🎮 FIFA 21 review: Waiting for the great leap forwards | OneFootball

What with the global pandemic and the next generation of games consoles being just around the corner, expectations for FIFA 21 on the current gen were never particularly high.

Like many gamers, we weren’t expecting much and therefore we aren’t too disappointed by a game which, a few minor tweaks aside, isn’t hugely different to FIFA 20.

Here’s our detailed review of FIFA 21 on the PS4 …

General gameplay

If we were being generous about FIFA 21, we’d say it plays slightly better than FIFA 20.

If we were being harsh, we’d say it’s slightly less fun to play than last year’s iteration of the game.

The ball physics when it comes to shooting feel a little more realistic than in FIFA 20, but the passing is a little arcadey and it’s too easy to ping-pong your way from one end of the pitch to the other with just two or three passes.

The attacking AI makes better, more intelligent runs this year and if you’ve got a player like Kevin De Bruyne or Thiago Alcântara, it’s possible to thread some delightful through balls for your forwards to run onto.

Crossing is better this year and your strikers now have more of an aerial presence than in FIFA 20, which is particularly noticeable in corner situations.

Defending and jockeying feels more challenging than ever before in FIFA 21 and you really have to time your standing tackles right if you don’t want to foul your opponent or have them skip past you.

And the goalkeepers appear to have been modelled on Jordan Pickford. One minute they’re making sublime saves, the next minute they’re letting tame efforts sail past them.

What this all leads to is lots and lots of goals and though you might find that enjoyable to begin with, it becomes less and less exciting each time the ball hits the back of the net.

We’d much rather have a tight 2-1 than an end-to-end 7-6, but maybe that’s just us.

However, just as we probably shouldn’t read too much into Everton currently being top of the Premier League, we shouldn’t read too much into the early build of FIFA 21.

As always, there will be numerous gameplay patches coming down the line, so let’s hope they improve the game and don’t make it worse.

Online v offline

With the rise of e-sports in recent years, FIFA has become less like a video game and more like a competitive sport.

And that’s why when it comes to playing against a human opponent either online or locally, FIFA 21 is once again the best football simulation on the market.

Matches ebb and flow more realistically than in previous years and even though there are too many goals, it’s possible to have some really enjoyable midfield battles.

But when it comes to playing offline against the computer, FIFA 21 really lets itself down.

EA Sports were clearly aware of the numerous complaints about the unrealistic/downright stupid AI in FIFA 20 and one way they have attempted to address the problem is with a new setting called Competitor Mode.

“Enable this setting to face a more challenging opponent that simulates the play style of the some of world’s best FIFA players,” reads the in-game blurb.

What this means is that when playing on Legendary or Ultimate difficulty, the AI has now been programmed to mimic a human player by performing skill moves and trick passes, and it’s challenging to play against for sure.

But it quickly loses its appeal when you realise that the AI basically behaves the exact same way whether you’re playing against Barcelona or Burnley, and being powerless to prevent Chris Wood doing four drag-backs before smashing it past your goalkeeper can make you want to throw your controller out of the window.

It is possible to turn Competitor Mode off but if you found playing against the computer a drag in FIFA 20, you probably aren’t going to enjoy it in the new game either.

Career Mode, Ultimate Team and Volta

Unlike in previous years, EA didn’t make any grand promises about new game modes in FIFA 21, and you’ll find very little that’s a drastic improvement on FIFA 20.

The hugely popular card-collecting Ultimate Team mode is as fun as it ever was, and this year you can expect a nice injection of coins after your first five placement matches, which is a big help when it comes to team building.

Career Mode is, sadly, still long overdue a revamp and the only noticeable new feature is the ability to jump in and out of simulated matches at any time.

Fans of the Football Manager series will love nostalgically watching little coloured circles moving around a 2D pitch in simulation mode and taking control of a game to rescue your team when things aren’t going to plan makes you feel like a player-manager subbing yourself on.

But surely you buy FIFA because you want to actually play the games, and it’s strange that not having to play the games is being marketed as a shiny new feature of Career Mode.

And as for Volta, if you enjoyed the street soccer mode in FIFA 20, chances are you’ll want to give it a whirl again this year.

If you didn’t like it, being able to play against Anthony Joshua probably won’t be enough to entice you in FIFA 21.

Conclusion

If FIFA 21 was the first football game you’d ever played, or even the first game you’d played for a few years, it would absolutely blow your mind.

But if you buy the FIFA games religiously, you could be forgiven for feeling like you’d coughed up your hard-earned cash on little more than some new kits and a squad update this year.

Like a manager who has taken a club as far as they can, it feels like the FIFA series has reached the peak of its potential on the current gen consoles, and it will be very interesting to see how the franchise evolves on the next gen.

If it’s anything like this, we’re in for a treat …

We’re not saying you shouldn’t buy FIFA 21 on the current gen (and some editions of the game even come with a free upgrade to the next gen version).

We’re just saying if you do buy it, don’t expect it to change your life.

Our score: 6/10