FIFA 18 is the anniversary 25th game from FIFA series. It was released on September 29, 2017, for PC, Nintendo Switch, PS3 and PS4, Xbox One and Xbox 369. Cristiano Ronaldo became the game’s official face again. But who needs this official info? We just want to claim that FIFA 18 is wonderful sports simulator, one of the best parts of FIFA series!
Most likely, all fans of football simulators realize the difference between video games and real football matches. Means technologies aren’t ideal, so developers just cannot create totally realistic games. Maybe, VR devices will allow us to play FIFA without the difference from a real game but this isn’t possible for now. That’s why smart folks from Electronic Arts try to create FIFA 18 more realistic not only in the gameplay but in details, stories, and atmosphere.
Further paragraphs contain the most noteworthy improvements as well as unchanged weal sides of the game. But first, we want to describe FIFA 18 in general delving into key features of modern FIFA series.
Basics
You all know what the game is about. That’s probably the most famous football simulator which has only one rival called PES series. FIFA 18 is based on features firstly presented in FIFA 17 but the new game improves almost all of them. These features are smart gameplay with creative AI, the story mode featuring young star Alex Hunter, various online regimes with the main one called Ultimate Team, and the offline Career Mode.
This side will be described in next sections but here are some basic hints. Developers from EA Sports finally released more elaborated system of moves and animations. Now players don’t have to finish their skill move or action if you order them to perform a new one.
That affects the game’s pace so far as footballers make fewer mistakes, move more smoothly, and looks more like real sportsmen. The game itself became faster but it results in the more important role of attacks and not so valuable defensive actions.
- The Journey.
The story mode features the 2nd season of Alex Hunter. He started his career in the previous FIFA game and now you can proceed with this player to top teams. The story itself is pretty captivating, it offers a few unexpected plot twists and episodes.
Usually, it feels like a cool mini-game where you can watch for Hunter’s career and control him on the pitch. Sometimes we felt a lack of choices, e.g. you can only choose one reply during the interview with Rio Ferdinand. All further answers the game selects automatically.
- Ultimate Team.
The most iconic model of modern FIFA series continues his domination. It’s more detailed and stylish now, for example, new star players received from packs perform a short celebration with fanfares and fireworks. That looks chicly!
Also, Ultimate Team regime offers the new side mode called Squad Battles. It allows you to compete with teams created by other players but controlled by AI. That’s an interesting mix of online and offline features which also offers wonderful rewards.
- Career Mode.
Finally, EA Sports decided to improve offline modes. The most interesting improvement here is live negotiations which make transfer deals more active. With this feature playing Career Mode becomes closer to manager simulators.
Now let’s look at advantages and disadvantages in details!
4 cool new features
- Better animations and movements.
That’s the main advantage for the gameplay of FIFA 18. As we claimed above, animations became smoother and smarter. Players will not finish the previous move if they were ordered to perform another one. So, you can control players wisely to perform better skill moves, more dangerous attacks, and safer defenses. Oh, passes are much more precise now, as well.
- Higher pace and more goals.
The game focuses on attacks and even doesn’t try to hide this fact. That’s pretty obvious as almost all of us love scoring goals more than defending. For sure, you will face significant difficulties in protecting your goals. At the same time, attacking and shooting are much easier. Such game mechanics makes matches more entertaining and we love it!
- Live substitutions.
Now you can substitute players without stopping the match. This action can be performed during any short break in the game like pauses before throw-ins. The game suggests which players should be substituted but you can also create your own lists of subs for each match. Live substations are designed for games with real persons to avoid long pauses.
- Minor stylish details.
The atmosphere of a real football match is one of the things video games can create even now. And FIFA 18 brings a lot of small noticeable details to immerse you in the game. Stadiums, animations of fans, celebrations, and players’ faces are well-designed. Footballers now can interact with crowds and spectators can move around tribunes.
4 frustrating old features
- Glitches with directions.
FIFA games have pretty smart AI which helps you to give passes, shoot goals, defend and attack. But there are minor glitches with directions of certain passes. Sometimes the game decides where to pass ignoring your wish. The problem is that it chooses the closest player automatically. To avoid strange passes you can disable AI help completely.
- Poor switching between players.
The more complex problem is with switching. Even if you set this option to Manual the game sometimes will be wrong. It can ignore your decision to switch players at all or switch to another player, not the one you chose. This can be quite frustrating but we hope EA Sports brains are working on this problem.
- Odd referees.
Here we cannot be sure but features described below are planned. Look, referees in FIFA 18 sometimes call fouls when players even don’t tackle. That can be a glitch or, what’s more intriguing, developers added diving and simulating features in the game. The same thing relates to human errors when referees don’t call obvious fouls. Or it also can be a frustrating bug.
- Disbalance between difficulty levels.
It seems that FIFA 18 was designed for attackers, as we revealed above. Even more, defensive actions, especially tackles, require a lot of practice and look like really difficult things. Per contra, the story mode is really simple so far as you even cannot decide what Alex Hunter will reply. This disbalance forces us to play Ultimate Team and attack again and again.
Summary
Now let’s reveal out scores for basic sides of the game:
- Story – 8/10. Here we mean all game modes which are pretty solid but not ideal.
- Gameplay – 9/10. Almost all aspects of the gameplay were improved since FIFA 17.
- Graphics – 7/10. Hands down PES 18 has better graphics and face animations.
- Sound – 8/10. Sound effects during matches are cool but they are similar to FIFA 17.
The total rating is 8/10 and it’s good for FIFA series. We see that developers did a great work to improve FIFA 17 features. Matches here look like offensive training but who doesn’t like attacks and goals? The story is intriguing, well-known regimes are familiar, new Squad Battles mode is fresh. Fans will enjoy FIFA 18 for sure… But we suggest this game for everybody who likes football and sports simulators.
