FIFA 18 Review

With ‘The Journey’ returning and much improved, and the graphical fidelity approaching photo-realistic, FIFA 18 is one of the best entries in the series for a few years.

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As ever, FIFA is fully licensed, and contains more modes than you can shake a stick at. There’s other little updates too, like enhanced single-player FUT modes, quick substitutions, and improved controls. What this all adds up to, is that FIFA is the most fun it’s been in years. Some matches may end up as 12-0, but I’m OK with that when the gameplay is as compelling as it is.

Multiplayer:

FIFA has always been strong online, and this year is no exception. Matchmaking is quick, in-game performance solid, and server stability generally good. It’s much better that the slightly archaic lobby modes in PES, and one area where EA continue to excel. Obviously you still have quitters, cheaters and abuse, all of which seem far more prevalent than in competing games, but maybe that has just unfortunately become par for the course with FIFA?

Presentation:

FIFA 18 looks absolutely remarkable. The Frostbite engine is really coming into its own with games outside of the Battlefield series, and I can pretty safely say that this is the best looking sports game of all time. Everything from the pitch to the players looks phenomenal. Most importantly, animation, particularly off the ball and dribbling have been improved, and the game feels much more lifelike as a result.

On top of that, the players’ faces have also been mapped much more impressively, so in replays and cut-scenes they finally no longer look like robots or weird puppets. The impressive broadcast presentation, introduced to Premier League games last year, has been expanded to La Liga and MLS, and is a really superb addition to the game, blowing other games away with the quality and realism. Hopefully next year it can be expanded to all the major leagues.

The audio quality completely embarrasses the competition with the quality. Martin Tyler and Alan Smith sound natural together, and the commentary is often conversational, and is always seamlessly stitched together. Even better is the effect on The Journey, where the commentary actually enhanced and adds to the story of Alex Hunter. On top of that, you have the usual decent licensed soundtrack, and the voice-work in The Journey also seems improved over some of the slightly stilted lines last year.

 

Conclusion:

FIFA 18“, like PES, is evolution over revolution this year. But the seductive way everything has been brought together, combined with hands-down the best presentation the series has ever seen, and you end up with an impressively compelling package. The changes to the AI are relatively minor, and whilst tackling is still poor compared to PES, these are small issues at the end of the day.

FIFA has spent the last two years struggling to get to grips with the rapid changes and improvements made by the team at Konami, but have seemingly overcome them this year simply by polishing everything to an exceptionally high standard. FIFA 18 is remarkably hard to criticise as a result.

Good

  • The Journey
  • Quick substitutions
  • Animation

Bad

  • Tackling
  • AI is less reliable
8.8

Great

Story - 8
Graphics - 9.5
Sound - 9
Gameplay - 8.5
Multiplayer - 8
Value - 9.5
Editor - Reviewer GamerKnights

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