FIFA 22 Review (Xbox Series X)

FUTball Crazy

by Ian Collen
MSRP: £69.99
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

FIFA 22 Review (Xbox Series X)

As with its predecessors, FIFA 22 plays a great game of football, but it remains a title that many will love to hate because the usual bugbears remain – be it gameplay quirks or the pay-to-win FUT microtransactions. However, the visual upgrades for the new-gen consoles are excellent and the other improvements, though relatively minor, are all mostly for the better, making FIFA 22 arguably the best of its kind. That said, it’s still not a great leap forwards and the series now seems lacking in true personality or flair more than it has for some time.

Champions League

  • Impressive new-gen polish
  • Rock-solid mode options
  • Improved AI and gameplay

Europa Conference

  • Old-gen not so polished
  • Lacking personality
  • Same old quirks and glitches

Overview

If no other FIFA games existed, FIFA 22 would be an absolute standout title; a new-gen showcase that offers a glut of glorious footballing facets, coveting the virtual Messi’s and would-be Guardiola’s in equal measure. The fact that FIFA 21, and many more before it, do exist, and FIFA 22 ‘only’ adds a handful of relatively minor additions and an expected visual polish that really only impacts on the new-gen consoles, certainly does make this new purchase that much harder to justify (especially at £70). But the key fact is that, despite how some will always hate and bemoan the gameplay for various justifiable reasons, FIFA still delivers a great game of football, and with a format to suit most footballing folk.

FIFA 22

Of course, the main player these days is the sticker-album-turned-cash-cow that is FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT), which is where the pro players will fine-tune their best 11. The cool kids will be hanging out in the street football Volta mode, now even further detached from reality in fun OTT style, or teaming up with friends online in Pro Clubs. And many a grizzled veteran will once again be immersing themselves in Career mode, either guiding their own team to Champions League glory as a Manager, or taking a rookie to the big leagues in Player mode. For the most part it’s all great. But then it was last year as well… although you only have to look at Konami's recent eFootball 2022 release to see how easily things can go wrong.

 

There are thousands of new animations amidst a sea of subtle touches"

Believe the Hypermotion

In terms of what’s new, there’s an air of familiarity about the check-list, with improved visuals, refined physics, better keepers and AI touted every single season. This year the buzzword is Hypermotion and, to be fair, it does make a noticeable difference on the Xbox Series X we played on – though it should be said that many of the upgrades only apply to new-gen consoles, so the step forward isn’t so great if you’re still playing on the Xbox One or PS4.

For FIFA 22, EA has been using full 11-a-side motion capture with machine learning to better emulate a more realistic ebb and flow to the action. Generally speaking, it’s not so much a makeover. Instead, there are thousands of new animations amidst a sea of subtle touches that you might not notice unless you’re really looking. For us, it was seeing Pele, an early FUT loanee, rising at the far post to plant a header into the bottom corner in trademark fashion that only the late great Gordon Banks could have saved, but it might also be seeing a player’s leg flex backwards slightly as they take the weight of a driven pass or one of a hundred other little snapshots.

FIFA 22

The visual flair continues into the wider presentation, which has always been excellent and now has even more depth through added player reactions, celebrations and other intermittent scenes that bring the game to life and reflect the drama of the on-pitch events. As a spectacle, FIFA 22 is great to watch and if you’re more of a touchline manager then you can enjoy your team putting on quite a show at times, with the effects of improved players or refined tactics clear to see to the trained eye.

 

Using full 11-a-side motion capture with machine learning to better emulate a more realistic ebb and flow"

In terms of gameplay the tweaks are also more accumulative than standout. Perhaps the most noticeable seems to be changes to the overall pace of the game with players taking longer to hit top speed and generally play becoming that bit slower and more considered as a result, Sure, the fast counters and sprints down the touchline still play their part, but there’s a nice balance for those who might find more joy with moving the ball around the edge of the area looking for the right opening or using skill moves and tight dribbles to create space.

FIFA 22

The improved keepers remain questionable but do seem a little more reliable. The AI also appears a little more orchestrated and reactive to the on-pitch events, with their ability a more obvious reflection of their attributes – players playing out of position will be noticeably more prone to mistakes, for example – but we still find issue with AI players simply ignoring the ball when any sensible, or controlled, person would make an easy intercept or tackle.

The assisted passing is also hit and miss at the best of times, as is the player select mechanic – although there is a new ‘Icon’ option via a click of the right stick that highlights four nearby players and lets you make your choice with the appropriate directional flick of the stick. It’s great in theory, but not so practical when you’re frantically defending your own penalty area against a fast counter.

A Game of Choice

As for game modes, your options are much the same as last year. Volta remains as a fun distraction with its slick street football vibe. The narrative structure seen last year has been dropped, removing the last outlet of any storyline from the series, but you do get a new Arcade mode for some fun mini-game skill showdowns. The mode also has new power-ups for a quickfire boost, while skill moves are further encouraged with the addition of a meter that can add up to a 3x multiplier to your goals. The football purist in us hates the idea, but it can add a nice dynamic between taking a simple finish or risking a few extra tricks or passes for an added bonus.

FIFA 22

The Manager Career now comes with the very welcome option to create a brand-new team from scratch. You can choose everything from your kit, stadium and badge, to what league you start in, your transfer budget and whether you want to fill your team of newly generated players with young prospects or seasoned pros. It doesn’t change a huge amount of your day-to-day operations, but it does add a nice personal touch to proceedings and gradually turning your team of unknowns into superstars does feel genuinely rewarding.

 

The Manager Career now comes with the very welcome option to create a brand-new team from scratch"

The Player Career also comes with a few tweaks, mostly to the way you upgrade your player and how you earn your place in the team. New RPG-style skill trees are introduced in a way that lets you target the attributes you want to improve using XP, while a perks system is also added to give you further on-pitch boosts in key areas, and new ‘Archetypes’ can be unlocked for some major stat upgrades.

Rather than the obligatory loan move that used to herald your early playing days a few years back, FIFA 22 starts you off with short sub appearances. You’ll have limited minutes on the pitch to complete certain objectives, while successful training drills can also improve your standing with the manager. Do well and you’ll get more game time; if not then you’ll remain on the bench or maybe get shipped out elsewhere. As with the Manager mode, it’s not a huge shift in the overall gameplay, but it does give that extra feeling of control and responsibility over your development.

FIFA 22

Unsurprisingly, FUT remains the main draw for many, although there’s not a great deal that’s new besides the usual changes to the playing roster and some tweaks to the Division Rivals and FUT Champions structure. As always, the bulk of its appeal still comes down to building up your squad and taking on the various challenges against offline teams or online opponents to aid your progression, with the oddly satisfying aside of using the Squad Building objectives to use up your unwanted player cards for extra rewards.

Of course, there’s the contentious issue of monetisation and that paying real money to unlock new card packs offers both a pay-to-win element and a morally questionable gambling side dish with a low success rate. It’s still there and many, like us, will always hate it and refuse to use it. As a wafer-thin sliver of defence, EA has added a couple of ‘preview’ packs each day, which you can take a peek inside before you decide to buy, but even though it’s still hugely enjoyable without spending money, don’t doubt that FUT is still a very lucrative cash cow for the studio.

Graphics & Audio

The improved visuals certainly looked great on our Xbox Series X, running at 60fps and a gleaming 4K. We only saw a few issues with the framerate stuttering at times, but in general the presentation is excellent throughout, with floodlit stadia always benefitting from a slick coating of HDR. We should note that there have been some reported issues on the Xbox Series S, with a native 720p resolution upscaled to 1080p seeing some anti-aliasing issues that causes blurred images and ragged edges, but our XSX had no such issues.

FIFA 22

Perhaps our only real disappointment is that the game starts with a stellar star-studded cutscene-driven narrative that takes you through the streets of Paris to a kickabout with Thierry Henry and Kylian Mbappe at the Parc de Princes and a VIP Champions League ticket – but with no main storyline in any game mode, besides a few intermittent scenes in the career modes, there’s precious little else to showcase this visual finesse outside of the repeated scenes that top and tail each match.

On the pitch, the action runs smoothly and the new animations certainly add to the realism, but rest assured you’ll find a fair few videos online where things don’t always go as fluently as they should. The audio is also largely excellent, with an impressive soundtrack boasting more than 120 songs, while on the pitch the vast array of crowd chants echoing around the speakers really does add to the atmosphere and drama.

 

These improvements may well make it better than FIFA 21, but it’s tough to argue whether or not it’s £70 better"

Conclusion

There will always be plenty of reasons for people to rage against FIFA, because it can never replicate the many different ways we all want the game to play out. Likewise, as much as we can moan about the lack of big changes or new standout additions, what remains on offer is still a very well-polished package, with FIFA 22 delivering a visually impressive upgrade for the new consoles and another solid on-pitch experience. These improvements may well make it better than FIFA 21, but it’s tough to argue whether or not it’s £70 better.

For all its great showmanship, we certainly can’t argue about style over substance, as the various game modes offer a great combination of ways to play the game and countless hours to enjoy. However, there could be a case of presentation over personality, as the lack of any entwining narrative or progression that isn’t purely player-driven does leave FIFA 22 feeling a little dry and lifeless when the potential for something with more flair and creativity is so evident. Because, as good as FIFA 22 is, in 10 or 20 years when people are asking what the most memorable or standout FIFA titles of all-time were, this is unlikely to be winning many votes.

Trailer

Scores

Gameplay

.
.
8

Story

.
.
.
.
.
5

Graphics

.
.
8

HDR

.
.
8

Audio

.
.
8

Single Player

.
9

Multiplayer

.
.
8

Longevity

.
9

Overall

.
.
8

Click here

The games console used in this review was kindly supplied by our gaming partner Smyths Toys Gaming, the No.1 choice for next-gen Gaming


8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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