EA Sports FC 25 review: It’s smart, but it doesn’t apply itself

EA Sports FC 25's new features can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The good news is that some of them have a deep impact on gameplay, and will please long-time fans more than FUT grinders.

EA Sports

EA Sports FC 25's new features can be counted on the fingers of one hand. The good news is that some of them have a deep impact on how the sports game plays, and will please long-time fans more than FUT grinders.

The engine powering these new EA Sports FC 25 features is called FC IQ. It's not a mode, but a new layer allowing you to manage the tactics of your teams. It's so complex it may scare you at first, as it really brings the good ol' FIFA closer to Football Manager, but it gives new depth to the game. And it does so while bringing it up to date with modern football, where positions no longer equate to role, and you play by one formation with the ball and another without.

• Read more: EA FC 25 wonderkids: Best young players in Career Mode

The starting formations are just numbers and foundations. It's up to you how your players should approach them.

In a four-man defense, you can order your full-back to stay anchored to the two center-backs and the other to move forward when you're on the ball. That way, you switch to a three-man defense while attacking. Hang in there, this is where things get complicated. In a 3-4-2-1 formation, your RM can take a few steps forward as if he were a winger, and the center-back moves on the right to cover the space they leave uncovered.

Hold on, we're almost there.

He's very proud of himself / EA Sports

One of the two trequartistas, we assign them the task of leading the ball between the midfield and the box, free to roam around. Our LM is in charge of defensive duties. And finally, the second trequartista, they're going for an inside forward, so that they act as a CF around your ST.

Et voila. Our 3-4-2-1 transitions into a 4-3-3 when we have the ball. 

You can imagine how surprising it was to see that all this jargon doesn't remain on paper. This all works for real, with no additional input when you're on the pitch - it's just as you plan before starting a match, AI-led. Tough to grasp as it is, it's damn fun, and it's the first real piece of automation I see actually working in a soccer video game.

The list of roles is also very up-to-date. Two years ago, Manchester City's Pep Guardiola introduced the world to the Falseback, which is basically a RB turning into a CM when on the ball. Now it's on FC 25, too.

I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a revolution, since the game still works just fine without it. Many will probably ignore FC IQ. And we'll still need to see how things work out when, in online multiplayer, someone using roles plays against someone who doesn't. But as it is, this feature is nothing less than impressive.

A unique variation on the famous Sistine Chapel ceiling painting / EA Sports

Between that and the new unified season pass experience, it's the Career mode that shines the most this year. Ultimate Team received virtually no major new features for the first time in ages, as it's just some minimal tweaks to progression. Instead, the ability to unlock XP while playing solo, and scenarios coming later in the season give Career an unprecedented weight in the annual live service plan.

Career that shines this year more than the FUT-style online modes. Not least because Ultimate Team received virtually no major new features for the first time in years, just some minimal tweaks to progression. Of course, it’s not perfect.

Negotiations often have poor readability. Talks stop immediately when you offer contracts without good indicators of players' demands, which pop up inconsistently, pushing you to save scum. Other clubs are active on the market whether it's among themselves, or dealing with you - I got many offers and fairly sensed requests for trades.

• Read more: EA FC 25 Icons: All new legendary players in Ultimate Team

On the other hand, the new calendar-based view is rather enjoyable. Instead of spreading tasks across the board, you now have a Persona-style UI, where you have all the tasks you can perform on that day at hand. It's bold and it takes a little time to adjust, but it’s so much more intuitive. The only issue is that moving from one item to another suffers from an annoying latency. The rest of the game seems substantially weighted down in menus compared to EA Sports FC 24.

Taking the spotlight is serious business / EA Sports

Not making Rush a full-fledged mode in the wake of Volta's failure was a good call. It lacks the substance to hold up as a stand-alone proposition.

I'm not expecting it to increase Volta's adoption rate. In single-player modes, despite being smartly integrated throughout your Career mode, and having its unique quirks in terms of rulebook, it feels like a smaller, more simplistic version of the regular game. 

On the pitch, I didn't anticipate such a big improvement in 1v1 scenarios. Your players are more inclined to get physical and effective in following the opponent to snatch the ball away from him, while they're typically bounced back in previous games. That made me feel comfortable with more defensive set-ups such as three-man defenses. With a more functional man-to-man gameplay, I can finally play my team Atalanta-style - and as Guardiola knows too well, it's "like going to the dentist" all the time.

As a whole, however, the defenses are still too light. Your defenders lose track of opponents, resulting in infuriating actions such as turning their backs or walking away while the attacker approaches the box. This leads to tens of goals scored across every match, and trust me, it's stressful to know you'll have to score at least five goals just to win a Bologna-Udinese.

• Read more: EA FC 25: Best players for all positions in Career Mode

That's in spite of goalkeepers improving a lot, especially on low balls and 1v1 scenarios, and both power shots and finesse shots feeling significantly nerfed.

That said, Simulation mode is no answer to this. It's actually somewhat at odds with the spirit of the game, slowing it down far too artificially. It feels like running in Dragon Ball's Gravity Machine while the rest of the world runs at natural speed. I've been asking for a more thoughtful gameplay for years, but it takes some eFootball-level structural work to get there, not just adjusting a bunch of sliders.

"Hey man, you tried" / EA Sports

At least it enables the impact of the wind, which, when activated, is severe. At the highest level, goal kicks have the ball stop in midfield, while on a corner kick it takes on impressive speed. It reminds me of iconic matches at the Artemio Franchi in Firenze, where the totally open shape of the stadium leaves the field at the mercy of airflow. And it's also closer to the "ball flight" introduced with the 2014 World Cup EA Sports game, when shots from distance often ended up in the stands in response to the lighter Brazuca ball.

EA Sports FC 25 is beautiful to watch, although, as with the slides from FIFA 23, we expect shirts and shorts' cloth physics simulation to be scaled down over the coming years.

The AR elements sometimes linger too long on the screen, and can be annoying when going for a quick throw-in. The first-person shots, now not limited to referees' cutscenes, also had me suffering for a bit of motion-sickness. Graphics modes are debuting on PS5, but the difference between the two available feels quite trivial. 

• Read more: EA FC 25 Heroes: All new Ultimate Team Heroes

EA Sports FC 25 has cut the amount of innovations to the bone compared to last year, although the scope of some of them is bound to make a lasting impression on hardcore soccer aficionados. FC IQ might be the strongest new feature in years, but it's also so easy to miss it that people will probably dub it yet another more of the same - and understandably so, given the shortage of surface-level additions.

Score: 7/10

Version tested: PS5