FIFA Soccer 13 Review

Last year, FIFA 12 bought itself a tremendous amount of goodwill. The game revolutionized the series’ gameplay by successfully rolling out three big new features — tactical defending, precision dribbling and the impact engine— without any significant disasters. Because of that, a lot of us were quite willing to overlook some of the match engine’s slightly rougher edges. So it’s not a surprise that for FIFA 13, the team at EA Canada decided to polish those rough edges up rather than introduce more significant wrinkles to the game, and for the most part they do so successfully. But is it enough to catapult FIFA 13 to becoming an all-time classic?

 

 

Presentation

What’s an EA Sports game without some seriously slick presentation elements? One of the first things you’ll probably notice upon firing up the game is the ESPN branding. While it doesn’t add anything in a practical sense, it does help tricking your mind into believing that it’s the weekend, and soccer is on TV.

In the booth upstairs, the always-dependable Martin Tyler teams up once again with Alan Smith for some quality commentating. It often goes unappreciated, but Tyler’s conversational tone is a perfect fit for video games, as he can often make canned lines sound natural, like he just thought of it during the course of the game. For Manager Mode players, there are new personalities doing post match roundups of other games played, as well as an updated league table, as background audio while you explore the regular menus. While it doesn't add much in practice (all that information is a viewable with a click or two anyway), it helps make Manager Mode a more living and breathing experience, and is a welcome touch.

The Impact Engine (2.0, one assumes) also makes its return, and with much less kinks than last year’s game. For the most part, players now tangle and collide realistically (and in a manner that doesn’t violate sexual harassment laws), and the jostling actually gives the game a new, off-the-ball dimension.

The rest of the on-pitch elements look great as well. From the stadiums to the crowd reactions (whose derision to an away team getting the call is much more evident than before) to the stadium lighting, FIFA 13 is a hell of a good looking game. The only thing that looks a little out of place is the kits, or more specifically, the names on the back of them. The stretching of the letters now looks very outdated compared to the rest of the game, and can really do with a revamping.

There’s really not much to fault with the game’s presentation elements. Everything looks great — well, except for the names on the back of the shirts — and overall, FIFA 13 is visually as realistic as it gets to what you see on the TV.

 

 

Gameplay

Like last year’s game, FIFA 13’s gameplay shines the brightest when your player has possession. Passes are weighted and feel realistic, and skillful dribblers will appreciate the amount of a space a good touch or two can buy. Throw in the new dribbling addition, where your player has the option of facing the goal regardless of which direction he is dribbling, and you can feel the pitch really open up with the ball at your feet.

Whereas last year your AI teammates may be a little thick and run their way into dead ends, FIFA 13’s improved AI means that your passer will be offered more useful options. Useful is the key word here, as the AI player now knows where the more valuable real estate is and will try to make their way there, making attacking sequences more dynamic. This is in contrast to the pattern that attacking build ups in FIFA 12 inevitably fall into: pass forward, check back, pass forward, check back, pass forward again, until you eventually get to where you want to go. In FIFA 13 it is possible, if you play the right passes and use your AI teammates correctly, to break through a defense in a non-counter attacking situation, without slowing the game down to a snail’s pace. You can especially see the difference in strikers' runs, as they now actively try to stay onside, make much better use of channels, and curve their runs in anticipation of a through ball.

To further alleviate the feeling of predictability, this year we also see the introduction of contextual first touches. Simply put, a clean trap of the ball is not a given anymore, and in FIFA 13 it depends on a combination of things, like the speed of the pass and the technique of the receiving player. It’s one of those seemingly small additions that ends up having a ripple effect throughout the game. For example, taking down an opposition long ball now carries the risk of a bad touch bouncing on to the onrushing striker, and if you’re playing with an average team, you may have to look at alternatives to a short passing game, as your players may not have the requisite technique to trap and release a ball cleanly before the opponent snaps in with a tackle.

In the bigger picture, fans of the series will be relieved to hear that yes, different teams do have different play styles. Depending on its tactics and formation, a team can press you high up the pitch or sit behind the ball, bunker down the middle or use its width, and it’s up to you to counter it. The CPU will also alter their tactics based on the scoreline, and defend or attack as ferociously as needed. On the downside, the CPU still seems to be limited mostly to like-for-like substitutions, and while it can change the way it plays depending on the score, it doesn't seem to adapt at reacting to any changes made by the player. As long as the scoreline doesn't change, even drastic alteration of your formation and tactics won't get the CPU to counter correspondingly.

So the positives, on the whole, are plenty. FIFA 13 manages to iron out plenty of wrinkles from last year and make attacking play even more satisfying. There were times during last year’s game when it feels like you’re keeping possession simply for the sake of it (and waiting for the strikers to check back after running offside), but this year, build up sequences are more dynamic, and are consequently a lot more fun.

However, the gameplay isn’t without its flaws. The biggest one is that on defense, the game relies on you, the player, too much. AI players are too inactive, and perhaps unaware if left to their own devices. At times it feels like it's up to you to defend both of the opposition strikers by yourself. So if you didn't like defending last year in FIFA 12 because of the AI, you probably won't like it this year either.

Basically, your AI teammates default to conservatively sitting back unless you press the teammate pressure button, or switch your active control to that particular player. While this might be a good idea for midfield play (and sometimes even that isn’t true), it’s quite a bad one for defending the more crucial areas of the pitch. Consequently, opposition strikers are allowed too much space in the box — when they really should be closed down and harassed — and by the time you switch to the active defender, it’s too late. You can sense this coming, and can counter it to a certain extent by either winning the ball back before it gets in the box or holding down the teammate pressure button. However, the teammate pressure option can turn into a game of Russian roulette, because if you press it too early, you run the risk of sending the wrong player to chase after the ball, putting potentially two of your defenders out of position.

On offense, the AI players’ lack of awareness can also rear its ugly head, espeically during loose ball situations. While the intelligence has definitely been improved when you have the ball, it’s a different story when the ball is in transit. It’s almost as if the AI teammates' brains switch off momentarily, causing them to meander, until a player — CPU or human — takes control of the ball. This is especially frustrating during rebound situations where, unless you immediately take control of the closest player, he will just saunter towards the ball.

 

 

Also, while it’s clear that the FIFA developers have put in the work to differentiate teams, it remains a bit hard to differentiate between the twenty-two players on the pitch. Yes, their attributes can separate them to some degree, but their playing styles — or lack thereof — don’t. In fact, sometimes (especially in hour nine of a ten hour FIFA marathon) it can feel like you’re playing against the man pulling the strings behind the curtain instead of eleven different players on a team. For example, it would have been nice to see some of the more tricky wingers take advantage of the new “face-up” dribbling mechanism, because as it stands, those moments happen all too rarely. Fortunately, I’ve seen players like Ronaldo and Gerrard have a go from far once in a while, so they’re not all robots; and because the rest of the game is so polished, this feeling probably won’t strike you very often. However, it’s clear that there’s still work to be done in this area.

The variety of goals could also be improved upon. Just like in FIFA 12, you can still score too easily by cutting in from the wing and shooting for the far post while, on the other hand, shots from narrow — though certainly not impossible — angles are almost always parried by goalkeepers, even if they’re fired full power.

Overall, the positives in gameplay greatly outweigh the negatives, but that one particular negative — the AI’s lack of awareness defensively — isn’t exactly a small deal. While the issues don’t occur anywhere near often enough to become a huge problem, it’s still a shame, as the other parts of the gameplay are so polished and well executed.

 

 

Game Modes/ Lasting Appeal

All the requisite game modes make their returns for FIFA 13, with the exception of the Player-Manager mode as it was probably too unrealistic of a premise to start with anyway. There are a number of improvements made to Manager Mode, with the biggest one of all being the ability to play in the UEFA competitions in your first season. For big club players, Manager Mode FIFA 12 was a bit of a tricky dance in trying to get all your star players enough playing time in the first year, lest they get restless ask for a ticket out of town, but that’s not the case anymore in FIFA 13 with the various cup competitions. For those wanting to one day lead a nation to glory, there is also the ability to manage a national team on the side. It’s a nice refreshing change of pace to the mode if, at some point, you find the grind of a league season too monotonous.

As for slightly longer-term realism, after two and a half seasons of (partly simulated) play, nothing too jarring has popped out from the career mode just yet. It’s hard to expect the mode to be too realistic when in the real football world everything can change in the blink of an eye anyway. Notable transfers included Benzema going to Chelsea, Ozil going to City, and — in a separate transaction — David Silva heading the other way to the Bernabeu. Good news on the player growth front too, as most of the results seem to be on the level. A lot of the attribute changes seem to be dependent on how much a player plays, which is reasonable enough. Young players, though they will progress regardless, gain attribute points quicker with more match time, while players in their prime can still go up quite a few points after a prolonged run of good performances. Those in the twilight of their careers, on the other hand, are lucky to have their ratings hold steady, and otherwise would drop a point or two, usually in the physical department. On the whole, if you’re an offline player, chances are Manager Mode is where you’ll spend the bulk of your time.

On the online side of things, what was once a paid feature known as Live Season is now a free perk called Match Day. Basically, you can play along with what’s going on in real life, with in form players getting an attribute boost in the game, and injured/suspended players unavailable. It’s a smart way to dress up an online match by blurring the lines between real life and the game, and it’s a nice change of pace if you want to take a step back from one of the other modes. Elsewhere, the incredibly addictive Ultimate Team (FIFA’s take on fantasy football) makes its return, with the addition of Seasons, where your team can get relegated or promoted depending on how your fare.

There is no shortage of game modes in FIFA 13. Simply put, if you like the gameplay, there are more than enough ways to keep you playing for months to come.

 

 

Final Thoughts

So the answer to the question at the beginning — whether there has been enough improvement in FIFA 13 to make it an all-time classic, and a 9.0 game here at OS — is, unfortunately, no.

It may seem a little low, given the amount of positives in this review; and the FIFA team has certainly done a lot of work in improving the match engine, but the question I keep coming back to is this: Is FIFA 13 a 9.0 game, which, as our scoring guideline states, contains only “a minor flaw or two”? Sadly it isn’t. The game is so, so close, but in the end, the gameplay’s over-reliance on you, the player, to do the AI’s work on defense, is just too big of a flaw to be considered minor.

Otherwise this is as close to a classic as you can get. The presentation, the variety of game modes, the on the ball play — pretty much every other element of the game except for the defensive AI are polished and well executed. FIFA 13 is, without doubt, a great game all around.

Learning Curve: The offensive side should be easy, even for casual fans. Defending, however, might be more difficult especially with the timid AI.

Control Schemes: For a complex game such as soccer, the controls are surprisingly easy to grasp. Mini games during loading screens help, too.

Visuals: Crisp animations, rich colors, plenty of activity around the pitch. In one word: beautiful.

Audio: Tyler and Smith are as stellar as ever. Supporter chants and reactions keep the match day atmosphere buzzing.

Value: With the improved Manager Mode and Ultimate Team, there's no reason not to see FIFA holding your attention until next summer.

Score: 8.5