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Opposable Thumbs / Gaming & Entertainment

Review: FIFA 14 brings the realism

Expect your grandpa to sit down, thinking there's a Manchester United match on.

FIFA 14 is the result of a massive amount of tinkering. Instead of introducing any major features in this latest iteration of the soccer franchise, EA Sports has focused solely on making the gameplay more realistic.

This focus has been a consistent feature of FIFA's development in recent years and has helped it become dominant in a market where its only rival, Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer (PES), has suffered precisely because it made a sharp and surprising turn toward unchallenging and comically unrealistic gameplay.

FIFA 14 isn't radically different from EA Sports' previous offerings, but it does give players a game where every detail, from how a player runs, jumps, and passes to where their leg breaks, has been obsessed over. Expect grandfathers to sit down, thinking they're watching Manchester United's weekly game.

“It’s slower”

I instantly recognized a difference between FIFA 14 and its predecessor. It was slower. That made sense; previous games in the franchise had all delivered obvious reductions to the gameplay's tempo. Almost immediately, I realized I was wrong.

Large portions of a match can be incredibly slow, complicated, and even frustrating, but at other times, the game bursts into life, letting you execute incisive, precise attacking moves and rapid counterattacks. Matches no longer consist of players constantly running very quickly from one end to another; the tempo ebbs and flows like a real match.

The reason it can feel very slow is that EA Sports' new Precision Movement mechanics mean players move more realistically. Sprinting with the ball means longer stopping distances and less balance when crossing or shooting. How a player passes or shoots depends on their balance and the position of their feet when attempting the move.

It means you have to be more methodical, executing moves depending on the conditions surrounding your player instead of doing what you want, when you want. It also means successful attacking moves are so much more satisfying.

The best attacking players in the game can adjust and improvise with unorthodox touches, passes, and shots more easily than the defenders they're up against, giving them an advantage that can leave the opposition bamboozled. I was oddly excited by one player's ability to jump into the air to control a ball that would have sped past him if he'd let it bounce. It was such a simple, ordinary movement, but it was like nothing I've ever seen in FIFA or any other soccer game.

Artificial intelligence

A massive evolution in the AI also contributes to the game's new, more interesting, tempo. Instead of aimlessly running around, your players try to occupy free space, and opposition defenders react by trying to occupy the same areas. Building a sustained attack means your whole team pushes forward, pressuring the opposition and hemming them into their own defensive area. This mostly makes attacking more exciting, but on a few occasions half of my team were playing like they were strikers in a way that would be extremely unlikely in a real game. That was frustrating, because you can't actually force those players to get back into position unless you stop attacking. Why would you do that?

Speed has always been so vital to success in FIFA games, but FIFA 14 massively re-balances the gameplay. Now control, intelligence, and improvisation are just as important. This will make the game frustrating for a lot of people, but it will help others build into the FIFA fantasy. If you're going to try to build the best football club in the world, it should be a bit harder than running in a straight line with your fastest player.


If you're looking for a casual pick-up game to fill 15 minutes of your time now and again, then the difficulty you'll have building attacks in FIFA 14 will probably strip most of the fun out of the game. But if you're planning to stick with the game throughout the year, more varied and challenging gameplay should keep you interested—even when you've won everything.

FIFA 14 is out now for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and many other platforms.

This story originally appeared on Wired UK.

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