I fell in love with the series immediately. So many teams, arenas and options!
I was 12 at the time and had a sleepover birthday party with a group of friends and we were up the whole night doing a two-on-two tournament on the indoor soccer court. We even had a little trophy we gave to the winner of the tournament. Fast Forward 16 years and I come to to FIFA 14 for the PlayStation 4. Even after all this time, FIFA still has that great gameplay I first fell in love with, but doesn't quite match my memories in some areas.
It seems like so many sports games these days have placed such a huge emphasis on micromanaging every aspect of your team. I'm probably one of the few people who just wants to play the game and have the computer take care of my team management for me. All of the micromanagement and day to day dealings of your club are handled through the game's Ultimate Team mode. One of the new features of Ultimate Team is the chemistry mechanic that improves the performance of a team based on team-mates "bromances." It's an interesting mechanic for those who love to micromanage and keep their individual players happy.
Upon starting FIFA 14, the first thing you'll notice is how great the game looks. FIFA 14 is a beautiful looking game from top to bottom. Everything from the presentation to the reactive 3D crowd creates a jarring and energetic atmosphere. Top that off with spot on colour commentary, and FIFA replicates a live TV broadcast extremely well.
There's even little touches that kinds of blew my mind. Playing in South America, you'll notice the crowd noise is completely different than playing in a stadium in Europe. Even on field details such as being able to see individual blades of grass and watching players uniforms wrinkle as they are moving show off the console's graphical power. My only complaint about the visuals is that the facial expressions and emotions of the players feel a little lifeless at times.
The game features a pretty solid tutorial mode which runs you through every nuance of the game from shooting to passing. The tutorials feature some pretty fun mini-games that consistently challenge you to beat a minimum score or attain the "Gold' score. I honestly spent a few hours in the tutorials to ensure I was getting the most out of the game. After spending a fair bit of time in the tutorials I noticed a large improvement in my performance from match to match.
The biggest change you'll notice with the gameplay is the physics engine (especially from the N64 days). The physics don't have the horrible "suction" or "vacuum" effect where the ball will just stick to a players foot and every pass feels the same. Instead, the ball moves much more freely and realistically. No pass or shot feels the same and the power of a players shot is now based entirely on their movement and position. The AI plays a much more physical game relying heavily on shoulder to shoulder contact than slide tackles. In fact, the slide tackle doesn't seem as effective as it used to be.
Tournament mode is nowhere to be found. You can play tournaments within your career mode, but it's just not the same. You have to earn your way to the World Cup or premiere leagues, whereas I was hoping to jump into the World Cup as soon as I started the game. Online play is back, but my experience was mixed as pretty much every match I played saw some sort of lag.
FIFA 14 shows off what lies ahead for the series on the PlayStation 4. While it's first effort on the next gen consoles falls short in several areas, it still makes a great first impression and leaves me excited for the next iteration of the series.
- Sidd Masand
Follow @jokeman23
The Good:
- People who love to micromanage their team are going to love the career mode
- Solid Gameplay
- Beautiful presentation and visuals
- Tutorials are extremely fun and useful.
The Bad:
- Level of micromanagement of my career mode isn't for me.
- Where's that beloved tournament mode I used to play back in the day?
Score: 8.5 / 10
