EA FC 25 review: new modes are a breath of fresh air but gameplay is still holding it back

EA FC 25 is now available to play for players with early access, with the game available worldwide on Friday, September 27.

EA FC 25 has everything it needs to be a great football game. It has the best licensing, great menu content and finally a really fun variation of different game modes. But, it still has familiar issues, with a frustrating gameplay experience holding it back from being the game we all deserve.

After months of waiting, and wanting to move on from EA FC 24, EA FC 25 is finally available to play for players who pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition or picked up early access another way. As it usually does, EA Sports has everything it can to build up the hype surrounding EA FC 25 over the last few months – we've seen deep dives about everything in the new game from gameplay to Career Mode, the full player database was revealed in advance, and EA even released a detailed pitch notes about all-things Ultimate Team.

What stood out to me was that for the first time in a long time, it didn't seem like Ultimate Team was the sole focus. New additions to Career Mode, Clubs, and the brand new Rush game mode had me intrigued as I loaded up EA FC 25 for the first time, and what I experienced in my first few hours of playing impressed me – though, like a favourite childhood snack that you slowly start to dislike as you get older, the one game mode I've always found to be the most reliable has left a bad taste in my mouth.

EA talked the talk in the build-up to EA FC 25, and largely, it walked the walk.

EA FC 25 review – Far from RUSHed

Gameplay

I've played EA FC 25 three different times since July – once in an early preview build, once in the closed beta, and now, the final version of the game. I've seen obvious improvements over the three different versions of EA FC 25, though despite stunning visuals and impressive animations, it still feels slightly undercooked in the areas that matter.

Once again, pace is king. It seems no matter what fancy new features or HyperMotion updates are made to this game, as it has been since the late FIFA days, pace is still the most important statistic in the game. But, a close second to pace as the most important stat in EA FC 25 is passing.

Passing now requires extreme care and precision in EA FC 25 – if you're slightly off balance, facing the wrong direction, or attempting to make a first-time pass, eight or nine times out of 10 you'll find yourself misplacing your pass and defending again. Personally, I'm a fan of this more true-to-life update, but remember, it's EA FC 25, so of course, there's a way around this to make passing easy and arcade-like – passing PlayStyles.

Whenever I used players with a passing PlayStyle Plus such as Pinged Pass, Tiki Taka, Long Ball Pass or Incisive Pass, the chances of the pass being completed increased drastically – actually, it was extremely unusual for a pass to be inaccurate, whether it was a five-yard backward pass or a 60-yard volley.

But for me, easily the biggest change to gameplay in EA FC 25 was the addition of player roles thanks to the brand-new FC IQ. Not only do you have to set up your team with the tactics that suit your playstyle the best, but you need to make sure that you have the right players to suit your style – and let me tell you, it takes some getting used to.

If you want to play a 4-3-3 set-up with your striker in the advanced forward role, your striker must be familiar with that role because if they aren't, they become almost useless in that position. Player Roles will play a huge part in Ultimate Team especially, and as difficult as it may be for some people to get used to, I think it's going to make one big change that most players will be happy with – endless variety.

Let me explain. In EA FC 25, there was one standout meta. Play 4-3-2-1, put your giant strikers with the Aerial Plus PlayStyle in both the centre-forward positions, and ping long balls forward to them to knock down. You were either using a team like this, or you were using a team to combat this.

But now, if someone finds an overpowered formation and set-up that suits them, players can't just copy their tactics, because the players you have may not be familiar with the roles they have set up, making them ineffective in that system. get ready to see a huge variety in how players set up their teams in EA FC 25. And, preset custom tactics will be more important than ever, because there is no way you can adjust your tactics in this much detail in the just 40 seconds you get for a pause!

As I mentioned earlier, graphics-wise, the game is as spectacular as always. New gameplay animations for goalkeepers and shooting were extremely clean and added variety to what you saw in the game, while the ability to celebrate with mascots after a goal is a warm-welcomed addition.

Ultimate Team

Ultimate Team is EA's cash cow, the star attraction and the main event. It's the game mode that generates the most money year-in and year-out, so it came as a surprise to that not much has changed for EA FC 25. And in all honesty, that comes across in-game – it felt like I was playing EA FC 24 all over again, and it left me pretty underwhelmed.

A new pack animation and a slightly new colour scheme aren't fooling me – this genuinely felt like they had just copied and pasted EA FC 24 Ultimate Team into EA FC 25, but what frustrated me the most, was the gameplay. Across all other game modes, you could feel some differences from last year, but it's like these changes weren't made in Ultimate Team, and the same toxic and ridiculously fast-paced gameplay remained. I'm not sure if this is due to server issues or input latency when playing online, but it felt incredibly similar to FC 24.

Aside from the gameplay, there are obviously some improvements to speak of. Evolutions seem better than ever with the new requirements giving players more flexibility over who to evolve, while the new Season Pass allows players to earn Season Points (SP) across Ultimate Team, Career Mode, and Clubs to earn rewards in all three modes at once. Although, the paid Season Pass seems to have been quietly binned off!

The best addition to EA FC 25 Ultimate Team, without a doubt, is Rush. After the epic fall of Volta, which has been subsequently removed in EA FC 24, I was skeptical of what to expect from another small-sided game mode, but each Rush match is an exhilarating six minutes of mad fun, whether you're playing with strangers or friends.

Career Mode

Career Mode is the middle child of EA Sports FC's family – year after year, it seems to get the least attention. But this year, the tables have turned, and Career Mode fans are feasting.

New features such as women's football and FC IQ are fantastic additions to Career Mode, but the revamped youth academy in Manager Career is the pick of the bunch. Using the Rush game mode, you can now develop your youth squad in-house, playing tournaments using your youth players so not only can they improve, but you can get a feel of how they play in-game.

And a little bonus for all the picky players out there, the 14 and 15-year-olds actually look their age in EA FC 25. No more teenagers with wrinkles and a beard!

Women's Career Mode is another great addition as it offers players a new challenge from the men's Career Mode – dealing with a smaller player pool, smaller funds, and shorter contracts can prove a hell of a challenge. One new feature that I was a little underwhelmed with though was Icon Player Career Mode.

On paper, it's a great idea. But when you start playing, you realise that you're controlling a 94-rated Ronaldo for League One Wrexham – there's no room for improvement, and it gets quite boring quite quickly. Live Start Points is another new aspect of Career Mode that I can't wait to try out, but this isn't available, with EA confirming it will be released post-launch.

Clubs

I played more Clubs than ever before in EA FC 24. 678 games to be exact, so when I saw the Clubs changes coming in EA FC 25, you know I was excited. The new menu layout is a big improvement on EA FC 24, and I could've spent hours messing about in player customisation thanks to the new FC Cranium. You really can create whoever you want.

In a few drop-in matches, Clubs seems to have kept its fast-paced gameplay that we got used to in EA FC 24 – once again, the gameplay isn't that different. When I can finally get the chance to jump on with friends, I can't wait to see what sort of storm we can cook up, especially using the new facility card feature which looks very promising.

EA FC 25 verdict

To put it simply, EA FC 25 feels like EA FC 24 but with a fancy new outfit and some killer accessories – when you remove the cosmetic additions and some of the new mode upgrades, gameplay-wise, it still has pretty much the same game at its core.

Although, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed EA FC 24 for the most part, but after being told for months that gameplay would be different from EA FC 25, it left me underwhelmed by how similar it was to EA FC 24.

Aside from the gameplay though, this could be the best game EA has released in years. When the gameplay isn't particularly enjoyable, you want more mode choices, and that's exactly what you get.

Big improvements to Career Mode and Clubs, along with the fantastic new game mode Rush, mean that for the first time in a long time, rather than this game feeling like it has one main dish and a few, smaller side dishes, every game mode on offer feels like a fully baked main course. It's just a shame that the gameplay couldn't be a yummy dessert with a cherry on top.

EA FC 24 review score: 4/5