EA Sports FC 25 review

Behind all the realistic movement and player behaviour that EA calls Hypermotion, the actual sense of something new this year comes from the incredibly in-depth tactical and positional system called FC IQ and this particular game mode I fancy a lot called Rush. 

First off, FC IQ adds a level of depth to individual players’ roles that impact the collective cognition of the entire team. Say, you wish for Rashford to play on the Left Wing and during attack you’d want him to cut inside and become an ‘Inside Forward’, well if EA FC has assigned a plus or a plus plus sign on Rashford or Garnacho for that role then you can play them in that role. Bruno on the other hand will get options like Half Winger and Playmaker. The Half Winger Role moves him to the wing to support Rashford with crosses during an attack.

After assigning your players the Role, you also have to give them a Focus which dictates how they manage attack and defence. If you assign PlayMaker and Balanced to Bruno Fernandes, then he will stay central during attacks and also drop into defence in a balanced manner. But if you assign him an Attack Focus, then he will slip between the lines and move between the opposition defence to create more chances. Both Role and Focus dictate how your individual players move on and off the ball, and if you don’t structure the formation according to individual players’ IQ, then you might easily lose the ball to a superior tactic. My counterattack strategy with the 4-4-2 formation from the SAF era was easily overloaded centrally by Madrid’s Gegenpressing.

FC IQ gives you immense control over how you want to play with your team rather than just filling the team with top talent. You can customise the strategy for your team on a per-player basis, which might overwhelm folks who just want to pick up and play. Thankfully, you don’t have to visit the deep end of tactics for local fun. However, in Ultimate Teams and Career Mode, these things will dictate the overall performance of your team.

We thought it was fluff earlier, but there is genuine nuance in the gameplay and movement of players depending on your tactics. However, it’s also very restrictive. You cannot force Bruno to drop into the defence line and expect intelligent footwork amidst pressure like how Erik Ten Hag manages him in moments of desperation. Nor can you experiment and deploy a tactic that your player is not skill-attributed to do. Which means if you want to use something similar to Hansi Flick’s Barcelona with intersecting wingers and false 9 strikers, it will require players that have the same attributes as Yamal, Lewandowski, and Raphinha to actually move in sync and make sense of the formation and tactics.

The only place we enjoyed tinkering with the Roles and Focus was in Career mode, where I tried to save Ten Hag’s job. Unfortunately, Madrid destroyed my team, so either the game is too realistic or FC IQ is a fresh paint coat over a rusted idea.

Here’s where EA FC 25 feels like a breath of fresh air. Remember Volta? Well, Rush is that but more fun and tactical. Think about a 5v5 turf football match with an interesting offside rule, a blue card that gives a 1-minute suspension, and an AI-controlled keeper. Rush works when up to 4 players form a team together with the fifth one being the AI-controlled keeper, which the captain of the team can call forward if need be. 

Rush is available in Ultimate Team, Clubs, and Career, but the best place to enjoy it is in Clubs with your own pro player. After making a player you like, you can create up to 5 presets with your desired positions. There’s a massive skill tree which can be unlocked as you level up by playing against other players. The skill tree is massive enough to force you to play one dedicated playstyle to the letter. I created a striker, a CDM, and an attacking midfielder. The CDM position suits me well, and so far, my friends and I have managed to climb the Division 2 rank together. Games get increasingly intense as you keep winning to play against better players around the world. This mode forces teamwork. So, squad balance is crucial in higher divisions. If you've got a squad full of midfielders, winning the ball is like trying to catch a greased chicken. And if you create a short and speedy player, like most people do, you'll have to give up some of your aggression and jumping skills for that extra speed. But here's the thing, finding that perfect balance between four players and having four friends to game with is what makes this mode the most enjoyable football experience I've had in years.

There’s also a special stadium made in partnership with Nike called the Nike Air Zoom Arena, which is designed to look like a futuristic stadium inspired by Nike Mercurial cleats. I really like it, but after a few days, the stadium starts to feel like old news. We wish there was some variety here. The commentary is a bit energetic in this mode as well. I am not particularly a fan of it because it feels like I am playing a fighting game.

EA's lack of focus on improving multiplayer and menu systems is a massive issue. You can't choose between local or international servers in multiplayer, and the game doesn't provide detailed information on ping and latency, which is crucial for serious players. This can lead to input delays during online matches, especially in India. The server side of things needs a lot of work.

Choosing a captain to control the goalkeeper is also a mess. Unless you're a party of four from the start, the game randomly assigns the captain status to the lobby leader. If you join as a duo or a trio, there's no way to control who gets to be the captain.

Navigating the game menus is like getting lost in a maze. There are so many options and submenus that it's hard to find what you're looking for. It feels like a chore just to move from one menu to another. And it's not like the game is super fast or anything. Every time you move from one section to another, EA has to check in with the server, which makes everything take forever.

The lack of competition in the football video game genre is apparent because, besides fancy graphics, Rush mode and the new FC IQ, the game only evolves an inch or so. There are still frustrating decisions, like forcing you to play 11v11 when playing directly with a friend online. You cannot play Rush with a single friend online outside of Clubs and Ultimate Team. Even things like House Rules and other game modes inside Kick Off cannot be played, so your only best bet is to force yourself to create a team in Ultimate Team or Clubs and then play. It’s silly and very evident that EA wants you to spend your waking hours playing Ultimate Team, where microtransactions lurk.

EA Sports FC 25 delivers a mixed bag. Rush mode offers a refreshing and engaging experience, particularly when playing with friends. If you're primarily interested in the new Rush mode and can overlook the game's shortcomings, then EA Sports FC 25 might be worth a try.