Developer: Electronic Arts
Publisher: Electronic Arts, EA Sports
Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, PC, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Stadia
Tested on: PS5z
FIFA 22 – Review
The moment we’ve been waiting for is finally here; the release of the first real next-gen FIFA game, FIFA 22. With the new HyperMotion technology and some other new additions to the game to get the fans hyped for this new installment, FIFA 22 hopes to be an improvement for the series, but it doesn’t really bring anything completely new to the table. Is this enough for those who were eager to see a new era of FIFA games?
Story
When starting FIFA 22 for the first time, you’ll get to play an amazing intro where you design your own player and start running through the streets of Paris, play some ball with the legendary Thierry Henry and the star of PSG, Kylian Mbappé, and watch a thrilling Champions League match alongside Lewis Hamilton and David Beckham. All in all, an amazing introduction to the game, but after this, there’s nothing comparable to be found throughout the game. Surely, they have improved the Career mode to have more depth, and you can design your own team from the ground up, but as far as story content goes, you won’t be impressed.
Graphics
With FIFA 22 being the first real next-gen FIFA game, it can be said that this edition has the best graphics so far. All the players look very realistic and the amount of detail is stunningly high. Surely not every player in this game looks exactly like their real counterpart, but for most of all the famous clubs, they do. They did add a lot of details to the generic stadiums in the game to make each match feel like a real match. The overall atmosphere is great, and this is what sets apart this edition from many of the previous ones.
Sound
FIFA 22 has a plethora of different tracks that can be heard when browsing through the menus. These tracks are part of a varied collection of famous and relatively unknown artists from different genres. FIFA 22 also offers commentary in a lot of different languages as a free download, and for each language, they’ve cast some well-known commentators from those countries. It’s a joy to hear the commentary in your own language, and for a while, this contributes to the feeling of watching a match of football on TV. Sadly, this feeling won’t last long, as each commentary duo will eventually get repetitive and they won’t always say the most fitting things for what is happening on screen.
Gameplay
FIFA 22 is a sports game that focuses on football. This new installment features the latest team rosters, new cards for FUT, mixed-gender Pro Clubs, and a career mode that lets you create your own brand-new team with their own logo, colors, stadium, and more. The VOLTA football mode is also present, but it is now purely focused on multiplayer gameplay.
When talking about the controls, not much has changed this year. They did add a new option to control the receiving player, to move them right where you want to receive that perfect pass. It may take some time to master this new mechanic in the fast-paced football matches of the game, but it’s an optional feature to simply hone your skills a bit more. If you’ve played earlier FIFA games, you can easily jump into the game and feel right at home.
FIFA 22 offers quite a lot of game modes to play, but nothing really new has been added to the mix. The developers did change some aspects of some game modes. For instance, in the VOLTA Football mode, you can now level up your player as you win matches. With each match, you earn XP, and when you level up, you’ll earn skill points that can be used for perks to become even better on the field. You’ll also earn VOLTA coins to buy new clothing and accessories to further customize your custom player. VOLTA Football also offers a plethora of fun minigames that let you play against others online and battle for the highest score. In Pro Clubs, you create your own player and play online in real 11 vs. 11 matches. These can now be mixed up with both male and female players. Of course, Ultimate Team offers the same experience as every year with new cards, updated players, and more. Sadly, this mode still puts its focus on trying to make you spend even more money on the game.
The new HyperMotion technology has definitely improved the animations throughout the whole game. For this game, they have recorded a huge amount of movements during real matches to improve the overall animation quality in the game, and this has definitely done its job well. Every action you make, doesn’t only look better, but also feels better due to the thousands of new animations added to the game to recreate the actions you perform with your controller. Making those perfect dribbles and other actions will definitely give you a great feeling of satisfaction. Still, it all might look a lot more fluent on the normal (fast) game speed of FIFA, but if you look closely at a slower pace, you’ll still notice players performing weird actions to get in position for some animations.
Just like in the earlier releases, it still feels like something behind the scenes controls the flow of a match. In many matches, you’ll be ruling on the field with flawless passes and shots at one time, while this can suddenly change and your team becomes the worst team in existence and they can’t do anything right. The flow of the match can drastically change and lead to a big loss, while you were winning easily before. This also includes strange things like balls going through player limbs or balls flying through the hands of the keeper, making it feel like the scoring is already determined at the moment of shooting.
FIFA 22 tries to be the best football simulation game with the addition of the HyperMotion technology to improve the overall animations, but the theatrical gameplay that has always been part of the FIFA franchise still holds the game back to make it a good simulation game. Each match is filled with constant scoring opportunities and each match looks and feels like it’s one of the most thrilling matches ever seen. The excitement still has the upper hand over a realistic match of football. Also, with an annual new release, you would expect that the latest changes, like the new game rules, would’ve been implemented, but they’re still nowhere to be found. For instance, around the world, it’s now possible to switch out five players instead of three, but in FIFA 22, the old rules are still intact, which also doesn’t really add to the realistic experience they want to create in this game.
Conclusion
FIFA 22 is the newest installment in the FIFA series and it did bring some improvements. The new HyperMotion technology definitely improves the quality of the animations on the field, but the fast pace still holds the game back from actually becoming a realistic football simulation game. In terms of graphics, the game looks absolutely stunning. FIFA 22 is mostly focused on its online modes and mainly banks on Ultimate Team, the biggest cash cow for its creators. After the epic introduction to the game, we were disappointed the ‘story’ didn’t further build upon this legendary introduction. Still, for the football fans, this is a must-buy because there’s no good alternative at this point. Those who like the series will of course be able to enjoy this one for the coming year, but those hoping for modes like Journey a few years ago will be quite disappointed.
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