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.
