REVIEW: ‘EA Sports FC 25’ Is A Realistic Upgrade (PS5)

While EA Sports FC 24 brought the popular soccer franchise into a new era, EA Sports FC 25 aims to refine the yearly entry. Eschewing massive changes, the team at EA Sports focused more on making the game feel even more realistic. Some changes are more noticeable than others but there is no denying that this remains the pinnacle of soccer video games.

The bread and butter for EA Sports FC 25 is the realistic gameplay. Players are designed to be as close to their real-life counterparts as possible through the HyperMotionV system. EA boasts increased realism for over 1800 players, which is noticeable before the ball even kicks off. The way players prepare for the start of the match is immersive and realistic. That might not seem like a major point, but it sets the tone for how much better some of these players look and feel.

One of the biggest under-the-hood focuses is passing. Passing has been dramatically refined to make it feel more realistic, but with that comes an additional level of challenge. Players have to be more precise, or they risk errant passes, even in situations where it is harder to misplace the pass than to nail it. It takes a little bit to get a hang of the new system. It can be frustrating at first to miss wide-open passes in front of the goal, for example. But once you get a handle on how it works, it’s clear just how much better this new system is.

Part of what makes this focus matter is passing PlayStyles. Players who have PlayStyles assigned to them—based on their real-life attributes—have a much easier time completing tough passes. In the past, the main stat that matters for a player is their pace. Now, passing plays an equally important role in building a team. It is nice to see something other than raw speed matter when building up a team, especially in Ultimate Team.

Shooting and dribbling also received some tweaks in EA Sports FC 25. These changes come primarily through new animations to reflect real-life situations and make the experience even more realistic. That has been the revolving theme of EA Sports FC 25: increased realism. Even if not all the changes are immediately noticeable, they make a difference compared to EA Sports FC 24.

EA Sports FC 25 has also given tactics an overhaul. Team tactics are more in-depth, with more specific player instructions and tactical options with and without the ball. I spent a lot of time specifically with player instructions, using the expanded roles to tweak my team to my exact specifications. This is a really useful change for tactics nerds who want to get the absolute most out of their team. FC IQ, the name EA uses for the new tactical approach, also allows players to download and use tactics from the community.

There is also a new Smart Tactics system that shows up in-game. The system will suggest tactical changes based on how the game is going. For the most part, this was fairly useful. When winning 5-0, the system suggests parking the bus and just seeing the game out, something many teams do in real life. It also presents the option to keep the foot on the gas and change to an even more proactive approach. It will be interesting to see how this develops over time as more in-game data is collected to make it even more intuitive.

EA Sports FC 25’s game modes are mostly the same, though they do receive some updates. There is the standard kickoff mode, Manager and Player Career Modes, Ultimate Team, online Clubs, and the brand-new Rush game mode.

Ultimate Team is the mode with the fewest changes. There are some visual updates to how packs look when they’re opened, but that isn’t moving the needle for anyone. The mode implements the new FC IQ mechanics, which is neat when trying to build a team, but otherwise, Ultimate Team is very similar to last year’s edition.

Career Mode has been an afterthought for years, but EA Sports FC 25 finally changed that by adding new features and more customization to change the difficulty. A new women’s career mode lets players take the reigns of a women’s league club, with new challenges like a decreased budget and a smaller player pool. Youth systems have also been revamped to be more realistic. There is more control over how young players are developed to bring them into the first team.

The new Icon Player Career Mode sounds more exciting than those other changes in theory. Being able to play as an iconic player like David Beckham in the modern era is a cool idea, but it isn’t as fun in practice as it seems in theory. The novelty wears off fairly quickly. However, EA has said they will rotate the available icons over time, which might help it feel fresh for longer.

Clubs mode is also pretty much the same. The one big change is the increased customization options for the created player. The new Cranium Technology makes creating a player even more immersive, and the options really feel unlimited. Having these creative options is great when bringing your player to life. I spent more time than I’d like to admit messing around with customization.

EA Sports FC 25 looks, feels, and plays like a truly upgraded version of the franchise. It isn’t a perfect sports simulator, but it does a great job of making the game feel alive and takes the franchise another step forward.

EA Sports FC 25 releases on September 27th on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.