FIFA 18 Review – Xbox One

As has been the case with every late September period in recent history, the newest FIFA has reared its head, beginning its residence on football fans’ consoles and causing broken controllers and gleeful last-minute-winner-celebrations in equal measure. This year’s FIFA, numbered 18, doesn’t reinvent the wheel, with no major additions to the game, but does attempt to refine what has already been seen. It’s more a case of home improvement that a complete renovation, but these new licks of paint and formula changes are likely to alter the way that you approach FIFA as a game, both in the short- and long-term.

As has been the case for many years, one of FIFA 18’s main pillars is FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT), and, like last year, this is joined by The Journey, the narrative mode that is once again given (almost) equal billing with EA’s money-making card collecting juggernaut. There’s also the standard career mode, which has been allowed a few modifications, but it’s pretty clear which mode EA are attempting to steer players towards. Even The Journey has prompts at the end of each of its story chapters, asking players if they wish to play Ultimate Team instead, almost as if EA are concerned that people might miss the opportunity to spend real-world money on virtual packs of cards.

Though the end of that last paragraph sounded particularly cynical regarding EA’s drive to encourage micro transactions within FUT, this year actually seems to buck the trend, where FUT contains new modes that, if anything, remove the need to spend real-world money on the game to compete with the very best teams in the game. In FIFA 17, EA introduced the weekend league, where, providing that you’d qualified by winning a tournament during the week, you could play up to 40 games against online opponents over the weekend, with big prizes in the form of packs and coins up for grabs. While this was great for those who played online, players who preferred to pit their skills against the AI were left behind.

This year, EA has sought to rectify this with the inclusion of Squad Battles, where offline players face-off against AI-controlled versions of other player’s teams, with a similar ranking system to the Weekend League awarding prizes at the end of each week. While the prizes aren’t as large as in the Weekend League, they’re still attractive enough to encourage dedicated play, and the refreshing of opponents every 24 hours ensures players will return each day in an attempt to climb the ladder and attain greater prizes.

Another new addition to FUT, and one which fans have been clamoring for, is Daily Challenges. These challenges aren’t especially difficult to complete but do promote playing games in a slightly different way, such as scoring goals with a player of a certain nationality, playing a particular mode within FUT, or buying an item off of the transfer market. Each challenge awards a small item as compensation for completion, such as small coin boost or a pack, but I found that this was enough incentive, along with the encouragement to change how I play, to return after work each day to see what the game has tasked me with for that particular 24-hour period. There are also longer-term weekly challenges, which offer larger rewards for more in-depth tasks.

The Journey was FIFA 17’s headline new addition, and the return of this mode in FIFA 18 sees EA gaining confidence in the experience, from the opening that takes place in a Brazilian favela, through the rest of the season, which is noticeably more involved than last year’s effort. Though the first edition of The Journey was a noble effort, I personally found that while there was plenty of narrative development at both the start and end of the experience, the middle fell a little flat and started to feel like too much of a slog to really be enjoyed. This course has been corrected in FIFA 18, though some may feel a little too much, as Alex Hunter turns into a globetrotting superstar, and story developments are thrown at you after almost every match.

These changes in setting, tone and style are welcome, and keep the experience entertaining, but I couldn’t help feel as if it did away with the sense of realism of last year. I also felt a loss of ownership over Alex Hunter, too, as certain major decisions are taken out of the player’s hands. I understand the need for this to drive the story forward, but I definitely felt a little more distance between Hunter and myself while playing The Journey this year. This may have been a deliberate move on EA’s part, however, as this time around you’ll be playing as multiple people, for reasons which become clear as you progress through the story.

On the pitch, I actually found that there wasn’t much difference between FIFA 18 and last year’s outing. EA have boasted of new dribbling mechanics, overhauled crossing and the introduction of team styles, but aside from the increased effectiveness of strength, I found that my experience with the game hasn’t differed all that much from what I experienced in FIFA 17. That may be due to my playing style, or it may be something that gradually reveals itself when playing the game over the months to come, but I haven’t had a revelatory moment with FIFA 18 that I have had from the jump from one FIFA game to another in the past.

FIFA 18, while offering up a fantastic experience for fans, is perhaps the most skippable FIFA that has been released for a number of years, if on-pitch action is what you’re looking for. This is a FIFA with few notable changes, and little in the way of back-of-box feature upgrades, but the changes that are made do add a lot to the longevity of FIFA 18 and the accommodation that it offers to all kinds of players. Every player that I speak to comes to each FIFA game with a different objective, whether it be establishing a legacy in career mode, building a team of superstars in FUT, or continuing the story of Alex Hunter in The Journey. Even these broad objectives can be further segmented into specific objectives, and EA have outdone themselves with FIFA 18 in creating a product that appeals to everyone’s goals.

FIFA 18 is as close to a complete package when it comes to sports games, and frankly, I’m finding it difficult to put down. I’m a big FUT player, even though I’m not particularly great at it, but I’ve found with my time with FIFA this year that there’s always been one more challenge, one more squad battle, one more SBC to complete, which will reward me for my time. It’s not as if I’m performing these tasks for the sake of completion, either, as the experience they present is often varied, interesting and mildly challenging, but not to the point of frustration. Throughout each mode, EA has managed to give FIFA 18 just the right amount of tasks and rewards for completing them, which encourages players such as myself to return time and time again.

I’ve been trying to think of a way to say this without coming across trite or clichéd, but FIFA 18 isn’t so much a game as it is a portal into a variety of experiences. It’s a platform for a number of different games within themselves, with FUT, The Journey and Career Mode delivering disparate experiences all tied together by a single unifying thread: football. It has always been the case with FIFA that it might well be the only game that a person buys for the whole year, and that it never leaves their disc drive until the new one comes out 12 months later, and FIFA 18 is the closest that I’ve seen the series coming to justify that one single purchase. For football fans it’s nearly the complete package, offering up both solid online and offline modes, and enough variety to last the entire season. While it isn’t groundbreaking in terms of the football itself, FIFA 18 is a remarkably complete sports title, packed full of experiences for all kinds of players.

Screenshot Gallery




Author: Jack Moulder
Born in England but currently living in Toronto, Canada, Jack's been gaming as long as he can remember, which just happens to coincide with his 6th birthday, where he received an original Gameboy and a copy of Tetris, which his parents immediately 'borrowed' and proceeded to rack up all the high scores that Jack's feeble 6-year-old fingers couldn't accomplish. A lover of sports games, RPGs and shooters, Jack's up for playing pretty much anything, so long as it doesn't kick his ass too frequently. He has a delicate temperament.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *