EA FC 24's deteriorating gameplay and relentless store packs have me worried
When the EA Sports FC game series kicked off with EA FC 24 last year, I was initially impressed with what EA had created and intrigued by how the game would develop over the coming months.
Sadly, my expectations have not been met, and at roughly the halfway point in EA FC 24's lifecycle, I've been left underwhelmed and frustrated with the direction in which the game is heading. With the iconic FIFA branding now in the distant past, following the high-profile divorce in May 2022, EA Sports insinuated it was heading in a better direction with the release of the EA Sports FC game series.
The first instalment of the series was, of course, EA FC 24, signalling the first time EA has gone solo to continue creating the biggest football game worldwide. With no serious competition on the market, the 'best football game' title was EA's to lose, so when we were presented with EA FC 24, I was extremely excited about what was potentially to come.
HyperMotion V, a revamped Ultimate Team and a new-look menu sold fans a dream in the build-up to EA FC 24. The new HyperMotion V technology was what got me most excited though – we already knew that EA would go big with in-game content, but an improvement to the gameplay is what I was desperate to see.
In the first few weeks of EA FC 24, I was genuinely blown away by the gameplay. I labelled the game as having the "best gameplay in years" in my original EA FC 24 review at launch, but five months on, the game is a lot different. And not in a good way.
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Five months into EA FC 24, we've already had nine Title Updates, and bar Title Update 1 and Title Update 2, each update has made big changes to the gameplay. That's a lot of changes made in such a short time, but more than not, EA has been forced into making these changes due to glitches and overpowered mechanics in-game.
EA FC 24 has had far more glitches and bugs than any FIFA title I've played, and along with the countless errors made with Ultimate Team content, it makes me think that there's a lack of care or quality control on EA's side. EA knows that there's no competition to worry about, so if a player stops playing EA FC 24, there isn't another football game for them to play.
Another part of the gameplay that gets on my nerves is trying to score goals, the act of which is the best feeling in football. Obviously, every game you play will have a meta. And to me, having a meta is fun, especially in EA FC 24. At the beginning of the game, finesse shots were an overpowered shooting technique, but I liked it – it meant there was another way to score that wasn't sprinting down the line and cutting it back inside the box, which we've vented our frustrations about in the past.
But, EA quickly nerfed finesse shots, with trivela shots then quickly becoming the new meta. Fast forward a few months, and EA has now nerfed trivela shots, meaning once again, the only way to score is running down the line and cutting it back. EA FC 24 has become a boring, predictable game.
Another great addition to EA FC 24 was PlayStyles. but again, whenever one PlayStyle seems to get a bit overpowered, EA nerfs it, and it's extremely frustrating having to find new ways to play the game every few weeks.
Right now, Ultimate Team is a mess. EA FC 24's most popular game mode features more expensive, untradeable store packs than ever before – to the point where EA has started to charge players for 'loyalty packs'. The new Evolutions feature has been the most successful addition to Ultimate Team (though there is still so much room for improvement), while the updated rewards for Champions and Rivals are worse than FIFA 23. Even the Prime Gaming rewards have been made worse!
The one game mode I think EA has improved, however, is Clubs. Previously named Pro Clubs, this social game mode has always been a favourite of mine, but it felt like no real effort or attention has ever been paid to Clubs, resulting in an unplayable game mode year after year.
But, the addition of crossplay and a revamp to how Clubs works has made the game mode much better, and I find myself playing and enjoying Clubs more than any other mode in the game. Career Mode, on the other hand, has suffered the same issues as the last few years – and it didn't take long for the game to become tedious.
The only times I've played Career Mode since launch is when I've been bored of Ultimate Team, but personally, I'm in and out of the game mode in no time. It has barely changed since FIFA 21, and it's very frustrating as a Career Mode can be so much more exciting than what EA FC 24 has to offer.
I jumped back into FIFA 23 recently to compare the old menus to the new ones, and the updated EA FC 24 interface is much cleaner and easier to navigate than FIFA 23. At the end of the day, EA FC 24 is not an awful game – it still has a lot of pros, but unfortunately, right now, the cons outweigh them.
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Personally, I can't see the EA Sports FC game series becoming what fans want it to be until EA has more competition, and is forced to take more care with the content and gameplay. There have been rumours of FIFA teaming up with 2K to publish its own football game, but until a new competitive football game arrives, I'm worried about where the EA Sports FC series could be heading, based on what we've seen with EA FC 24 so far.
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