Somehow, over the past five years, the Fifa games have expanded beyond a simulation of the sport of football and towards a simulation of its entire global culture. Fifa 22 is absolutely packed with modes and options allowing you to experience every facet of the beautiful game, whether that’s role-playing as a young professional scoring a tournament-winning goal for Barcelona, or knocking a ball about on an Italian backstreet with a bunch of pals. The Fifa series wants to be all things to all fans, and Fifa 22 gets closer than ever.
At its heart is EA Sports’ endlessly evolving match engine, which has historically favoured flashy moves and spectacular goals over tactical brilliance. The studio has made stuttering moves away from this model in the past, but Fifa 22 definitely feels more sober and structured than its predecessor. Improved ball physics, an array of new player animations and changes to the pace of turns and passes make for a game that encourages smart, patient buildup play, while the options to control and communicate with AI team-mates require you to keep a close eye on what everyone else is doing, utilising their little sleights and sprints in creative ways.
I do love playing as Man City, watching De Bruyne stalking about outside the 18-yard box and Jack Grealish cutting in from the left with truly authentic speed and purpose before being fouled. (I also like the fact that every time I’ve played a Manchester derby so far, it’s been raining – how’s that for realism?) As with Pro Evolution in its early 2000s heyday, you get little glimpses of how the professionals think, plan and execute. Paul Gascoigne once said in an interview that he sees a match three passes in advance, and I think that’s what Fifa 22, with its angular, slightly halting action, wants to capture.
Outside of the matches themselves is the giant multiplex of football that Fifa has become. You can play the Career Mode, which offers a narrative journey from average squad player to Messi-like football god, or try Pro Clubs, which lets you join an online team with 10 other players. Then there’s Volta Football, a whole street football subsection that works like the old Fifa Street titles, rewarding flashy tricks and providing special moves to create a dynamic and histrionic style of urban footie. It’s like having a kickabout with mates at the local five-a-side pitch – if your mates all played like Lisa Zimouche. Fifa 22 adds news skills to the mix, as well as signature moves such as improved striking and faster pace, which boost your abilities for short periods. Most interesting though is the Volta Arcade mode, with potentially hilarious mini-game versions of dodgeball and foot tennis played in small online teams. It reminds me of the brilliant training exercises in Sega’s Virtua Tennis series, and it’s nice to have these fun little diversions to dip into.
And then there is the elephantine moral quandary in the room: Ultimate Team. As ever, Fifa’s trading card mode encourages you to buy randomised packets of player cards, like digital Panini stickers, which can be used to build your own dream team before competing in a range of online tournaments. It is absolutely loaded with shrewdly implemented progress gates and reward systems, all geared towards pinging your dopamine receptors and getting you to make just one more packet purchase. Last year’s game added the chance to preview a pack before paying– but apart from being slightly more generous with its in-game currency, Fifa 22 does little to build on this concession towards ethical practice. As flashy and compelling as the mode is, it still feels like you’re handing your kids a Ronaldo-sponsored fixed-odds betting terminal.
Fifa 22 is absolutely unmistakably a Fifa game – it has the sophistication and polish we’ve come to expect, with all the player likenesses, authentic stadia and recognisable commentators we see every year. But right at the core of it is a match engine that feels more surefooted than ever, at a time when the game’s more tactically complex rival Pro Evolution Soccer has been relegated to a free-to-play existence with all the compromises that will inevitably entail. If you can live with the loot-box trickery of Ultimate Team, this is a gigantic, rewarding simulation that offers a ton of variety and scope, and many, many moments of exquisite goalmouth drama.
