EA FC 25 review in progress: Game's not gone yet

Despite the name and branding shake-up last year, it wouldn't be particularly unfair to call a new EA FC game familiar. It's a series often defined by incremental changes rather than sweeping shifts, and that's very much the case once more with its latest edition, EA FC 25.

While I've only had a couple of days so far with the game and there's still plenty more for me to explore, FC 25 offers a number of excellent new additions to the already successful formula, while still falling over many of the same hurdles that have plagued it in recent years.

Big time Rush

I was perhaps most intrigued heading into Rush, FC 25's new 5v5 game mode, but I certainly wasn't expecting to be won over this much. It's always going to be challenging to penetrate the hegemony of existing game modes, especially in the Ultimate Team space, yet Rush feels like the perfect blend of quick, easy, and fresh to compete with the staple modes.

In simple terms, it emulates the five-a-side format that's so popular in real-life football into the world of EA FC. This leads to fast-paced end-to-end matches that never feel boring, and the short match timer is the icing on the cake that makes the experience as a whole so easy to pick up and play.

What really elevates the mode to another level though - especially within Ultimate Team - is the Bonuses that are available at the player selection screen. While winning will definitely earn you a fair amount of Rush Points, you'll get the bulk of your post-game prizes by fitting your player selection into these bonuses.

They'll be things like a German player, a player from the Premier League, or even an active Evolutions card. On top of this, there are also often ratings restrictions, which force you to be creative and use cards that you perhaps wouldn't have even looked at otherwise.

This creates a healthy break from the meta, at least at the start of this cycle, as while you can still often go in and use your best players it's definitely encouraged against. 

I think there are still improvements to be made to the player selection process though. At the moment it just shows you five of the highest-rated eligible cards in your club instead of those that fit the bonuses, and scrolling through pages and pages in order to find the right one can feel cumbersome when under a time limit, but that's hopefully something that'll get addressed at a later date.

The experience is also seamless whether you're playing with a group of friends or dropping in with randoms online. Unlike Clubs, which in my experience requires a lot of coordination both off and on the pitch, Rush is so easy to jump in and play - and there's even a Rocket League-style chat function if you're a fan of spamming 'Thanks!' when your teammate misses a tackle!

I tended to take the role of defender in the matches that I played, but it's very much an experience free of positional restraints, and you'll find yourself all over the smaller-sized pitch. It definitely rewards intelligent movement and intuitive teamwork, and I really hope that it continues to play a key role in the Ultimate Team experience as the year progresses.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Ultimate Team experience as a whole, however, is very much a mixed bag. Key new additions are often highlights that feel like they should have been added years ago, yet the experience as a whole is held back by problems that just keep cropping up year after year.

Starting with the good, it's no surprise that the Duplicate Player Storage system is a game-changing feature, especially as EA has trended overwhelmingly towards untradeable rewards in recent years.

Having the option to quickly send any duplicate untradeable into a hole you can deal with later is infinitely better than the Sophie's choice-esque scenario you'd be faced with in previous years. Being able to access this Duplicate Storage pile directly from an SBC is the finishing touch I didn't expect either, and it's the perfect way to use the system that really removes any tedium.

Evolutions have also received a well-deserved revamp after their successful introduction last year, as while they were an excellent addition to the FUT formula, their initial form posed some key frustrations. Previously strict restrictions have been relaxed due to the new stat limits system, giving you a much wider pool of players to choose from when starting a new Evolution.

There is also the option now for new cosmetic-based Evolutions, giving your cards a new aesthetic flavour beyond simple stat increases. These include simplistic flair touches to styles that symbolise your own club legends, and I think it's a really fantastic addition that helps your Ultimate Team feel personalised.

What did very much dampen my experience though was the copious bugs that I encountered, and the incredibly sluggish menus that persist still. There have always been bugs at the start of a new EA FC game, especially in the early access period, but I've never encountered as many as I have here.

It felt like every ten minutes or so I was having to restart the game after being stuck in an infinite loading screen or simply reaching a freeze, and it reached the point where it felt like anything I did had a chance of breaking the game.

What doesn't help on top of this are menus that are a chore to go through. Despite most of the action happening on the pitch, any seasoned FUT player knows how much time you spend in the menus, yet they once again feel so sluggish and unresponsive in almost every aspect.

Some instances simply feel overturned and could be condensed into a more seamless experience, but otherwise, it's just a case of things taking far too long to load or your actions lagging behind.

Balancing progression

Progression in Ultimate Team has always been tricky to approach, especially as someone who's exclusively done Road to Glory clubs for years. 

FUT is, by definition, an experience tailored towards those who spend money. Promo packs are now in the store the second it goes live, and constant waves of new releases definitely cater to players who are happy to spend real-life money on said packs.

Yet at the same time, it's never been easier to be a 'free-to-play' player, and that's once again the case this year. Rewards, in particular, have received a huge boost, with noticeable improvements to the prizes you'll earn at the end of the Squad Battles, Division Rivals, and FUT Champions reset.

Of course, there's the double-edged sword that these rewards increase the greater you perform, and it's easier to do well with a stronger team which is much easier to obtain if you spend real money on packs, but it remains promising to see that there's still plenty of ways to increase your coin balance without diving into the world of FC Points.

What does worry me on top of this, however, is the looming introduction of a paid season pass. While not present currently in Season One, this enhanced version of the seasonal ladder would have the potential to really swing the balance in favour of those who can or want to invest in it.

I would be surprised if, like most other Battle Pass systems, these rewards were purely cosmetic due to the pack-filled nature of the current free pass, but it remains to be seen how far the boat is pushed.

New tactics but the same speed

From a gameplay perspective, there haven't been too many changes, and your perspective on that will very much depend on how well you got on with FC 24. 

It does feel rather slow and sluggish at times, especially when passing, and I'd generally prefer it if the game leaned a bit more into the arcadey side of things at this point but it is a challenging balance to achieve.

The big new feature in FC 25 within the gameplay is the new FC IQ system, which gives you far greater flexibility when it comes to your tactics and also enhances the way that players on the pitch move both on and off the ball.

I'm still getting to grips with the intricacies of the system but this has definitely been a welcome change - especially as someone who likes to endlessly tweak tactics and formations.

Before there were so many limitations in what you could achieve, and you'd had to read between the lines a lot to actually understand how your players would perform tactically on the pitch.

Now it's so easy to employ tactical details, whether that be telling your fullbacks to invert, or instructing your striker to drop back into build-up. Clear zone-based graphics make it easy to understand what spaces your players will take up on the pitch, and pairing this with the new Player Roles - which sees each player specialise in a certain version of their position - can create a deeper level of customisation that we've not seen in-game before.

While it won't matter to most players, I was also pleasantly surprised with the enhancements made to the replay system. Not only are you able to pick from a number of key in-game highlights instead of just the most recent stretch of time, but it's also far easier to actually control and tweak the settings in the editor.

There's even a new photo mode which makes taking stunning screenshots of the intricately detailed player models a delight, and while I'd be shocked if most players touch this feature even once, it was definitely a great addition for players like me.

The Verdict (So Far)

It's still very much early days in the lifespan of FC 25, and I'll have my full thoughts soon, but overall I'm having a good time with the game. There are still a number of key issues that seem to persist year after year, and the on-pitch action might not be quite enough for some players, but almost every new addition to FC 25 has been a hit for me.

I'm still yet to dive into Career Mode, which has arguably seen the biggest makeover out of all the modes, but if that looks as strong as it seems then this could be looking like a strong year overall.

Reviewed on PlayStation 5. Code provided by the publisher.