EA FC 25 Review – Worth Getting for One Mode?

EA FC 25 – Worth Getting for One Mode?

Release: September 27, 2024
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Electronic Arts
Genre: Sport, XBox One News, XBox One Reviews, Xbox Series X Reviews
PEGI: 3
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Over the past week, I have been doing a lot of two different things – playing EA FC 25 and reading previous reviews I’ve written for past soccer titles. And there is one constant across all the reviews I’ve written, at least for the last few years. And that constant is, if you are a hardcore fan of EA FC then purchase this year’s iteration; if you are a casual fan and you own last years game, just continue playing that; and if you were never a fan of soccer games, this one isn’t going to change your mind.

And honestly, the same review year after year is becoming a bit drab, because once again I’m going to echo those very statements. Don’t get me wrong. EA FC 25 is a phenomenal soccer experience, and when it comes to sports games coming from EA Sports, I think that their soccer variant is at the top of the heap, and I’m not sure it’s even close. There is so much to love about how soccer is presented in EA FC 25, with a plethora of different modes to excite almost anyone who loves to play soccer. So this year’s review is going to look at EA FC 25 in a different light – is it worth getting if you only plan to play one mode?

First and foremost we should talk about some of the changes in EA FC 25. The big addition this year is the Rush mode, which is available in all the major modes of play – Kickoff, Ultimate Team, Clubs, and Careers – which is a 5 v 5 game on smaller fields. There are slight rules tweaks, like no “kick-offs” but instead players rush the ball as it rolls on the field to start the match; the smaller stadium has a narrower and shorter pitch, with a specific offside line kind of like in hockey. This mode is a ton of fun to play, and breaks up the traditional modes of play that we are used to getting in these different areas of gameplay.

I think Rush is a fantastic addition, and while I would love the prizes to be bigger and better (at least in Ultimate Team, where I played the bulk of my Rush), it was still a mode I came back to time in and time out. You will be paired with three other human players – either random or with friends – and you’ll attempt to win the game. In Ultimate Team, you can earn more Rush points by setting up your team based on a few requirements, such as a player from Columbia, or a special player item (Team of the Week, Evolutions, etc.) or even from a certain league or club. The more varied your team is for these requests, the more points and multipliers you can get!

Rush mode is just pure fun. Even when you get paired with a sub-par team – and it does happen – there is still a lot of joy here. And the games are over pretty quickly so you will be hoping into a new match before you know it. I think this is a great addition to the franchise, and while I still wouldn’t argue it’s a must buy for casual players, it will be something new and different if you choose to upgrade to the latest version of EA FC!

There are other enhancements throughout as well. You’ll notice passing is a bit snappier than previous years, and players are just a bit smarter when moving away from the ball. This goes for both your AI teammates, as well as the opposition. Most players now have roles they fulfill within the team and that role/focus is how they “see” the pitch in front of them, and how they react to what is going on around them. This new feature also makes creating custom squads just a bit deeper than in previous years.

I found that the quality of the team you were playing made a bigger difference when choosing your difficulty levels. An 88 overall team on pro is substantially better than a 70 overall team on pro, as it should be.

There are also graphical updates. Not every player in EA FC gets to have their likeness recreated in-game, but new AI work has made some of those less well known players look better than they have in the past. There is still a noticeable difference between a 60 overall player playing in Major League Soccer, and Neymar, for example.

But back to the question that is the basis for our review this year – should you buy EA FC 2025 even if you only plan to play one mode. To that, after a week of jumping between modes, is an easy answer, at least for me. I am a casual EA FC player at heart, although I love the game of soccer. I find that within each mode, there is enough going on to keep you enthralled for an entire year. I’ve dabbled in Career and Club modes, but have spent the bulk of my time playing Ultimate Team.

And ultimately – yes, pun intended – after this review is live and my “review cycle” has ended, I will play Ultimate Team exclusively for the next 8-10 months. I will do my daily grind until Christmas, and my time with EA FC will slowly peter out over the next few months as we head into summer. But the investment I would have had to make without a review code would have been more than worth it for the amount of EA FC I would have played.

So yes, you can rely on EA FC to provide you a full experience worth the investment you made, even if you choose to play heavily in one or two areas of the game. And that’s what makes EA FC so great. They have perfected the product over the last half decade especially, and have provided players with very robust game modes that hold consumers attention for a long time. This is a fantastic soccer experience with a few issues here and there.

And before we wrap this, we should discuss those problems – menu traversal in EA FC is abysmal, with slow downs all over the place and sometimes specific modes just crashing all together while in menus. The on field presentation is top notch, but the menu traversal in between matches can be a chore. That, coupled with freezing and some frequent early server issues have dampened my love for the franchise just a little bit. I’m not going anywhere, but if time is tight, I might think twice about firing up a quick one-off match of soccer.

Overall, EA FC 25 is a great experience once again, but like in previous years, whether you should invest is a question you’ll have to answer for yourself. Rest assured you are getting a slightly improved version of last year’s entry – whatever that statement means to you will help determine whether you upgrade or not!

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