This was published 7 years ago
FIFA 18 review: a year of minor refinements, but that's not a bad thing
By Matt Bungard
EA's ultra-popular football simulator is back for another season, with FIFA 18 consolidating the strengths of last year's big innovations.
The core gameplay has hardly changed at all, save for some tweaks to dribbling and crossing mechanics. I did notice that the player interactions, particularly in tackles, look sharper than ever, right down to the realistic way sneaky defenders grab handfuls of attackers' jerseys.
The legendary Ronaldo features throughout FIFA 18, not just on the cover but in the story mode and Ultimate Team.
One nice new feature is the introduction of quick substitutions — you can simply press the shoulder button to see a CPU-suggested sub, and then approve it or ignore it — which makes interchanging players even easier, and saves you having to pause the game.
With sports and roleplaying games starting to mesh more and more in recent years, it's no surprise that single-player story mode 'The Journey' has returned for a second year, picking up right where last year left off.
Officially licensed teams, players and stadia are impeccable as usual.
The mode was probably the company's most ambitious feature in any sports game to date, with the player taking on the role of youngster Alex Hunter in his quest to make it at an English Premier League club. With a first attempt under their belt, the developers have delivered a final product far deeper this time around.
You start at an English top tier club of your choosing (well, after an intro level that takes place on a futsal court in a Rio de Janeiro favela), but the ever-ambitious Hunter is keen to step up and play for one of the world's great teams. It doesn't take long for the mighty Real Madrid to declare an interest.
You can either start fresh or, if you owned last year's game, you can transfer your save data from that version of Alex Hunter into this one. The game features voice acting from the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo (who is on the cover of the game for the first time), Rio Ferdinand and many others and will take more than ten hours to complete at the very least.
'Manager Mode', which was the bedrock of the series back before online console gaming had truly taken off, hasn't changed much. There's a couple of new contract clauses you can add when you sign players, and the interactive cutscenes that now accompany any attempts at getting a new player to join your team are fun.
The Journey story mode picks up right where last year left off.
The real focal point of FIFA for several years now has been its 'Ultimate Team' mode, which combines card collecting and competitive matches (either online or offline) to try to build the best team possible. It's by far the most popular way to play FIFA, and the most profitable for EA thanks to the ever-present micro-transactions.
The biggest change in 'Ultimate Team' this year is the addition of a new mode, 'Squad'. Each week, players can play single-player games against the teams that other players around the world have built, gaining points for victories, style of play and the level of CPU difficulty. You are presented with four teams to play against, and these opponents reset every day during the week, and every eight hours on the weekend.
Those last couple of days will prove to be a real grind for gamers trying to get to the top of the world leaderboard, but the rewards for finishing near the top are juicy, and well worth your time if you can regularly beat the computer opponents on the highest difficult.
'Ultimate Team' also features some of the greatest former players such as Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Maradona. For the first time, these 'Icons' are available to PS4 and PC players, not just Xbox users who have had this feature for several years.
Overall, FIFA 18 isn't the most ground-breaking edition of the series, but it's still fun and extremely addictive. 'The Journey' alone will keep you occupied for a good chunk of time, and the constant additions of special players to 'Ultimate Team' means the game is never truly finished.
FIFA 18 is out on September 29 for PlayStation 4 (reviewed), PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch and PC.