EA Sports FC 27 Review: A Revolution in Football Gaming Or Not Worth It? A Humble Review
The Champions League has undergone a revolution, shifting from a group stage to a league format. Five substitutions are now standard, and instead of the referee, we curse VAR. More matches mean more money. Players complain about the overloaded schedule, while their salaries skyrocket from season to season.
However, some things have remained the same. Football is still the most popular sport in the world, no matter how much your friend Samir (sorry, my brother, I just can’t get into it) praises Cricket. The Maracanã stadium still looks like it was cobbled together by Dr. Frankenstein, and they are certainly trying to maintain that tradition with this future one too. Real Madrid and Barcelona are the most robbed clubs on the globe; injustice simply does not bypass them. EA Sports FC is still the worst virtual football on the market, if you ask the fans who make sure this series sets a new sales record every year.
In short, no matter how much has changed since I reviewed FIFA 21, it's still the same. As I had to temporarily hang up my own boots due to an injury and a complete lack of interest in the real game, I hoped that the virtual version of football would return at least a little of the feeling of the big pitch…So, what will be criticized this year? Probably the defensive side of the game, which has changed again. Player tracking and ball stealing are now "more natural," especially if you control a higher-quality defender on the pitch. The back line relies less on AI control, so you will have to participate more actively in the defensive phase.
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The Gameplay Of EA Sports FC 27
The attacking side has also changed, especially when taking shots, which now lead to more varied goals. Headers have regained their forte, and shots from outside the box are far more effective when you have enough space to set them up. Passing between the back lines has become a bit harder to execute. But if you manage to thread the pass, the consequences are devastating, and it mostly smells like a goal for you. Believe it or not – just like in real football.
Corners have been changed for the hundredth time, and they decided to combine two systems from previous installments. In past FIFAs, I could either take a corner and decide the power and trajectory of the cross, and then the fun in the box would begin. The other option was to switch to a player and control him. That second option was used poorly in online matches because the opposing player could easily tell which player you were controlling and would stick to him like glue. Well, now those two systems are merged into one.
First, we determine the cross's trajectory, then switch to the player we control to act. Since the ball will not come 100 percent to where the player I control is, I can fake movements and deceive the opponent. I would say this move has made corners quite difficult to defend again, and it wouldn't surprise me if they have to balance it a bit later.
How Is The AI?
Of course, this wouldn't be FC if it didn't carry some of its standard ailments that sometimes seem even worse as the years go by. I primarily mean the change in selecting the player we want to control in the defensive phase. I know there is a way to manually select a footballer with the analog stick, but that sometimes fails in a bigger crowd, for example, in the middle of and after a corner. And automatic switching with a button always selects the wrong players, so I often end up having to press at least one click and one analog "mushroom" to take control of the desired player. One move too many!
There's no need to waste a keyboard on teammates' artificial intelligence because you already know everything from before. Missed movements, unusual decisions, and delayed reactions are just a small part of the problems in this field.
EA Sports FC 27, The Ultimate Card Collector
Just as I immersed myself in the authentic way of playing (available only offline), I remembered I was reviewing an EA Sports game and had to jump into Ultimate Team. There, it's only possible to play in competitive mode, and of course with a gazillion cards.
When I'm not reviewing a game, I usually avoid this mode roughly like Yamal avoids our national team. This means I am not a competent person to assess how Ultimate Team's monetary policy behaves this time. But, let's be realistic – it's still a mode designed to turn a player into an addict.
Among the novelties, I can mention the Ultimate Team Gallery, a place where you can display your cards and collect sets to earn additional rewards. Imagine the FUT Gallery as a digital sticker album, but instead of stickers, you collect well-known cards.
Imagine the FUT Gallery as a digital sticker album, but instead of stickers, you collect well-known cards.
On each card, next to the player's rating, you can now also see how many Gallery points that card will bring you. Take five cards, add up those points, and based on that, you will get a grade from D to S. Of course, if all your cards are the same rarity, from the same club, or from the same nationality, you get extra points. Based on the grade you earn, you receive a new type of coin you can spend in a special Gallery shop to buy special cards again.
The Challenges in EA Sports FC 27
Challenges also come at the club, league, and card-rarity levels, so once you collect, for example, 20 Liverpool players, you can rate them. And the ratings aren't easy, so this feels more like a year-long grind than something you can finish in a few days. I doubt you'll collect 20 TOTW players in the first week. Besides new coins, creating albums and completing challenges also increases your Gallery Level, which opens up more rewards.
In short, the gallery is another gamified element that Ultimate Team lovers will probably use to increase their digital ego. Along the way, it's also a perfect way to extract a few extra bills from players because the game calls you to spend at every step. One important thing to note is that a once-purchased card can be used for the Gallery even after you sell it. So, they aren't ultimately greedy now that they are under Saudi Arabia. For now!
Transfers Are Completely Undone
Career mode continues the overhaul of individual segments this year, and the new transfer system particularly stands out. It's no longer enough to just come with a bag of money, throw it on the table, and possibly drive the player in the trunk for him to decide on your club. Now you need to invest more effort in the transfer. First comes the interest check, then negotiations follow, then competition with other clubs… And after all that action, the opposing team can still steal the transfer from you. While other clubs used to be passive and picked up a player only if your negotiations failed, now they are the complete opposite.
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Players who want to take a club from the third rank of the English league and bring it to the level of Manchester City in two or three seasons might not enjoy this mode because it's much harder to build a competitive team. Especially if you start with a weaker club, and the Man City tactic of faking the club's value isn't an option. To me, this approach is more realistic, and I enjoyed the competition itself much more. Once you manage to buy the desired footballer in Career mode, you really get the urge to open a bottle of champagne.
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Big changes have also come to the overall player rating system. It is now much more dynamic and depends on form, minutes played, injuries, morale, and other factors. If you have a starter with a rating of 74 at the beginning of the season, that rating can easily go above or below that value depending on how the season develops. During the season, you thus get a lot more of a feeling of real team gelling and dynamics. One player explodes and carries the team, another player from the background gets a big boost after an injury to a first-team player, and a third player gets lost if you regularly take him out at halftime. In addition, the game indirectly forces you to use more rotations and not always have the same starting eleven.
The Grounds A Brand New Novelty in EA Sports FC 27
The Grounds is the main novelty in FC 27. It is an open zone where you can walk around, see other players, participate in numerous mini-games, dress up your character… There is also some story and meetings with famous footballers, but don't expect Mbappe to tell you his life story. At first glance, The Grounds looks quite populated, but you quickly realize there is almost no interaction with passersby. They are there more like an audience in stadiums – filling empty space so the city doesn't seem empty, and cheering even when no match is being played.
Besides the standard 11 vs 11, street football, and Rush mode, the Grounds also has various mini-games: bocce with a football, races through tracks, and versions of dodgeball with balloons, controlling more goals than the opponent… These mini-games can be really fun, but the biggest problem is the quite small number of interested players. Those who show up mostly play street football, so it is sometimes hard to gather just four players for a mini-game. Communication among players is practically non-existent. There are no quick messages or voice communication to invite a passerby to a mini-game.
The former Clubs mode is now located within the Grounds. You access it through the Clubhouse section, where Dybala will welcome you and guide you through the rooms as if he grew up there. Otherwise, Clubs hasn't changed much, so you can still join a club or start your own.
In the end, the Grounds ends up being more like a small hub for entering mini-games and the Clubs mode than a social experience and a different experience of FC. Given players' current (un)interest, it's hard to believe this format will even have enough players to play in a year. And there is no option to play them with AI opponents. Once the servers are shut down in a few years, then the Grounds will permanently close its doors.
Free Ticket, For A Tiny Taste
Another novelty for this year's FC is a Lite version of the game that lets you play for free. It is a kind of demo, and you will remember how previous FIFA titles always offered demo versions, so you might think this isn't real news. However, FC 27 Lite still offers more options than a classic demo. You are not limited to just Kick-Off, but you can also play Online Seasons and Online matches with friends, and there is also the complete Learn to Play mode.
For men's teams, you only have Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, and for women's teams, Chelsea and Lyon. However, EA Sports says the team offer will change during the season, so others will also be available in the Lite version.
Since Lite is a completely free version of the game, it gives you a great opportunity to test the balance before buying. And if you decide to buy the game, your progress from online seasons transfers to the full game. I won't praise Electronic Arts for again letting you try the game before buying, but I think the existence of the Lite version is a good thing.
Beautiful Start, Ugly Match
Let's return to the main pitch, especially its visual part. Like its predecessor, the entire intro before the match looks great, as if Shakira will run onto the pitch at any moment and swing her hips. The display of players arriving at the stadium, the look of the locker rooms, the conversation in the tunnel before going out onto the pitch, famous songs from the stands – everything gives an authentic atmosphere of a football match broadcast. Nothing revolutionary compared to last year, but it still looks great.
Unfortunately, once the match starts, the on-pitch action is rather lukewarm. The same camera movement is used constantly, the footballers seem uninterested, and the situations lack the intensity we normally see in real football.
Players are easy to recognize, but only those from more popular leagues and nations. If you play with Vojvodina or Partisan (Serbian super league), you will be playing a guessing game of who is who. Which is especially strange because, with all the modern technology and AI, they cannot faithfully imitate players' faces without 3D face scanning. Or are they afraid of being too authentic so someone could sue them for it?
The Sights And Sounds
The sound situation is the same as in previous years. The music is, as always, excellent, and everyone will find at least a few things to hum along to. The soundtrack is diverse, with a fairly colorful selection of new and many unknown artists enhanced especially if you listen to it on our Cosmic XP-Panther Headset! There is also the already-mentioned cheering during matches, plus numerous songs from bigger clubs that add to the atmosphere of a real stadium. But then the commentators start talking and ruin everything. They still have the same problems of eternally repeating similar phrases and negative reactions to certain situations.
As for the game itself, I don't have any major complaints. A goofy bug can still happen where a player gets stuck on some obstacle, but I personally experienced that only once in a match. I emphasize – in a match. Because the Grounds is still a bit less polished, you will more often see characters running in place or having crashed into a wall.
In Conclusion
Considering the current state of the Grounds and the initial (un)interest of players for that mode, it could be said that FC this year "missed the football." What was supposed to be a social experience that connects FC fans now doesn't look like something that would justify the hype and time invested. More options and content are needed for the Grounds to become something more than a mode I tried at the beginning and quickly forgot about afterward. However, I don't think this will be a crucial factor for most players in whether they buy the new FC or not.
Ultimate Team and Career still carry this series. Ultimate Team didn't get some crazy changes this year, but I really have to praise the new options in Career mode, which made FC a step closer to football simulators. The road is still long, but two big steps have been taken with the new dynamic ratings and the new transfer system. As for the football itself, there are the old ailments of artificial intelligence, but at least the defensive part of the team is now easier to control and stop the opponent's onslaught with your own efforts.
And what can I tell you after all this?! To buy or not to buy? Fans have already bought EA Sports FC 27 (and the Ultimate Edition for a hundred euros) and possess approximately ten thousand FUT cards. For the undecided, if there are any at all, there is the FC 27 Lite version, which brings a limited number of clubs, but you can still play it on the couch with your crew or online against other players. Personally, I will play a bit more career and a few online matches, but I don't plan to stay in the game for long – I am more looking forward to returning to the real pitch.
Game Rating
Rating: 7.5/10Reason: The game makes commendable strides in its Career mode with a dynamic rating system and a more realistic transfer market, but a lackluster new social hub in The Grounds, persistent AI issues, and a general lack of polish during gameplay hold it back.
Age Recommendation
Recommended for ages 13 and up.Why: The game is a sports simulation with a competitive online environment that includes microtransactions (Ultimate Team) and online interactions with other players. While the on-pitch action is non-violent, the themes of gambling-like card packs and the need for parental guidance regarding online spending and communication make it more suitable for teenagers.
Gemini AI Summary
EA Sports FC 27 is a mixed bag of meaningful improvements and missed opportunities. The standout feature is the revamped Career mode, which introduces a dynamic player rating system and a more challenging, realistic transfer market. Gameplay sees tweaks to defending and shooting, but is still plagued by inconsistent AI and player-switching issues. The major new addition, The Grounds, is a social hub that feels empty and lacks meaningful interaction, making it a forgettable experience. While the core modes like Ultimate Team and Career remain strong, the game's presentation during matches is lackluster, and the overall package feels like a cautious step forward rather than a revolutionary leap. It's a solid, if unspectacular, entry for football fans.