You won’t be blown away. You won’t be disgusted. You’ll just feel indifferent. That is, at least, if you’re anything like me and have played previous iterations of EA’s soccer (football) game. To be clear, no I have never played Pro Evolution Soccer. FIFA is the only soccer game I’ve ever played. Suprise! The gameplay has changed, causing everyone to relearn the game. Except this time it went even further.
The gameplay has changed quite a bit since FIFA 15. Players have slowed down, forcing you to focus more on a passing game. Where in FIFA 15 you could rely on flying down the wings with the fastest players, in 16 you will need to rely on winning the midfield and working the ball around the pitch. It also seems that they made crossing the ball from the flanks a lot more difficult. These changes have also made defending very boring. You cannot close down as quickly and this allows the offensive players to keep possession by passing. The player has to contain the opponent and rely on mistakes to get the ball back, which happens more often because the touches are heavier and players are more likely to give the ball away when receiving passes. Tackling has become more inconsistent and you’re more likely to foul if you try to tackle at the wrong time. The introduction of no touch dribbling adds more trickery to the offensive side of the ball but changes to the defensive side are underwhelming. While I don’t agree with all of the changes made to the gameplay, I can certainly appreciate the direction they are going. A more possession oriented game might prove to be preferable to the often luck based counter-attacking formula that has dominated past games.
I can’t talk about a sports game without mentioning the AI. In short, it’s terrible. The AI in FIFA 16 is worse than the previous 3 games. I frequently find players wandering out of position, not reacting to the ball being near them, and ignoring offensive players running past them. The goalkeepers have taken a step back from the previous game. Now they seem to come out of their net to collect balls that they have not a prayer of getting to. While their shot stopping is formidable, the decision making by the goalkeepers is comparable to someone who has never played soccer in their life.
Now we can talk about the game modes. Like every entry into modern FIFA games, this year’s edition contains a plethora of ways to play the game. Career mode returns with new player growth/development centered around skill games, which also make a return. Another addition to the career mode is the introduction of preseason tournaments. Career mode also features the global transfer network, which required you to scout players to know their stats since FIFA 14. The GTN is a hotly debated feature that many players, including myself, want to see as an option rather than just the way it is but, unfortunately we are forced to use this system.
Online play is more of the same. There isn’t noticeable improvement over FIFA 15. However, the new FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) Draft Mode is pretty neat. The idea is that you choose a formation and draft from a random draw of 5 players for each position and the bench. These players are often higher quality than you start with. I was able to field a team of gold players on my draft. That team is either an online or single player team. You play 4 games and get a reward based on your record. This is all brilliant but, it isn’t perfect. It costs a draft token to play this mode. A token that can only be bought with 15,000 FUT coins or 300 FIFA points, the currency purchased through microtransactions. The price to play draft mode is simply too high. It forces you to play the base FUT game, which I want no part of. I wish that they would make a version of this mode that had no rewards but you could play at no cost. It’s disappointing that they locked this game mode behind hours of grinding FUT or paying real world money. As a side note, you only get one token to start out with. There are trophies for going 4-0 in single player and multiplayer. As a trophy enthusiast, this is more disgusting than the trophies for the FUT base game.
FIFA 16 introduced women’s soccer starting with the international teams that competed in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. This was a huge marketing point for EA’s franchise as this is a step in the right direction. In execution, however, it was a misfire. To start with, you cannot play a women’s team against a men’s team or club. In addition to this, women’s teams play no differently than men’s teams. I watched enough women’s soccer to know that the general flow of a women’s game is different than a men’s competition. The main problem behind this is that the stats of the women were inflated to reflect their standings as in the women’s game. This results in a game mode with limited teams that plays exactly the same as men’s teams but these teams can’t be played against the men’s teams. As with FUT Draft Mode, there are trophies for playing the Women’s International Cup and for performing certain actions while playing as a women’s team. In general, I believe that the introduction of women’s soccer was poorly handled in FIFA 16.
One of the more remarkable traits of FIFA has always been in its presentation. FIFA 16 is no different. Seriously, it has hardly changed from FIFA 15. The menus are very familiar and in many ways are identical to last years iteration. It seems that they were satisfied with slapping a new coat of paint on the old UI. I had no problem with FIFA 15’s menus. They worked well, unlike one particular bug that annoyed me in this year’s edition. I play a 4-2-3-1 formation. From the goalkeeper I can only move to the left center back. If I try to go right from the left center back, I am back to the goalkeeper. I have to go all the way around to my midfield to access the right half of my defence. I know, it’s trivial, but these kind of bugs should have been found before release. Menus like this simply worked in FIFA 15 and there is no excuse for simple menu glitches like this.
The actual graphics and in-game presentation is on par with FIFA standards. Graphically, it is nearly inseparable from FIFA 15. The commentators are great for the English Premier League but are somewhat lackluster elsewhere. 6 MLS stadiums are introduced and are of high quality. There are new in game alerts for when transfers happen. While this is nice, it sometimes distracts from the game as the graphic that pops up takes a large portion of the screen. As always, FIFA 16 is blessed with a good licensed soundtrack that pairs nicely with the game.
The FIFA series is in a weird place right now. EA has created more game modes than you’ll likely play, introduced more teams than you’ve imagined, and yet I still feel there is a little to be desired when it comes to how they handle gameplay changes on the defensive side of the ball and my excitement for FUT Draft Mode has been hampered by the cost of entry. Overall, I give FIFA 16 a 7/10. It’s a decent buy for fans of the series but it didn’t reach it’s potential as a truly great sports game.
Franklin Sizemore
AKA