FIFA 19 review – in pictures
Can FIFA 19 add another trophy to its bulging cabinet?
A LEGEND OF THE GAME?
Not all winning teams are truly great. Zidane’s Real Madrid might have won three Champions League titles in a row, but did they change the way people think about how football should be played? No. FIFA 19 finds itself in a similar position. EA Sports has assembled another game full of winning features, but is it anything greater than the sum of its parts?
STAR SIGNING
FIFA 19’s biggest signing is its Champions League licence, which pops up everywhere from standalone tournaments to The Journey, so it throws you in at the deep end with a prediction of this year’s final: Juventus versus PSG at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid, with a huge Ronaldo tifo overlooking the pitch. Considering he’s on the front of the box it’s no surprise that you take control of the Italian champions and must score the required CR7 goal(s) to win the cup, lest he come over all Gianluigi Buffon and accuse the game of having a dustbin where its heart should be.
GOALS, GOALS, GOALS
Assuming you’re a FIFA n00b, the Trainer is turned on by default, but even if you’ve been playing for years it makes sense to leave it turned on for this first game, because it’s the perfect opportunity to start practising with one of FIFA 19’s biggest gameplay additions: Timed Finishing. This is a new way to shoot that increases your chances of scoring – as long as you get it right. Get it wrong and you’re more likely to scuff the ball pathetically wide. It’s fairly simple to grasp but very difficult to master: press shoot once to wind up your shot and a second time to unleash it. If it becomes overpowered, that could prove a problem, but it feels like there are enough variables involved in getting it right each time that the chances of that should be fairly slim.
A TOUCH OF CLASS
FIFA 19’s other headline gameplay changes are Active Touch and an overhauled approach to 50/50 balls. Both have a noticeable effect on the way the game feels to play. Things feel a bit looser in possession, with the ball less likely to stick to the feet of a player, particularly if they receive it at speed. Active Touch means they have more ways to manipulate and control the ball, though, so you’ll see defenders chest the ball away from opposition attackers; strikers take small touches with one foot in order to set up a better shot with their other; and wingers stick out a leg in an effort to control the ball with their heel. It all helps to keep the game flowing.
WHIP IT IN
Crossing has been revamped too, so it actually feels like a viable tactic now, rather than the game of (low) percentages it was on FIFA 18. Early balls are particularly dangerous if you’ve got an imposing target man or runners breaking into the box. Overall its feels like a game with more tactical variation than before, something you can exploit using the new Dynamic Tactics, which makes it easier to switch on-the-fly using the D-pad. Pace isn’t quite so pronounced either, which can only be a good thing for Online Seasons.
THE JOURNEY RETURNS
Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t the only face that returns to FIFA 19. Alex Hunter, star of the scripted-reality style mode The Journey, is back with his entourage for a third chapter, subtitled Champions. After a brilliant playable flashback, The Journey’s pre-season period sees you playing as three different characters: Hunter, now on the books at Bayern Munich, PSG or Atletico Madrid; his mate Danny Williams, at a top Premier League club; and Alex’s 16-year-old half-sister Kim, a rising star of the women’s game based in Los Angeles. When the season starts you can choose who to focus on, although the game will suggest which player to switch to when something big’s about to go down. Just like before, you do spend a lot of time watching cutscenes, but the production values are pretty high, even if the storyline and voice acting is a bit Hollyoaks.
CAN I KICK IT?
Ultimate Team might be where all the money is but there’s a real forgotten charm about sitting next to the person you’ve just thrashed 5-0, although you might not feel quite the same if the boot’s on the other foot. EA knows that there’s only so many friendlies you can play against each other in one night, though, so has added a few new modes to spice things up. They vary from the simple (first to X goals wins) to the slightly absurd (no rules at all) but the most entertaining is probably Survival Mode, which sees a random outfield player ejected (up to a maximum of three per game) every time you score a goal. While you can play these new Kick-Off modes on your own, they’re not half as much fun without a human opponent, which might limit their appeal given that they’re offline only.
DREAM TEAM
Career Mode returns in almost entirely unchanged form, so expect the same bizarre transfer activity (Gini Wijnaldum to Burnley for £32m, anyone?) and unreasonable game-time requests from youth teamers, but as fully playable management sims go, the addition of the Champions League licence is the last nail in the coffin of Pro Evo’s Master League. With the game not yet available to buy, we’ve been unable to fully test out Ultimate Team or see how the gameplay changes affect Online Seasons, but we’ll update this review accordingly when there are other humans out there playing it.
INITIAL VERDICT: SAME AS LAST YEAR?
With its Champions League licence to add to all the others, FIFA 19’s presentation is more authentic than it’s ever been. Crowds still look a bit too regimented and player movement can still sometimes be slightly wonky if you really study it, but in terms of translating the sights and sounds of professional football, no other game comes close. The slightly less frantic gameplay might even convince a few PES players to change allegiance. We’ll hold off on awarding a final score until the online side of things is fully up and running, but on initial impressions FIFA 19 has done it again.
