I think it’s safe to say that FIFA or EA FC has been stagnant for some years now. All the recent games, ranging from FIFA 23 to EA FC 25, have felt like patch updates, rather than full-on games. Consequently, every year, EA gets blamed for copy-pasting the same old formula to a fresh roster, and every year, we end up grabbing a new copy of the same old football game.
If I’m being honest, the copy-pasting claims do have a lot of merit to them. The changes from one installment to another are so subtle that they don’t justify getting the new game at all. Only if you’re an avid Ultimate team player can you justify the purchase, since the player base moves to the more recent game, but other than that, there’s no reason.
So, when EA announced that they finally listened to all the complaints, took them into account, and were now building EA FC 26 from the ground up, you can imagine how happy the fans got. But did they really end up doing that, or was that just another marketing gimmick?
EA FC 26 Review
Gameplay
Now, there are two types of people who buy sports games, or to be exact, who buy EA FC. The first group consists of the Ultimate Team Fanatics, who purchase the game year after year, regardless of any improvements to the formula. Since they need to be on the game where the majority of the player base is, their purchase is always guaranteed.
The second group consists of people who don’t engage with the sport as much and buy a copy of an EA FC game every few years, so they can play offline with their friends or try out the career mode. Granted, the latter part is only true for a few players, as career mode in FC games has been a dead-end.
The bottom line is, the second group only jumps onto the new installment if it offers a significant overhaul to the formula; otherwise, they’re content with their original copy of the game, be it FIFA 23, FC 24, or FC 25. There’s no rational reason for them to switch over to the new game.
When it comes to EA FC 26, it’s not the game that’ll inspire the people in the second group to make the switch. This is not to say that this is a bad game at all; it just doesn’t do enough to make the casual players jump onto it. EA FC 26 is exactly what you expect: a yearly upgrade to the original FC formula, offering small tweaks based on community feedback. However, it does that really well.
Competitive Preset
If you don’t already know, EA’s biggest selling point for EA FC this year has been the two gameplay presets: Competitive and Authentic. Competitive is the default preset for all online modes, including Ultimate Team. It features faster gameplay, smoother dribbling, and an arcade playstyle, whereas Authentic leans more towards simulation-style gameplay. For now, let’s focus on the competitive preset.
As soon as you boot up the game, you’re faced with the choice of choosing a preset. If you choose Competitive, all your offline/online games will also follow the Competitive Preset. If you choose Authentic, all offline games will follow the Authentic Preset, with Competitive being reserved for online gameplay.
The question is, how does the Competitive Preset feel?
Exactly as advertised. For the first time in my experience, EA actually delivered on its promise and made gameplay better. The competitive preset features explosive gameplay, where skills are rewarded. If you tackle correctly, you will win the ball, rather than it bouncing back to the opponent. If the attacker shoots at your keeper from afar, chances are high that the keeper will save it. While EA FC 25 felt more like a ping pong match rather than football, EA FC 26 feels much more refined and polished.
The only issue is that all this is the bare minimum. Smooth attacking, defending, and gameplay should be the core of FC, not something that fans have to complain about a million times to receive. Yes, I want my keeper to save the ball if the shot was never meant to go in, and that problem should’ve been solved in FC 25, not in the next installment. That said, EA has indeed listened to the community to make gameplay tweaks, and FC 26 plays a lot more smoothly as a result.
Authentic Preset
The next big thing is the Authentic Preset. As mentioned, Authentic Preset is something that is reserved for offline play, that is, for the people in the second group. The biggest problem with EA FC has always been the huge divide between the two groups:
The first group wants arcade-like gameplay, where everything feels fast, while the second group wants more simulation elements, where everything feels real. Fortunately, EA has solved this problem in EA FC 26 by giving both groups what they want.
Gameplay in the Authentic Preset feels much more natural, closer to what you see in a real football match. If you’re playing at a higher difficulty, you really need to work for a goal. Defense feels heavier, the midfield builds up the play in a much more structured manner, and attackers get fewer chances to score. Even when you build up the perfect attack, you need to be precise with your inputs; otherwise, you’ll miss the shot or get denied by the keeper (the keepers are great).
Basically, every aspect of football feels much more meaningful in the Authentic Preset, and you can’t lack in any way if you want to win. Tactics matter, formations matter, and you’ll need to adapt according to the situation.
This is exactly what football is about. The beautiful game demands teamwork, and without it, no team should have scorelines that read 7-2, 5-3. Talking about scorelines, they feel much more realistic in the Authentic Preset. Since this preset features slower gameplay with a few explosive moments, you’re gonna have scorelines that are much more nuanced. Expect games to end with just a one-goal difference, or even draw at 0-0.
While it’s still not the most perfect simulation-style gameplay, FC 26 is the closest EA has gotten to delivering something special for the second group of fans, the ones who love their career modes.
Presentation
With the gameplay out of the way, let’s talk about the presentation. This is where EA deserves its flowers, but never gets them. While gameplay has been an issue in recent FC games, they haven’t missed in terms of presentation, and FC 26 is no exception. The presentation in this game is beautiful.
This is something people in the second group would care more deeply about. If you’re playing the Career mode or even having an offline 1v1, the presentation thrives. Now, I’m not someone who queues up full match intros and watches team entrances, but if you are, you’re gonna love the way FC 26 handles them. In my first FA Cup final with Manchester City, I faced off against Manchester United in a full-on derby final. As the stakes were already high, I decided to watch the full match intro and take in the atmosphere.
The intro starts with fans rushing into the stadium, waving blue flags. On the United side, the grandstands are bleeding red, with the supporters chanting for their team. Once the teams walk onto the pitch, the crowds start roaring. In some instances, you can even spot some fans in a pub, having drinks and watching the game. Everything about the presentation feels appropriate, and the best part is that it changes depending on which teams are playing. The Premier League gets the biggest budget, but the smaller leagues aren’t ignored either.
Once I won the final, the scenes of City lifting the FA cup were majestic. Blue confetti flew everywhere as the fans cheered on, and the players celebrated with all their might. After lifting the trophy, the players even went towards the stands to share the moment with their loyal fans. All in all, the Presentation in FC 26 is top-notch and something that should be applauded.
Game Modes
Career Mode
As I mentioned earlier, Career Mode in FC games has long been dead. It’s the goldfish EA forgot to feed, and it’s been lying in the fish bowl ever since. However, with FC 26, it feels like someone reminded the devs that this mode existed.
Both the player and the manager career modes in FC 26 have received plenty of updates, with the latter being more focused on. Some of them are gimmicks, some of them actually contribute to the experience. To begin, let’s talk about the Manager Career. If you’re someone who plays Football Manager, I’m gonna just come out and say that this doesn’t even come close to it. However, if you’re a casual player who wants to run a manager career, FC 26 provides a fun experience.
While the basics remain the same, build or choose a manager, and take your team to the championships, EA has added a couple of features that make the journey a bit more immersive. You have the unexpected events feature, which, as the name suggests, throws curveballs at your manager to spice things up. There’s Deeper Simulation, which lets you take into account all past season results. And Manager live, where you need to deal with plenty of unique scenarios. Each feature, in essence, makes the manager career more immersive and, at the very least, makes it playable.
The player career, on the other hand, is more of the same, but now it has archetypes. If you’ve ever built a player in NBA 2K MyPlayer, you’ll already be familiar with this. If not, let me explain. You can choose 1 out of 13 archetypes, create your player using it, and then play the career to progress your stats. While it adds a good dynamic to the game mode, I feel like the Player Career is still a bit shallow in terms of story. That said, it’s still better than anything FC 25 offered.
Ultimate Team
Ultimate team, the most hated or loved mode of FC, has also received a few improvements. The mode has lost its pay-to-win feature in some aspects and gained it in others. To begin with, silver cards matter again, as silver tournaments are back. Here, you can’t use a card with an OVR greater than 74, leveling the playing field. Packs are more generous compared to FC 25, too. I’m a week into the game, and my squad already has Messi and Ederson. Granted, Messi is only at an 86 OVR, but still, the pack openings are better in FC 26.
Clubs, on the other hand, have been completely ruined, as my friend Christian would like to say. Why? Well, Clubs in FC 26 now feature microtransactions, and this is where pay-to-win comes in. Previously, microtransactions existed in FC, but they were never a part of Clubs. This mode was sacred, and for some people, including Christian, this was their haven.
Now, the pay-to-win system has crept its way onto the meta. You can spend real money to buy consumable boosts and use them to instantly gain more AXP. This AXP lets you boost the attributes of your player and basically become overpowered.
That’s not all, though. The new Clubs system has also introduced archetypes, similar to the Player Career, and you’re limited to one archetype. If somewhere along the road you decide that this archetype isn’t working for you, get ready to spend 25000 Club Points or 200 FC points to unlock another one. Again, this is where microtransactions come in, as earning that much in-game currency isn’t an easy task.
So, for those who play Ultimate Team just for the thrill of opening packs, the mode is pretty much unchanged. However, if you’re someone who spends most of their time in clubs, you might be a little dumbstruck when you launch the game.
The Bottom Line
To sum everything up, FC 26 is a game that is split between two worlds. It’s a game that doesn’t have a single identity. Your experience will entirely depend on the gameplay preset you choose. If you go for competitive, you’ll feel like all the players drank four Red Bulls before getting on the pitch. But if you go with Authentic, suddenly, everything will become realistic.
Your experience also heavily depends on what you expect from this game. If you’re looking for something that reinvents the wheel, this game isn’t that. But if you’re looking for a solid football game, this is the closest you’re gonna get to it. I will say that this game is worthy enough for you to get the 10-hour free trial and test it out for yourself. You might love it, you might hate it. But at the end of the day, it’s still gonna sell.
