FIFA 21 – Review
Follow Genre: Sports, Football
Developer: Electronic Arts
Publisher: Electronic Arts, EA Sports
Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox One X, PC. Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS4

FIFA 21 – Review

Site Score
7.0
Good: Defending feels easier, Volta Football
Bad: Doesn't feel renewing, dumb AI-team members
User Score
6.7
(3 votes)
Click to vote
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 6.7/10 (3 votes cast)

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. The moment every football fan has been waiting for in the last few months, FIFA 21 has finally released. Of course, we’ve also been looking forward to taking a look at the newest installment in one of the most popular sports game series. With new formations, player trades through transfer periods and some improved features, FIFA 21 is bound to bring a lot of enjoyment to fans of the series. Sadly, it doesn’t feel as renewing as we would normally expect.

Story

With the story mode called The Journey ending in FIFA 19, they had to bring a new type of story mode to the game. With FIFA 20 having introduced Volta Football, they added one of the most requested features to the game, namely a return of the street football gameplay that was highly popular in FIFA Street. Volta Football is again present in FIFA 21 with another interesting storyline to follow with a unique player you’ve created. In this game mode, instead of being a player who wants to shine on official football fields, you’ll be someone who wants to play a big role in the street football business. This game mode also features many legends in the world of street football like Kaká and Lisa Zimouche.

Graphics

With the FIFA games being based on real teams from over the whole world, everyone is always excited to check how the game looks graphically and how the players from their favorite teams look like. As many players already looked very alike in the previous game, we can’t really say we actually see a big difference compared to the previous installment. With the upcoming next-gen and the offer for FIFA players to get a free upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version, we are hoping for a big change in this department on the next-gen. they did fix a weird problem that occurred in FIFA 20, namely the public facing their chairs instead of the field when the camera turns to the crowd when a goal has been made.

Sound

Again, FIFA 21 has a great music gallery implemented in the game with a lot of songs from well-known artists that will liven up the menus in the game. FIFA 21 always has commentaries available in many different languages, but something has been changed in this function. A few languages will be available in the standard game, but many other languages, including Dutch, need to be downloaded separately. Luckily, these commentaries have been renewed with each language having some newly added lines spoken by the commentators.

Gameplay

FIFA 21 is a sports game based on one of the most famous sports throughout the whole world: Football. With the next-gen coming around the corner, EA tends to only release a sort of “Legacy Edition” with only some small improvements and implementing the adjustments in teams due to the latest transfer period. Although FIFA 21 brings some changes to the game, like the ability to play FIFA Ultimate Team in co-op and some minor changes to the career mode, FIFA 21 isn’t really that renewing as one would expect from a new release.

Like in the previous installment, the AI-controlled players still won’t really move around the field like you would want to. With the pace of FIFA being pretty high compared to real-life football matches, it’s really hard to create tactical masterpieces in terms of football when your teammates won’t even start running to create openings on their own. You can however send other players running to the other end of the field, but only in a straight line with no consideration of your position at all.

The game mode Kick Off still offers a lot of customization for rules and play styles, just like in FIFA 20 where it was introduced. You can play a classic match, create your own house rules where you can set up the craziest rules available in the game, play a match in the UEFA Champions League and many other options. A few examples of these house rules are a long-range mode where goals scored from outside the box will count as two, a survival mode where each player that scores will be ejected from the team and “No Rules” which is exactly what it’s called, a game mode that ignores almost all existing rules. All this makes Kick-Off the perfect game mode for a casual match alone, or with friends.

While attacking hasn’t really changed, defending feels like it has become much easier compared to FIFA 20, which of course, makes it even harder to attack when playing against other players online. With the addition of covering your opponent, you’ll have a much higher chance to intercept your opponent’s passes and holding your ground is much easier as well. When you play with a friend in one team, in modes like Co-op Seasons, who also your playing style, you can create wonderful plays that will blow your opponents away, and is in our opinion, even more fun to play than the classic single-player game modes. Controlling the ball feels just like in FIFA 20, which was really good in this version, so this hasn’t really changed, but wasn’t really necessary as well.

A big letdown for players is that you can’t import your team from FUT in FIFA 20 to FIFA 21. With FUT being based on buying packs with FUT coins, many players will have spent a lot of their hard-earned money to create their ideal team in FIFA 20, which now seems to have been all for nothing as everyone needs to start all over again and spend another big amount of money to create their ideal team once again. Yes, you can earn coins through playing a lot, but the amount earned isn’t nearly enough to get that perfect team you’d want to have. This mode hasn’t been changed one bit in this aspect, so this game mode still feels pay-to-win.

Conclusion

FIFA 21 is a rather good game, but doesn’t really feel a lot different than it’s predecessor. Many things feel the same as in FIFA 20, with some minor changes made to in-game features, like the ability to play FUT in co-op. The AI-controlled players still move around with no real knowledge of the game and will be of no help at all when building up attacks. Playing with others in a co-op mode feels a bit better for us, but this could also be a personal matter of feeling. Volta Football offers another interesting chapter as a story mode and is ideal for those longing to play FIFA Street. FIFA 21 is still a big recommendation for fans of the sports and game series, but if you’re planning to purchase one of the next-gen consoles at release, we’d only recommend purchasing this game if you own a PlayStation 4 as you’ll get a free upgrade when you buy a PlayStation 5. If you’re planning to buy an Xbox Series X/S at release, we’d recommend to buy it on the next-gen.

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Rating: 6.7/10 (3 votes cast)
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Rating: -1 (from 1 vote)
FIFA 21 - Review, 6.7 out of 10 based on 3 ratings
Nickskuh


Administration is my job but gaming is my passion!

1 Comment

  1. […] the game before. But it may happen if they play regularly. One thing that some games — again, like FIFA — show is how to give yourself subtle advantages on the field. For example, space. A good […]

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