FIFA 20 review

Version tested: PlayStation 4 Pro

Variety, they say, is the spice of life. Let's take food, for example. Taking a few hours to prepare a home-cooked five-course meal is a huge investment. However, the reward is a great meal that we could possibly enjoy with friends and family. Alternatively, we could just order a pizza. The pizza is great and helps save the time it takes to cook by allowing us to do something else. Both meals could have the same nutritional value. They may even give the same level of satisfaction from the point of view of taste and hunger. That said, the two meals differ in pretty much everything. This is exactly what the writer felt in the comparison between EA Sports' FIFA 20 and Konami's eFootball PES 2020. Both are ultimately good football titles, but their approaches are completely different. 

FIFA 20 gameplay

That EA Sports was now resting on its laurels is well known. Net of the graphic engine change (through the introduction of the Frostbite Engine), in the last three years, there have been no significant changes in the proposed game formula. Is it good, is it bad? In theory, no, but you can't go on forever without presenting any new weight. Volta is a modality, which we will talk about later, which certainly cannot by itself attract new gamers or keep old ones active. The direct competitor is catching up quickly and EA will have to squeeze more to offer a fresh new product starting with the next installment in the series.  

That said, the package offered by the American giant with FIFA 20 continues to work pretty well. This is due to some elements that have been consolidated for some time: presentation, offer modalities and all quelthe finishes and are to date among the best in the industry. The menus are colorful, eye-catching and easy to navigate. The whole package is excellent until we are necessarily "forced" to enter the field. This is where something didn't fully convince us. It's not that FIFA 20 is wrong from a gameplay standpoint. Okay but it has a whole host of problems, many of which come from past iterations.  

Let's not talk about simulation. We absolutely could not do it. FIFA has always had a clear "arcade" imprint. A fast, immediate game in controls, which prefers dribbling, long-range shots and spectacular plays. FIFA 20 does nothing different from previous titles, other than to slightly slow down the pace of play; from defense to midfield, the game is almost non-existent. Once past the midfield, the music changes. Between quick passes, one, two and through passes (high and low), you can easily reach the big target and try the way of the net. The whole is peppered with some absolutely incomprehensible game dynamics. Soft defenders, uncertain goalkeepers and blunders.  

In addition to the above, one perceives how the proposed experience is, in some cases, the result of repeated errors, or to put it differently, he gave us la feeling too conservative. The one and two turn out to be too effective to overcome the defensive rearguard, the head shots are very reminiscent of the age-old problem of FIFA 15 and the skills that the developer had promised to have reduced in terms of effectiveness, still make a difference and how they do it. . Among the various Neymar, Lozano, Cuadrado, Douglas Costa and companions, our defenders will be, in almost all occasions, bewildered and powerless. To "save" the hut, there should be the goalkeeper, the last bastion before the inevitable goal. As always, he manages to alternate spectacular interventions with indecipherable ducks. In short, ordinary administration. 

Houston, we have a little problem

The physics of the ball convinced us and not. It all depended on the different game situations that occurred during the match. In general, when it comes to basic mechanics, such as passing and shooting, we have not encountered any problems. The ball behaves in an almost natural way, with convincing and dosed movements at the right point. Conversely, diametrically opposite situation if we go in contrast to the attacker or vice versa. In fact, the feeling remains that the ball is too soft and at the first rebound, inevitably the defender always wins. In various situations it has happened to concede goals after 3/4 rebounds, without the ball practically changing direction and / or strength. Similarly, it happened that embarrassing situations occurred on the rebounds of the goalkeeper. Very high slopes that systematically ended up on the feet of the opponent attacker and harmless shots that unfortunately the goalkeeper did not read in the right way, rejecting them right in the opponent's area for an easy tap in.  

The speech engages directly to artificial intelligence of our players. Particularly, with reference to defense, it seemed worse, not so much in maintaining positions, but in the ability to read the action and the play in progress. To convincing and fundamental interventions to avoid the worst, takles alternate to say the least useless and out of all logic. Surely it goes better in attack, where perhaps with the traditional 4-3-3- or 4-3-2-1 modules, the forwards are able to maintain the width of the field and make effective and proactive movements. Worse is the instruction management. No one knows how and no one knows why, the players do not respect our "commands". Stay tall and the player instead tends to retreat, if instead we try to keep the full backs on the defensive, they will still tend to advance, leaving the flanks uncovered to the opposing raids. These are small problems to be taken into consideration during the game.  

Welcome to the Strada

Among the novelties of this year we find the "street football", the Volta Football. Once the deeds of the young Alex Hunter and his Journey have been definitively archived, the Canadian developer has decided to reintroduce freestyle football that has not been seen since 2012 with a dedicated title: FIFA Street. The mode puts us in the shoes of a budding footballer, belonging to the "stable" of the famous Jayzinho. He is not a fictional footballer, but he is a famous athlete in street football. The narrative plot sees poor Jayzinho getting injured, which would lead his team not to be able to participate in the World Championships. To take his place, needless to do it on purpose, we will be called to meet our comrades around the globe. We will then visit all the fields and game modes, familiarizing ourselves with the gameplay and scenarios proposed. With reference to the modes, we start with the 3 VS 3, passing through the 4 VS 4 up to the 5 VS 5 (also playable with real football players), certainly the last two are the funniest ones of the package. Once we have grasped the game mechanics we will have to go around the world through the Tour mode, challenging the other teams or going directly to the online to climb the rankings. Volta's football.  

Gameplay Volta Football

In our test at Gamescom, we had a foretaste of the gameplay offered by the new mode. There is to get carried away, as the narrow spaces of the asphalt pitches are very different from grass pitches. Moving in tight spaces, trying the game, perhaps using the wall is not easy but not impossible. Once in the game, we will be able to select the module and the line-up of our players. To facilitate even the less experienced in spectacular tricks, the game, as long as you have the players with the highest level of skill, will play automatically, otherwise you will need to keep the button pressed. L2 and its right analog stick. In addition, it will be necessary to better manage the movements and progress of the players, to avoid leaving prairies to the opponents. Unlike "traditional" gameplay, in Volta mode, the ball behaves naturally, making it convincing in any situation. It had to be this way, as scoring is almost a titanic undertaking and with physics not managed at best, it would have been even more difficult to finalize the action. The only negative note concerns the high randomness that characterizes some plays that could derive from agitated actions.  

FIT Ultimate Team and other modes 

The beating heart of production is now theUltimate Team. The biggest difference compared to FIFA 19 is the introduction of monthly objectives that allow you to get packages, credits and players. These also include bonuses which until last year were easily redeemable from the catalog of game. The Rivals, the Weekend League and the Squad Battles remain unchanged. Regarding the overall management of our team, we have a renewed and unique interface that allows you to quickly apply consumables, add players, check statistics and access the transfer market. As for the mistreated modality Career, which has remained practically unchanged over the years, EA Sports has decided to introduce some new elements. In particular, the press conferences that go to change the mood of the team. Our words in the conference, as well as in the post-match, will have repercussions on the mood of individuals and the team, and their performance will be conditioned. If any players have low morale, it will not happen that they will automatically leave our team. If we accept his requests, perhaps giving him the right space in the team, he could even renew the contract. In addition, we have the ability to customize every aspect of the coach we take on, thanks to a rather deep editor.

Graphics

Unlike its direct rival, which somehow managed to squeeze the graphics engine thoroughly, FIFA 20 takes a slight step forward to differentiate itself from its predecessor. EA Sports, rather than improving the graphic rendering in an obvious way, has decided to give a greater presence to the boundary elements. New TV shots, increased support for cheering (added for the first time also in FUT mode) and pre-match player warm-up. Graphically, it will not reach the levels of PES but it remains very enjoyable. The animations remain good and even the faces, although those of the lesser players turn out to be far from the real counterpart, are ultimately well done. From the sound point of view, the commentary is once again entrusted to the duo Pierluigi Pardo and Stefano Nava, now a real certainty with various dialogues that are well suited to the different situations of the match. Finally, the soundtrack remains of the highest level thanks to a good variety of pieces proposed.

licensing

FIFA 20 has pretty much almost all the leagues in existence. Champion's League and Europa League offer that extra touch. Sorry for the lack of the official Juventus license, due to exclusive agreements between Konami and the Piedmontese company, but net of this lack, Serie A is completely fired. To these, there is an endless number of stadiums, just think that in the Premier League, they are all officially licensed and we will play every game in a different stadium.