Volta is dead – long live Rush. EA's FIFA successor marks its sophomore year by introducing a five-a-side experience that permeates every mode. Rush is a fast, goal-heavy match type used to earn extra rewards in Ultimate Team, to train up youth prospects in career mode, and to enhance friendships within Clubs. Where Volta prioritized skill moves and general chaos, Rush recreates the 11-vs-11 game in miniature, on a smaller pitch but still with corners, throws-on, and full-sized goals. EA Sports FC 25 is shaping up to be really fun.
Whether that early enjoyment can be sustained over an entire year remains to be seen. Volta – a revitalized take on FIFA Street – also felt refreshing when introduced to FIFA 20. Wary of that, EA is bolstering Rush with some clever-yet-surreal innovations. A new, devoted lobby enables you to seamlessly leap in with up to three friends, while there's no kick-off to start the match. Instead the ball pings in from the bottom of the screen, and you race to get it under control. Like old Subbuteo games, offsides only occur in the final third of the pitch, while blue cards introduce a sin-bin element, with players sent off for borderline fouls – but only for one minute.
PES dispenser
If you're a traditionalist emitting groans at this point, rest assured that – having been weaned on the glory years of Pro Evo – I was too. Here, then, is some eleven-a-side news to offset that Rush cynicism: FC 25 is getting a Simulation option. Selecting it slows gameplay down in comparison to FC 24, and supposedly utilizes AI learning to adopt realistic opposition tactical approaches. Wind affects aerial balls, particularly in smaller stadiums, while inclement weather causes players to slip over. It's an offline-only option, clearly included to appeal to career mode veterans who've become dismayed at that once-great mode's decline.
More on career mode shortly. Because ultimately the success of that feature, and Rush, and the forever-imposing return of Ultimate Team, all hang on the football itself. You're therefore right to wonder whether this feels much different from FC 24. Well: yes and no. From a pick-up-and-play perspective, there's an immediate familiarity. But fiddle around in tactics menus and you discover some key differences to be explored and tinkered with. That's down to something called FC IQ.
Building on the popular FC 24 PlayStyles feature, EA has introduced 31 unique player roles which directly affect how every team-mate (and opponent!) thinks when you're not in direct control of them. During a demo at EA Vancouver, FC 25 producer Thomas Caleffi calls them "the missing piece of player personality," with each player also assigned a specific focus as part of his role – such as Jude Bellingham being placed in a Playmaker role, with a Roaming focus. "Considering all the roles and focuses in any given team and formation, you have between 100 and 400 million possible combinations," says Caleffi.
Caleffi demonstrates multiple examples during one passage of play. As his team moves upfield, its RB with a False-back role drifts into central midfield, while a CM set as a Half-winger pulls wide into the space created. On the other flank, the LB with Attacking Wingback overlaps to support the current attack, and the team's CAM, designated as a Shadow Striker, makes a late run into the box. As such, a traditional 4-1-2-1-2 formation becomes promisingly fluid, to mirror the convention-shattering success of dugout pioneers such as Klopp and Guardiola.
Middle management
Underpinning these choices is an overhaul to the way team tactics work. You can still use formational presets, but reconfigured menus show exactly where your players will be when on and off the ball. A neat summary also analyzes the pros and cons of your current approach, while saved set-ups can be toggled in-match using the D-pad, and even shared with other players using a unique code – across all formats. In a welcome upgrade, you can also set three corner assignments: near-post player, back-post player, and main attacking target. So while there is an air of FC 24 reskinned, subsurface nuances should transform that over the coming weeks – particularly in online fixtures.
Indeed, those tactical tweaks are likely to have a colossal effect on Ultimate Team, where the meta often turns matches into basketball-style shootouts by Christmas. As well as Rush and FC IQ heralding change, EA is acting on community feedback to its biggest mode. Evolutions, in which you upgrade cards by completing in-game requirements, can be customized with new colors and even sound effects. (Such as fireworks. Um, what?!) We're finally getting a space for Duplicate cards too. Up to 100 can be stashed in a bespoke storage folder, and will be the first item listed when you come to fill in SBCs. That should be a godsend.
Finally, and formidably, there really are encouraging signs for career mode. EA is touting this as the mode's biggest leap forward in a decade, with a suite of tweaks and upgrades – not least that Simulation option – and ability to train up prospects using Rush. Five-a-side youth tournaments take place every two months, and give you the chance to try out your wunderkinder, and earn stats upgrades. That's cool, as is a 90-fold increase in the countries available to scout, for a total of 160. Five women's leagues, and the women's Champions League, are also integrated.
Live and let fly
Most intriguing are Live Start Points. 17 leagues and 11 cups are going to be tracked across the coming year, enabling you to pick up exactly where real-life leaves off, at any point of the season gone by. "The current points, the goals scored, the transfers, the player form, injuries, suspensions, point deductions – all these things are reflected," explains game design director Pete O'Donnell during the EA Vancouver demo. "What kind of stories are going to happen this year? We don't know, and that's the excitement of this feature."
"There's going to be sackings, big transfers, title fights, relegation battles, unbeaten runs, loads of things we haven't thought about," continues O'Donnell. "We know some of our players love exploring different games, and this is a real opportunity for us." Rush may be steering the former FIFA series in an unexplored direction, made for Generation TikTok – but with career mode going back to the future, there's hope here for scarf-waving old-schoolers, too.
