My relationship with the FIFA series of games are extremely specific. I was very interested in virtual football in the beginning and in the middle of the two thousandth, but then my love for the series is settled. Once in a year or two I ran a new part for a couple of hours, but full of desire to return to the game arose. Until the summer of 2017, when I was able to “taste” FIFA 17. Then it became clear: the next, eighteenth, the “FIFA” definitely worth the wait!
Game: FIFA 18
Platform: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch Windows
Genre: Sports
Release date: 29 September 2017
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: Electronic Arts
By and large, the FIFA series from year to year only slightly evolyutsioniruet, diluting the familiar mechanics new trends and tricks, techniques, and updating the team up-to-date status. To most fans, but FIFA 18 on the background of their predecessors in this regard is somewhat different.
You should start with the fact that this game has a full storyline mode. Yes, he appeared in FIFA 17, but here the story the main character Alex hunter continued. If in the previous section, we have demonstrated the emergence of Alex as a player, now our hero is moving on and wants to find his own place in this world, to prove that his success was not accidental. He is a professional, worthy to stand on a par with the best players on the planet. In addition, you are waiting for other playable characters, besides Alex. Added in-game customization, the absence of which in the last part was somewhat frustrating. Our player can change clothes, shoes, hairstyle and even get a tattoo. I just started the story with mentioning the plot, because in this respect, developers are using long-proven scheme: they are gradually improving that is in the game, bringing every aspect to perfection. And this evolution in the new part of the game touched virtually every element.
Let’s start with the gameplay. If you compare FIFA 18 with the previous game, the players become more… heavy, I suppose. Each character has inertia, acceleration, top speed and weight characteristics, which calculates the game engine. In addition, each person not slipping into a set of “stripes” denoting characteristics. For example, two players with roughly the same speed, but different growth will behave in the field in different ways.
On mastering of control you can take anywhere from 30 minutes up to, without exaggeration, a few weeks. The fact that the staff of EA Canada found, I think, an ideal scheme in which comfortable will be able to play as the newcomers using a combination of impact, canopy, passing and acceleration, and experienced gamers who will be doing a different style, actively dreamingbut, give through passes, to invent complicated schemes with playing the ball, deceptive maneuvers, and a lot more. To all of the 12 buttons of the controller, the developers have managed to fit this amount of twists and combinations, which would be the envy of any fighting game. And confusion in control does not occur, and the errors that happen during a match, remain solely on the conscience of the player.
Very well-behaving artificial intelligence. And he’s not a cheat, and a feeling that “sees” the field as well as the player. If earlier it was possible to see a picture of that, running up to the enemy penalty area, the opponent has met you head-on, now there are times when the AI is “wrong”, leaving a dent and sharply throwing a player from one edge to another. All this applies to the low levels of complexity. Their rise is changing the situation on the field: defense works more intelligently, your teammates and others start to play more cohesively, and in General AI was smarter. The number of times when it was possible to catch the same mistakes over and over again, was reduced to a minimum, and the accuracy of the transmission has become more realistic.
As for the visual part, it is in the last year was on top. The animation looks extremely believable, and the faces of some players it is difficult to distinguish from the real thing. Alive for the fans, who start to bounce their ball and in General behave like real people, not like props. From under the feet of the players take off the pieces of grass that don’t disappear until the end of the match. And in some aspects the game does look like a regular soccer stream.
The game does not suffer from the drawbacks of game modes: in addition to the already mentioned plot for such kind of games quick matches, there is a career mode, seasons for certain football clubs, incredible training regime, something similar to football Manager, and much more for every taste. But the main dish is, of course, the online mode called FIFA Ultimate Team (abbreviated FUT). This feature has already become a phenomenon. When registering, each player receives cards FUT, which are very appreciated by fans of the game. In this mode you can battle virtual players to participate in a series of tournaments and… to spend money on microtransactions. Me always upsets the presence of microtransactions in the game for which the player already paid for. The function of this good free online projects, but not full game price of 60 dollars.
In the updated version of FIFA, it turned out that I was personally waiting for since the days of FIFA 2005 — legends of football. They were in the previous parts of the series in the “gold” teams, but here this moment is revealed in a new way. In FUT you can get a card with the legend and to play with a star! The game is not only foreign, Ronaldo (not to be confused with Cristiano), Maradona, Pele, but also the pride of the national football legendary goalkeeper Lev Yashin!
As for music and sound, it is the FIFA series managed to almost always. I wonder how from year to year, sound producers manage to find so much organic song for the main menu. They are not annoying and the sound is always fresh and ready for summer. Not far behind, and the rest of the sound. The rostrum of the noise, the fans shouting chants and generally create the sound of a real match. At the height of Russian voice commentators. George Cherdantsev and Konstantin Genic coped with its task. Their replicas are always clearly describe what is happening, and sometimes between colleagues even tie small dialogues. Everything looks (although in this case heard) is quite realistic and not dramatic.
Pros
- Beautiful graphics.
- Excellent physical model.
- The controls are simple to master.
- The presence of these football legends.
- Good music and voice.
Cons
- The emphasis on the online component is not to everybody’s taste.
- Story mode is still naive and simple.
- The presence of microtransactions.
FIFA 18 is a real heavyweight in the world of football simulators. I deliberately didn’t mention in my review of the main competitor in the face of Pro Evolution Soccer from Konami, as earlier, the Japanese simulator still somehow able to compete with the brainchild of Canadians, now the game went our separate ways. PES was fun only for fans of the series, and FIFA has become a real subculture that is available to the masses. In English there is a saying “Easy to learn, hard to master”, and it usually applies to games from Blizzard, emphasizing that to start playing is easy, but to reach the heights — not so easy. I would fully apply this slogan to FIFA 18. The game actually turned out decent. Worthy grades in 9 out of 10.
Review game FIFA 18
Vladimir Kuznetsov