EA Sports FC 25 – Review in Progress – IGN

For a game that actively encourages you to slow down, tweak tactics, and customise player roles, the new menu system that plagues every game mode feels like it’s chugging two steps behind every input, making what should be an enjoyable experience feel like a chore. This was especially notable in menu-heavy modes like Career which, while it has had several cool additions, is now aggravating to try and navigate through.

There’s also the new ‘Cranium’ system, which aims to make players without facial scans appear more natural alongside top-tier talent from leagues like the Premier League, La Liga, and beyond. It’s great to see a greater range of “generic” faces now, and even unscanned players look a little like their real-life counterparts. Likewise, it’s neat that there’s a greater level of customization in the personal player or manager models as well. However, the results are inconsistent: Under ideal conditions and lighting, some players look significantly better than in previous entries, but these conditions are rare, and more often than not everyone in FC 25 looks like they’ve been pulled from a waxy, uncanny valley hell.

Speaking of jank, expect some of the typical weirdness in FC 25. Commentary is still often disconnected from the action on the pitch, cutscenes glitch out in bizarre ways, and there are moments where the world briefly collapses into a pinky-purgatory void. For those of us who’ve been around the FIFA/FC block, these graphical quirks are nothing new, but that doesn’t make them any less annoying.

Unfortunately, it’s a similar story across many annual sports titles. In Madden, bizarre animation bugs still see players warping or phasing through each other, while NBA 2K has its own share of uncanny character models and awkward animations. It feels like these issues are simply glossed over with each new installment. In fact, they’re becoming increasingly indefensible as the same problems resurface year after year.

Gameplay: Tweaks That Matter (And Many That Don’t)

When it comes to gameplay, FC 25 delivers some fun, if incremental, improvements – just like clockwork. One of the standout new features is FC IQ, which effectively replaces the old system of work rates, where players’ movement was dictated by set verbal descriptions of their effort in attack and defense. Instead, player movement is now determined by their “role” and the “focus” assigned to them within that role. Each position offers a choice of three to five roles. For example, a central attacking midfielder (CAM) can be assigned roles like shadow striker, playmaker, and others, altering how forward-thinking you want them to be throughout a game.

There’s a new level of automation that comes hand-in-hand with this change and actually feels significant. For example, attackers feel a bit more useful while on the break, and no longer having to constantly manually trigger players’ runs in behind or down the wing with button presses is great. Players will make smarter runs based on their roles, too. However, the level of control still pales in comparison to the more tactical-heavy sims found in Football Manager, and the initial impressiveness of the change wears off fast. It’s certainly an improvement, but the desired depth isn’t quite there yet.

In terms of how the on-pitch action feels with the controller in your hand, passing is a touch snappier than last year, especially when pinging long balls across the pitch. Shooting also has a nice weight to it—smooth, responsive, and satisfying. When the weather effects are in play in offline modes, even the physics in wet conditions adds a layer of unpredictability, with the ball sometimes skidding to a halt as the rain pours down. It’s these moments when you’re battling the elements that are a great example of the enjoyment found in the imperfections of the beautiful game.

But then there’s the defense, which still feels frustratingly loose. A tale as old as time, pacy players can turn and breeze past a defense with ease, and defenders are often a step behind, even slower than they should be. Even near-track-athlete-level speedsters like Mickey Van de Ven sometimes find themselves unable to catch up with the less-than-zippy attackers. If the opponent gets in behind your defense, you might as well start planning your next kickoff because there’s little you can do to stop them.

Defensive issues are compounded by the new FC IQ tactical options, which are supposed to give you more control over how your team plays, not quite extending to defenders how I’d like. For example, there are no longer instructions to tell players to press heavily after losing the ball. Defending is half of football, yet it currently feels like an afterthought that needed a lot more time in the oven. No matter if you’re playing a low, medium, or high-aggression style, it just feels the same: slow, boring, and lacking tight control. At times, it felt like someone was holding onto my players’ heels, keeping them back; When they finally did accelerate, it was rigid and unnatural, like they were moving along a predetermined path.

More of the Same… Again?

After my first day with EA Sports FC 25, it feels like the game is in a tough spot. For Career Mode fans like myself, there are some positives—the expanded customization options, enhanced tactics, dynamic weather effects, and added depth create a much richer experience than in previous years. However, despite the improvements to offline modes like Career and the clear potential of Rush, there’s still an underlying sense of frustration. As a long-time fan, I can’t help but feel disappointed by how long issues like defensive slipperiness, choppy menus, and graphical inconsistencies have remained unaddressed.

After more than 20 years of EA Sports football games (yes, it’s been that long), the cracks aren’t just beginning to show, they are upsetting the very foundations. The ever-growing focus on increasingly expensive microtransactions in Ultimate Team has left the other modes still feeling left behind, no matter the smattering of custom gameplay tweaks, new menus, or weather effects added in.

The improvements, while welcome, are largely incremental, and the gameplay remains frustratingly familiar in all the wrong ways. For the leading football simulator, EA Sports FC continues to lack the fluidity, polish, and excitement it seems like it could and should deliver. While it’s still early days, first impression-wise, FC 25 currently feels like a small but reasonable step forward for Career Mode enthusiasts, but it’s still hard to see the appeal of all of this as a whole. There’s fun to be had, but it’s tempered by lingering disheartenment and a sense that EA is, as always, playing it safe.

I’ll be back soon with some more developed thoughts on EA Sports FC 25 next week, once I’ve spent time more time with Rush, Ultimate Team and how the online experience is shaping up over its early days.