EA FC 25 review: "Highly playable, yet naggingly familiar"

Can an annual sports game improve year on year, yet receive a lower score? The first entry of the post-FIFA era delivered innovation across the board, as EA sought to reboot with a bang, and our FC 24 review certainly reflects this. FC 25  – perhaps inevitably – edges the series forward in a more subtle manner. This could easily have been called FC 24 2. Or FC 24 II. FC 24 2-3-2-1-2 might have been pushing things. You catch the drift, though: It's highly playable, yet naggingly familiar.

The pillars of football can't much be meddled with – passing, dribbling, shooting, swearing as Erling Haaland smashes a hat-trick past your back four – and FC 24 already covered these well. It'd be a nonsense to overhaul those fundamentals, so instead this successor looks to refine and refresh subtly. Passes from awkward angles are less effective. The AI commits a few more fouls. Keepers feel different due to new goalie-specific PlayStyles. Some punch rather than catch crosses, while rebound outcomes from saves feel more varied, occasionally gifting you a lovely tap-in.

Realistically, though, you're not buying a new football game based on keeper behaviors. FC 25's main on-pitch focus is therefore under the hood, with EA choosing to refine the way tactics work. Player instructions operate within a wider team-focussed framework, with last year's brilliant addition of PlayStyles enhanced by a new feature called Player Roles. Using Jude Bellingham at CAM feels markedly different to Jamal Musiala, because the former functions best as a roaming Playmaker, while the latter's preference is the Shadow Striker role, hanging off your frontman. As such, a simple 4-3-1-2 becomes much more nuanced, and fluid, with these roles determining off-the-ball runs and general positioning sense.

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Further enhancements occur mid-match. Nuggets of tactical advice pop up on your HUD, with changes to your personalized presets simply actioned. Tapping down on the D-pad brings up three options to switch to, such as Tiki Taka 4-2-3-1 or Counter Attack 5-4-1. These are separate from your tactical focus (Defending, Attacking, Default), accessed with a right tap. Overall, this new system is a dream for tactical obsessives like me, who've spent years embracing similar strategic freedom in Football Manager. I'm not convinced those who want to sweat their way through Ultimate Team with pace merchants are going to be as fussed, but that's no reason to criticize a depth-enhancing feature.

Oh, what a Rush

Ironically, FC 25's best addition doesn't require much tactical thought at all. Rush is a five-a-side match type available across all modes, and a thrill to play in each. It replaces the FIFA Street-inspired Volta mode, featuring matches in a bespoke Nike-sponsored stadium on a pitch around one third of the real size. Controls, skill moves, and shooting exactly mirror the 11-a-side version. But innovations within bring immersion – traditional kick-offs being replaced with a full-on ball chase, and receiving blue cards rather than red ones, securing a one-minute sin-bin stint.

This new goal bonanza is best indulged via Ultimate Team, and is the highlight of this year's card-collecting fantasy fest. You choose an individual card from your club, and that player is dropped into an eight-human match where only the keepers are AI-controlled. You can choose to play with friends, but the chaos of random teammates and opponents is actually more addictive, as you gradually suss who's playing where, and adapt to teammate tendencies. I've been hooked on deploying my Jamie Carragher Heroes card, mopping up attacks before feeding greedy, goal-hungry strangers. Sadly the commentary is dreadful, but more often than not you're having too much fun to care.

Otherwise Ultimate Team is what you're used to with assorted quality-of-life improvements. Pack openings are neatly revised, with a quick glimpse of the highest-rated player's silhouette providing an initial tease. (I got quite excited about recognising Matteo Guendouzi's hair, only to balk at his 80 rating.) The new duplicates folder, enabling untradable cards to be dropped into Squad Building Challenges (SBCs), is a godsend, although hardly rocket science. And FC 24's god-awful teal design for upgraded Evolution items can finally be waved farewell – now you get to customize card shapes, colors, and even sound and visual effects. Bebe, you're a firework.

Such granular improvements pop up throughout FC 25. Full match intros with line-up screens and team close-ups return, but can be toggled on on off before kick-off by holding a button. Replays now offer a means to build your own highlights package, and splendid photo mode. Season Pass XP is earned across the game, unlocking rewards throughout – although Season 1 demonstrates a heavy focus on Ultimate Team. Player profiles within team screens are far more easy to digest. It all counts.

Seasonal joy

Those open-minded enough to eschew Ultimate Team for Season Mode are in for the most pleasant surprise of all. Once FIFA's marquee mode, it has had to hover in the background during the rise and rise of FUT, yet FC 25 introduces a suite of new features to form a strong alternative. Women's teams are a vital inclusion, and job offers can see you switch back and forth between male and female sides as the years progress. Rush is cleverly integrated to cover youth tournaments, offering a chance to test out your wonderkids, and new 'Cranium' tech – where AI converts real-life photos into in-game likenesses – means even players in lower leagues look somewhat like their real selves.

The pick of these Season Mode upgrades is the sim gameplay option. Matches play out at an enjoyably cerebral pace, affording you time to unpick a defense or line up a long-range Exocet, while realistic weather effects see wind change ball trajectories on crosses or clearances. It's still unmistakably FC – I'd hoped the feel might be more like classic Pro Evo – but such a relief from the breathlessness of FUT. As a purist, I'd love to see this become the default way to play FC 26. The fact it often ends in narrow 1-1 draws already tells me it won't be.

There is a contradiction in that FC 25's best bits are the full-on chaos of Rush and the pared-down pace of a simulation-oriented career. But this has always been a series of consistent inconsistency, where a walkout pack opening or 25-yard equalizer convinces you it's the best sports game going – only for an opponent's last-minute victory to have you launching your controller across the room. You love it, then hate it. You tear into it on social media, then buy it anyway. You swear you'll never play it again on Friday, then binge an entire weekend league on Saturday. Such is the joy, and madness, and brilliance, and fury of FIFA. Sorry, FC 24 2. Sorry, FC 25. It might get on your wick, but we both know you'll still be playing it endlessly from now until next August.