EA Sports has unveiled FC 24, its first non-FIFA football game following last year’s breakup between the two once famous friends. But don’t expect a revolution on the virtual pitch to accompany this big-budget rebrand. Instead, expect welcome quality-of-life improvements, a few positive gameplay tweaks, and a significant change to Ultimate Team that could dramatically shake up the competitive online meta.
After extensive hands-on time with FC 24, it’s safe to say this year’s game looks and feels like what you’d expect from a FIFA 24. There are loads of new animations - there always are loads of new animations - for FC 24 and you do notice them during gameplay. Erling Haaland’s stunning karate kick goal for Man City against previous club Borussia Dortmund in last season’s Champions League is in the game, for example. So is Haaland’s unique running style, his long arms waving about behind his arched back.
FC 24 has a long list of PlayStyles that make a player much better at a specific thing. They’re in Ultimate Team, too, which means the inevitable Team of the Week Haaland (I do not blame EA Sports one bit for drenching FC 24 with all things Haaland given the season he’s just had) may include the Power Header PlayStyle. Just what the world’s most overpowered goal machine needs: more power.
Brand wise, FC 24’s “PlayStyles” logo has a diamond in between “Play” and “Styles”. This is reflected in-game: you’ll see a player’s Play(insert diamond here)Style pop up above their head when they’re on the ball. It’s a bit distracting and rather pointless. Players, particularly fans of Ultimate Team, will know which PlayStyle their players have. Best to turn this visual indicator off once you get sick of it.
Will these PlayStyles, particularly the extra special PlayStyles+, end up overpowered? It’s a fair question at this stage. The hope is their sheer number will help keep gameplay balanced. The fear is one in particular will be deemed essential for online play, and encourage a single way of scoring. The hands-on build included just two men’s teams (Man City and PSG) and two women's teams (Chelsea and Lyon), each of which was packed with high-rated players, so it was hard to tell if a particular player benefitted much from the addition of a PlayStyle. But these power-ups will probably prove the difference-makers at high-level online play.
More interesting pitch-side is the addition of Precision Passing input commands. There are three types (we’re using PlayStation controls here): the Precision Pass (R1 + Through ball); the Precision Lob (R1 + Lob); and the Swerved Precision Pass (L2 + R1 + Through ball). Each type paints a line on the pitch that shows the direction of the pass you’re about to attempt. In-game, these passes feel like the manual passing of old, so it’s not an entirely new idea. They’re tricky to land, particularly the Swerved Precision Pass, which, when used on a DualSense controller, forces you into a bit of a claw hand position. But they’re highly rewarding. EA Sports took inspiration from Kevin De Bruyne (yes, another Man City player - senior game design director and lifeline Man City fan Matt Prior must be loving this). The midfield maestro’s delicious passes, those defense-splitters that bamboozle camera operators as much as they do hapless opponents, are now possible, EA Sports says. Here, perhaps, hides FC 24’s true skill gap; not to be found in big brain tactics or meta-positive Team of the Week cards, but in the mastery of the wrist-straining Swerved Precision Pass.
It’s worth pointing out the new Controlled Sprint, thankfully triggered by a simple input command (Hold R1 on PlayStation). This dribbles the ball at a pace a step slower than a sprint, but fast enough to demand attention from defenders. Inspiration once again comes from Man City players who have the knack of touching the ball away from a defender’s outstretched leg at the last millisecond. Think the dribbling expertise of Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish. On the virtual pitch, the Controlled Sprint feels great, and there’s a satisfaction that comes from darting away from tackles at the last minute. There’s an equally potent frustration that comes when you’re on the receiving end, too.
Talking of outstretched legs, you’ll see defenders affect the ball more than in last year’s game. This is a trait of some defenders who are known for their interceptions and blocks. Think Andrew Robertson from Liverpool (finally, we leave the Blue side of Manchester behind!) nipping in front of an attacker who’s about to tap the ball into the empty net. You’ll also notice the ball sticks to the feet of successful slide tacklers rather than bounce about in some random direction, as it tends to in FIFA 23. Goalkeepers, too, tend to keep even stinging shots close to home, rather than parry them away as they often do in FIFA.
Beyond all that, though, the FC 24 gameplay experience is remarkably similar to FIFA 23’s. The latest version of EA Sports’ motion capture tech is called HyperMotion V (the V stands for volumetric data) but it’s hard to feel any significant impact of this in-game. The visuals are slightly better, but to be brutally honest, FC 24 looks a lot like FIFA 23 when you’re actually playing a match. Well, apart from all the new augmented reality stats that pop up on top of the pitch when there’s a break in play. Want to see where the last five shots (all from Haaland, no doubt) were kicked from? You might find out as the keeper gets ready for a goal kick. Want to see your top five most fatigued players? FC 24 may highlight them as you prepare to take a throw-in during the second half. There are a lot of overlay stats such as these, and they show up frequently. The goal here is to give the player useful information during the flow of a match so you’re less likely to press pause and fiddle about in a menu. It’s a cool idea, but it can be a tad distracting.
Graphics improvements are more noticeable in cutscenes such as replays. Here, player faces, especially those belonging to famous players, really do approach photoreal (the unintentionally hilarious Ultimate Edition cover was never an indicator of in-game graphics). There’s “GPU Cloth”, which simply means tops and shorts crease more realistically as players move about. Players have more realistic physiques. For example, ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers winger Adama Traoré looks even more like a bodybuilder in FC 24 than he did in FIFA 23. There are more realistic hands and fingers. Take that, AI.
You know gameplay changes are underwhelming when you get excited by menus. Anyone who’s played a FIFA game for any decent length of time will tell you the menus are annoying. They’re slow to load, fiddly to navigate, and boring to look at. To give EA Sports credit, it used the switch to FC as an opportunity to significantly overhaul the menus. It’s impossible to say whether they’re faster to load at this point, given the hands-on took place in an offline environment, but the new vertical orientation means navigation is at the least straightforward. You’ll also see “live video” in-menu, which is a nice touch.