Developer: Electronic Arts, EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC
Tested on: PS4
FIFA 20 – Review
A new year, a new football season and of course a new installment of the FIFA series. Although FIFA 20 didn´t change a lot when it comes to content in comparison to the previous version, it will still be a must-buy for a lot of football fans. It combines amazing core gameplay and some neat additions with the newest story mode VOLTA football. Pass, trick and score your way into the position of a champion with the massive amount of modes available in this 27th FIFA instalment.
Story
The new story mode in FIFA 20 takes you back to the authentic small-scaled football that could be found in the streets. You start off with building your player, choosing your favorite gear and your skills to excel in the VOLTA mode.
You, also known as Revvy, are invited by Jayzinho the founder of Volta football squad J10 to play a practice match. You want to make a name for yourself in the competitive football world and here is where your story starts. After the match Jayzinho chooses the best players in his opinion, and of course, you are the last one picked to join the J10 squad. But hey, at least you made it!
Now the real work starts as you and your team are competing in your first tournament. A lot of pressure comes with these matches because they will help the J10 get on its way to the world championship. These matches aren’t difficult at all and you obviously win your first trophy with your squad.
But tragedy strikes, Jayzihno gets gravely injured and after the match, everyone sees the real impact of his leg injury. Will you be able to get to the world championship without your amazing captain on the field?
When we look at how the story is brought to us we see a recurrence of the last few games. You get a few cutscenes in-between matches and sometimes you need to play a few matches or training exercises before you can progress in your storyline and get a new cutscene.
Graphics
In our opinion, the graphics don’t stray far from FIFA 19, which already looked quite realistic. The fields, menu’s and accessories are still beyond gorgeous. The players can use some extra care to equalize the quality of the rest of the game, some of the players are really well done in terms of looking like the real one while others couldn’t look more different than the person it is supposed to be. But with that said we can safely say you will visually enjoy FIFA 20. The VOLTA Football mode brings a lot of new ‘arenas’ to play on because the main focus here is street football, this results in beautifully finished and diverse undergrounds. As we look at the rest of the game modes we have a lot of different existing stadiums we can enjoy which are mainly covered in grass or artificial grass.
Sound
Each year the FIFA installments get new background songs that play when you are in the menu to hype you up to crush your opponents. This soundtrack list exists out of 43 different songs that play on some kind of loop and consist of rap, hip-hop, and RnB. Also, they added some new voices for the commentators and cheers the crowd chant in the background when you are playing a match. Sadly, after playing a ton of matches, the lines these commentators quote become quite repetitive. The rest of the sounds stayed pretty much the same.
Gameplay
FIFA 20 is a football simulation game published by Electronic Arts and the 27th installment of the series. The games in the FIFA series usually release around the time the new football season starts and gets a little reworked from its predecessor to keep things interesting. You can choose between a lot of different gameplay modes which make the game quite interesting even after playing for a few months.
The story mode of FIFA 20 is VOLTA football and revolves around authentic street football. Here you get to pick your character and dive into the story of a small football squad and Revvy. Both wanting to make a name for themselves in competitive football and with a bit of luck winning the world championship.
It also brings back the Career mode where you can be a single football player and make your way to your favorite team, while you do all the hard work and carry them to the ultimate victory. You can also enjoy various other offline activities like kick-off, UEFA and skill games.
FIFA 20 did not forget about the online competitive gameplay. The fan-favorite FIFA Ultimate Team is still there to enjoy. FUT lets you create your own dream team out of almost all the players that are available in the current competition. This squad is used to play against premade squads or other players’ squads in the online competition of FUT. Sadly, due to the new gambling laws in Belgium, they won’t be able to buy FIFA coins which results in earning your FUT gold for player packs throughout grinding and actually playing the game. In these packs, there are different items and players you can collect to complete your squad and give them the right attributes or healing they need to carry on their great work for your team.
Playing FIFA 20 feels very realistic, due to the multiple controls and combos you can land throughout these controls, this can be a challenge at some points. You need to play a lot to understand the mechanics, the tricks you can execute and the scoring technics. This makes the game a lot harder for new players to get into the online competitive play, but rewarding if you actually succeed in mastering the mechanics.
Conclusion
FIFA 20 doesn’t stray that far from its other installments but still managed to shake things up with their new story mode VOLTA football, where you as a player return to the streets to make a name for yourself. Besides that, we have the fan-favorite mode FUT, career mode and so much more you can still enjoy. So if you are looking for something new except for the storyline, FIFA 20 won’t be your cup of tea. But if you enjoyed the last installments and can’t get enough of all the different modes, go and grab your copy!
FIFA 20 - Review,
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