FIFA 21 Reviews
need to know
What is it? The latest entry in EA’s decades-old football series.
expect to pay $60/£55
developer EA Vancouver
Publisher EA Sports
Audited On i9 10900K, RTX 2080 TI, 32GB RAM
multiplayer game? Up to 22 players
association Official website
EA’s football sims have evolved over the years. Since FIFA 14 launched, it’s hard to shake the feeling that each new entry acts as a barely redesigned version of its predecessor. It’s a lame-stomping charge you can absolutely blame FIFA 21 for. While there have been welcome tweaks and minor improvements since FIFA 20, this bumper sports set could be overhauled.
Before I started working on FIFA 21, EA deserved credit for making the action on the pitch feel less boring and predictable. Too often, players in FIFA 20 feel like they’re trapped on an invisible eight-way axis – like their movement is inhibited by some invisible football force. This is no longer the case. This time, movement feels more free, opening up unpredictable spaces on the pitch in a way that never happened in FIFA 20.
While the movement of the ball is occasionally disconcerting – more on the series’ wayward physics soon – there’s no denying that FIFA 21 is better than last year’s entry. It is now a little easier to dribble past opposing defenders, and the offense no longer needs to rely so heavily on brutish speed and shrewd counter-attacks. Are fast wingers still very effective for those who catch the opposing team on the back foot? Absolutely. However, while I often flush full-backs with defenders like Arsenal’s Nicola Pepe, FIFA 21 has a new respect for well-organized games.
(Image credit: EA)
The game’s physics is really stupid, though. And I’m not just talking about the returning Volta mode — the 5-a-side FIFA Street wannabe is still a silly outcast, but at least it provides a semi-natural home for the game’s infamous right-stick skill. PES has always had the edge when it comes to reliable ball movement and the gap between the two football rivals has not narrowed in 2020. Whereas the football in the Konami series behaves like its own entertainment entity, the ball in FIFA 21 is just…well, flat. Predictable and easy to travel the same way, no matter how hard you hit it, it often looks fake.
The most disturbing example of FIFA ball misconduct that fundamentally goes against what the real sport is about? Those times, it took your strikers about a decade to get their bodies into the right position to shoot from the edge of the opposition box. Even if they do manage to hit the ball cleanly, it usually knocks the defender down in such an inconvenient way that the opponent almost always sweeps the ball over and counterattacks immediately. In short, it’s nonsense.
The game’s physics is really stupid, though.
At least the processing power has improved. Short lunges feel more effective, and I’m doing about half a dozen successful interceptions now. Whether EA Vancouver makes tackles easier or a little more automated, I really like the defensive end of FIFA 21. Occasionally winning the ball back felt so precise, I temporarily turned Arsenal’s usually disastrous David Luiz into a functional centre-back career-mode mantra for a long time.
(Image credit: EA)
In this regard, FIFA’s non-FUT title mode has received welcome improvements, with a renewed focus on training and team management. Playing fitness mini-games in real-time ensures your players are as sharp as possible, while simulated sessions reduce their impact. Keeping players running for the first 11 games also affects sharpness. Balancing a competitive team in a 38-game season is a stressful but rewarding challenge.
Balancing a competitive team in a 38-game season is a stressful but rewarding challenge.
The biggest career mode addition is the new simulation feature that lets you play matches like Football Manager Lite. Presented in a top-down tactical menu, you can freely change benches and formations at any time as the AI chews its nails as the AI tries to win the game for your club. my experience? In a 38-game season, it’s a convenient and semi-efficient way to skip games.But a word of caution: give the keys to artificial intelligence, and you may be wrong a lot of. The good news is that you can take control back at the touch of a button. It’s a decent compromise, ensuring that the more obsessed among us can take our team’s fate back into our hands at any given moment.
screwed up
And then there’s the ultimate team. FIFA’s card-collecting model has received a lot of negative press over the years, and the persistence of pay-to-win features feels as deaf as ever. If you’ve been stuck on a desert island playing Panini stickers for the past five years, FUT lets you form a custom squad by opening card packs that contain players and cosmetic items like new jerseys or club badges. While you can unlock packs by playing online, it’s much faster to buy them for real money. If you feel like the loot box should go in the bin with Project Big Picture and Ronaldo’s head knot, FUT will continue to leave a bad taste in your mouth.
(Image credit: EA)
At least EA made some welcome changes to the mode. First of all, the fitness card has been obsolete. Not only does this mean your team is in top form every game, it also stops players from stocking up on stamina-boosting cards before being sold on the online transfer market. FUT’s best new signing, though? Really silly stadium customization that lets you add crowd cheers and, most importantly, huge cardboard cutouts for your stands. Are you an obsessive Newcastle fan? Here, stick this giant silhouette of Alan Shearer behind your goal. I don’t care if this is a stupid addition. I only care about paper cutting.
Aside from my fondness for the cardboard version of the elbow striker, this year’s FIFA has left me a little cold. Is it more thoughtful than last season? Of course. Sadly, it’s also a fairly rigid update that fails to meaningfully develop the series’ live action. FIFA 21 delivers solid football in a Sky Sports-style presentation that continues to embarrass PES’s creaking menu. Like VAR, though, EA’s latest creation has a ways to go until it fully captures the true spirit of the sport.
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