EA Sports FC 24 Review: New Name, Same Old Game

Currently, FIFA, the incredibly popular sports video game franchise from EA, may be even more popular than football itself. As the video game and the sport continue to evolve and adapt together, FIFA games and the sport are in fact inseparable. They are discussed together, compliment each other, and influence and enlighten one another. Virtual Armada FIFA and football culture are closely related. FIFA is played by football fans. Professional football players even play FIFA. When a top player appears on the cover of a FIFA game, they view it as a professional accomplishment. Football organizations have invested in the franchise, which uses its unmatched marketing power to reach a genuinely worldwide audience with football players, leagues, football clubs, and competitions. The largest sports video game series and the largest sport in the world have a mutually beneficial partnership in which power dynamics and identity exchanges occur on a regular basis. It is evident that both have contributed enormously and profoundly to each other’s success, keeping each other well-fed and content.

This extremely profitable and successful 30-year collaboration, which started with FIFA International Soccer in 1993, came to an end last year when EA and FIFA, the international soccer governing body that oversees the beautiful game and provides the name for the video game franchise, ended their licensing agreement. This meant that FIFA, a well recognized brand name that the FIFA series had all but been synonymous with, could no longer be applied to EA Sports’ football video games. Imagine if Coca-Cola began marketing their drink under a different name, or if McDonald’s was unable to continue using the name McDonald’s for their restaurants. It is a rebirth, and to say it is just a transformation would be an understatement. FIFA 23 marked the end of the FIFA series last year, although the franchise did not cease. Over 325 million copies have been sold. FIFA 24 has been replaced with EA Sports FC 24, which was born out of the mandate of EA Sports’ yearly release cycle and promises a fresh start.

FIFA

The FIFA series has been subject to varying degrees of criticism over the years due to its iterative releases, where each new game offers minimal improvements and just enough new content to entice devoted gamers to purchase their new edition. Since EA actively encourages players to spend real money on expensive player packs and bundles that would otherwise require endless hours of grind to obtain through normal gameplay, players are effectively forced to pay for a new FIFA release every year. This is done by stopping updates on the previous game and wiping out all user progress on the immensely popular and morally dubious Ultimate Team (FUT) game mode.

Regardless of the amount you invested in building your FUT team during the previous game, every new FIFA title resets everything, forcing you to start over and spend more money. You’ll be happy (or sad) to learn that EA’s newest football fantasy largely preserves the status quo if you were concerned (or expecting) that the series would try to forge a new path or rewrite its playbook with EA Sports FC 24. To ensure that its hordes of players, who have become accustomed to the FIFA experience they receive every year, do not find themselves in foreign territory with an upended approach, FC 24 is more interested in rehashing than rewriting.

FIFA vs FC 24

To claim that FC 24 is different just in name would be a bit unfair, even in light of the series’ refusal to reinvent itself. While some of the modifications are an improvement over FIFA 23, none of them are significant enough to highlight this as a truly new experience. The game’s main menu contains the first, and maybe easiest, of them. The clumsy horizontally orientated menu, which was out of style and, to be honest, mechanically psychotic, has been eliminated. It had been around for too long. As an alternative, we get a typical horizontal menu that is crisper, neater, and includes every mode that FC 24 offers. The most recently played mode dynamically rises to the top of the list.

The latest football game from EA Sports also has a more updated, generally cleaner design. This also holds true for the cutscene packages that are played during halftime and at the start and finish of games, which all aim to resemble real-life broadcasts as closely as possible. The pitch is being tended to by groundsmen prior to kickoff, players are getting ready for the manager’s halftime speech in the changing room, and at full time, TV presenters and analysts on the pitch are making enthusiastic gestures. Elegant new in-game stat overlays are available that display predicted goals, victory probabilities, and shot attempts visually. At the middle and end of the game, you will undoubtedly receive nerd-level data detailing player performances, heat maps, and passing analytics; however, they have been included in earlier iterations.

Players’ in-game animations undergo more noticeable and significant alterations. In order to convert real player movements into virtual player actions, EA’s cameras record live match footage in stadiums. Additionally, every FIFA game uses considerable motion capture. Players’ animations in FC 24 have been further improved to more accurately depict athletic performance, and they have gotten better over time. You get further engrossed in the game because of the realistic and convincing way the player’s body twists when performing a narrow-angle pass, how they pirouette when receiving a ball and changing directions, and how their foot wraps around the ball to add curl to a cross. As has been the case in recent iterations, the gameplay itself feels a touch slower and more methodical than in earlier games, with an emphasis on play development. There are many different ways to score goals, but you always need to choose the best strategy to advance your squad. Establishing a well-defined strategy and selecting the appropriate team members to carry it out seem crucial, even though it may not have a significant impact in the background.

FIFA 23

Although the offensive feels almost exactly the same as in FIFA 23, the defense appears to have undergone some adjustments, most of which are negative. There are nearly unfathomable differences in the way the defensive side of the game feels. It’s harder, but not in a fair or practical way. After you commit a defensive blunder, it’s far harder to come back or bounce back. As a matter of fact, giving up a goal does not require an error on your part. Once you’re bluffed, you’re out of the action sequence as the other attacker may immediately step in a new direction, leaving you flat-footed. AI-controlled defenses offer little assistance in this situation. AI players breach your defensive line and structure because they either never close in free space or are frequently far from their assigned place. Hence, if you lose an attacker, they will inevitably score another goal.

The presence of defensive AI problems in FC 24 is disheartening, as they have long persisted in the series. These difficulties even seem to be getting worse. The inability to recover after making a single mistake and being penalized for it irritates me every time. With the exception of a club with a towering center back, it is also considerably harder to defend on crosses, and you will almost always lose an aerial fight. Additionally, you are at a severe disadvantage due to your defender’s poor positioning when a cross enters your box. It also doesn’t help that AI-powered goals beat your keeper almost entirely because they are nearly too accurate, powerful, and flawless.

PlayStyles

Another element that FC 24 offers is PlayStyles, which enhances digital representations of professional football players with real-world data. These facts show themselves as player signature skills; for example, a tall center back may have the capacity to head the ball, while a flashy striker may be a proficient finisher. When used appropriately, these powers passively activate in-game to provide you an advantage on the field. It takes a step further with PlayStyles+, giving elite players access to amazing new skills. Imagine Erling Haaland performing circus stunts to reach a high-hanging ball in the air, or Son Heung-min spotting the top corner of the net with a worldie from outside the box. The problem is that PlayStyles are fundamentally just a rehashing of player attributes that have been present in FIFA games for a while. While EA Sports has improved the mechanic and maybe added numerous other data sets to its 34 PlayStyles, the functionality is not as novel as EA’s marketing team would have you believe.

That’s not to argue that using FC 24 to play football isn’t enjoyable. Indeed, it is. As it has always been. It may be thrilling and familiar at the same time, especially when you execute beautiful tika-taka passes, outwit the opposition’s defenders, and slot the ball into the net. It’s equally exciting to win the ball, stop the other team’s attack with deft defensive play, and use transition play to immediately establish a threat of your own. Additionally, there are constantly new ways to play. You may always kick it up to your forward and take the short road to goal if you have a big guy up front, such as FC 24’s cover star Haaland. 

It’s only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to FC 24. It ignores more pressing problems on the field in favor of cosmetic tweaks to the tried-and-true recipe. While the gameplay is improved year after year, there are still several gaps in the whole experience. EA puts more effort into its lucrative Ultimate Team mode than it does into updating the Career mode with fresh concepts. The fact that FC 24 reuses the transfer negotiation cutscenes from previous FIFA games—which we’ve seen in games for the last three to four years—tells us something. It was a unique chance for EA to create a fresh look for a series that was quickly growing too damn similar when the franchise was forced to abandon its FIFA label. 

We’ll have to put that off. EA Sports FC 24 is essentially the same meal with a different dressing, but it could have been so much more. That is, however, not surprising. EA Sports FIFA has succeeded in a football environment that is evolving quickly because of its consistency. And FC 24 is still too afraid to take a chance on goal and glory, content to dribble the ball along the same lines in its tried-and-true style.