EA Sports FC 24 isn’t the huge departure we’d hoped for

It’s boring, reductive, and incorrect to say that every yearly football game from EA is “just like the last one with a different name”.

However, if there were ever a year that this oft-quoted criticism was applicable, it’s arguably the debut entry in the EA Sports FC franchise.

EA Sports FC 24 (hereafter referred to as FC), the first release since the less-than-amicable divorce between football’s governing body and EA, smacks of a game trying to find its identity before it can deliver on the changes that EA claimed FIFA had always held it back from making.

The largest changes, perhaps unsurprisingly, are found in the game’s money-making behemoth, Ultimate Team. While the premise remains the same in FC as it did in FIFA, the headline change in this mode is that for the first time both male and female players are featured, and mixed-gender teams are allowed.

Ultimate Team has always been a mode that’s based purely on fantasy. Players who have just celebrated their 18th birthday playing centre-back alongside someone who’s been dead for their team-mate’s entire life isn’t strange, but the introduction of female players cuts a striking visual change.

It is strange to see a 5ft female winger shoulder barge a 6′ 2″ centre-back out of the way. However, considering Ultimate Team has always had problems with the likes of the diminutive Lorenzo Insigne absolutely bodying players in their path, it highlights more of an overall issue in the way body sizes and strength are seemingly a dice roll in the money-printing mode.

Buy EA Sports FC24

EA Sports FC 24 (PS5)

£15.99£20$32.49$69.99£64.99$69.99$69.99

EA Sports FC 24 (Xbox)

£17.03$28.76$34.46£64.99$69.99$69.99

In reality, we think including players in the mode will do more for the women’s game than any Lionesses victory. By making some of the female players just as viable, if not more, than some of the men, young people playing the game are likely to develop new favorite players, some of which will convert into actually watching that team.

Fans have been discovering new teams and players through football games for years and making them such a prominent part of the game’s most played mode will only accelerate that.

On the field, the action is strikingly similar to FIFA 23. Hypermotion 2, which purports to scan the world’s top players to accurately recreate their on-field mannerisms, is visually impressive but mechanically clumsy.

Yes, it’s novel to be able to tell who a player is by how they run, but the issue – as is always the case – comes during the more unpredictable moments in the game. When a loose ball breaks, all the fancy animation in the world can’t make up for the torrid back and forth of losing and gaining back possession, and the game screeches to determine who should come away with the ball.

“On the field, the action is strikingly similar to FIFA 23. Hypermotion 2, which purports to scan the world’s top players to accurately recreate their on-field mannerisms, is visually impressive but mechanically clumsy.”

The best change to the football itself is the new Play Styles. These, similar to NBA 2K‘s badge system, give players improved abilities based on what they are known for in real life.

For example, Tottenham’s James Maddison is known for his set pieces, so when using Maddison, the line that shows where a set piece is likely to land is much more visible, and the accuracy is massively improved. Manchester City’s Chloe Kelly has a Play Style relating to crossing the ball, meaning she can whip it into the box with ferocity from almost anywhere.

While fun, these do seem rather overpowered, as at the time of writing the boosts to these abilities aren’t just subtle, they’re almost cheating. The crossing Play Style, for example, is basically a guaranteed goal, as the cross is whipped in like a surface-to-air missile.

These things will likely be patched, as EA has typically loved to upend the established meta multiple times throughout the year, but currently, they’re a rare point of legitimate differentiation for some of the game’s best players.

Stalwarts like Career mode and Pro Clubs have been given minor cosmetic changes, but in the shadow of Ultimate Team, any actual improvements to these modes seem destined to be overlooked.

The obvious, if depressing, reason for this is that these modes don’t make money in the same Scrooge McDuckian way that Ultimate Team does, but for people who don’t want to endure the insanely high level of competition in Ultimate Team, the fact that FC’s single-player offering is so generic is a huge (if expected) disappointment.

This was always going to be a strange year for the franchise, but we had hoped that with EA FC 24, EA would look to strike out on its own more significantly. Currently, the game could easily be called FIFA 24 and it wouldn’t feel out of place.

There’s an argument to be made that any radical change could turn off the legions of FIFA fans that buy the game yearly and nothing else, but as EA FC’s big stepping-out moment, it falls somewhat flat.

The on-field action is still great, save for some baffling animations that continue to strive for realism over enjoyment, and EA’s commitment to emulation of the presentation of the real game is impressive, but it’s easily the most skippable entry in years.

Buy EA Sports FC24

EA Sports FC 24 (PS5)

£15.99£20$32.49$69.99£64.99$69.99$69.99

EA Sports FC 24 (Xbox)

£17.03$28.76$34.46£64.99$69.99$69.99

FIFA used to operate on a “one on, one off” cycle wherein massive new changes would be implemented in every second game, with the following years looking to refine them. For FC 25, if EA can expand the new Play Styles feature, perhaps row back some of the Skate 3 level animation foolishness and inject some actual life into modes other than Ultimate Team, we’d have an excellent football game.

But for EA Sports FC 24, the biggest change seems to be new advertising partners that it’s allowed to put in the game, now that the storied relationship with FIFA has been relegated for good.