

It’s hard to call any element of UFL’s match experience superior to EA FC. Instead, it’s simpler, which in itself is an appealing alternative for those aggravated by EA FC’s feature-creep. 

UFL / Strikerz Inc.

Where EA FC is an annual release stuffed with every sort of soccer imaginable, from single-player career modes spanning multiple years, to 22-person online matches, UFL offers a fresh meta. 

The true draw of UFL is with its simplicity: download it free, create your squad, and play match after match with the aim of bolstering it via savvy transfers. It may be the underdog, but if there’s one thing to have faith in, it’s soccer fans being strangely drawn to opening player packs.