With the International Break still upon us, what better time to take a closer look at latest FIFA release from EA Sports, as we review the game from a Swansea City perspective.
Released at the start of October, FIFA 22 is the latest version of the most popular football simulation game there is for lovers of the beautiful game.
The question is of course, what, if any improvements and additions have been made to the game to make it a worthwhile upgrade from previous FIFA versions – aside from the updated player and league roster of course.
What’s New in FIFA 22
According the EA Sports, the biggest change to FIFA 22 is the introduction of what it calls “HyperMotion gameplay technology” to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of FIFA 22.
What this technology effectively means for the game is that both player and ball movement will be much more dynamic than ever before, meaning it will replicate real-life situations much more accurately in the game.
The inclusion of over 4,000 new animations to FIFA 22 also raises the footballing intensity, responsiveness, and physicality of every player in the game, which will certainly add to the realism of the game.
This is something which football fans who play football simulation video games have been crying out for and it is good to see EA Sports finally take realistic gameplay in FIFA up several notches on previous versions.
Another new feature is that you can ‘Create a Club’ in career mode. This allows you to take an existing team, such as Cardiff City, and change the crest, kit, stadium and even the club board’s ambitions to your liking.
Whilst we liked the idea of going all Vincent Tan on a club, we were more happy to take a real club, like the Swans and take them on a virtual journey to better things, just like Russell Martin is doing with the real life Swans.
The Volta game mode in FIFA 22 takes another step closer to the much loved FIFA Street, with a skill meter now associated with a player, meaning they can have their own signature ability.
Whilst new features is all well and good, what does the game actually feel like to play.
Gameplay
We don’t know about you, but for us the most important part of any video game is how it plays – especially when it comes to sports!
So what better place to start seeing what the gameplay in FIFA 22 was like than a couple of ‘Classic’ mode games between the Swans and Cardiff at the Swansea.com stadium, complete with the background audio of the spine tingling “Hymns and Arias”.
This is noticeable when the extremely quick players (think Ethan Laird) are now somewhat inhibited when contact is made with opposition players, rather than simply flying past them as was the case previously. Player collisions as a whole seem to have been improved.
Gone are the days of speedsters like Nathan Dyer being able to single-handedly destroy the opposition!
The same can be said of the passing and type of passes in the game, there is more control over the type and distance of pass, which makes the game slower but all the more accurate and true to a real game.
For example, we found that Matty Grimes could ping a long ball with great accuracy, whereas Flynn Downes was more on the money with short crisp passes.
These subtleties might make you think that the game is ponderous, defence minded and lacking in goals. But you’d be mistaken in thinking that, what you will find is that it is simply a more rounded and realistic football sim.
The focus is now clearly on working to score goals, through a structured style of play – again more akin to what you’d expect in a real life version of the beautiful game.
Dribbling and ball control are noticeably more accurate in the game, as is the lack of control and awkward bounce – for outfield players and goalkeepers alike.
The days of dodgy keepers seem to also have gone from the game, as the AI inspired Cardiff stopper Dillon Phillips proved when keeping the score respectable, despite an onslaught from the virtual likes of Paterson, Piroe and Ntcham.
These changes also make for more realistic tackling within the game, with again, more effort required to make a decent tackle and indeed time it to perfection.
Overall there are certainly clear improvements to the gameplay on the PS4 version that we played, which means we’d love to get our hands on a next-gen console, such as the PS5, as that would, we’d imagine be another step up again.
Oh and of course, true to form, the Swans hammered Cardiff in the various games we played whilst doing this review 🙂
Game Modes
One of the most appealing things about FIFA is that it offers several different games modes, all of which make for an interesting and varied amount of game time.
Aside from the Classic games you can play, there’s also Volta Football, Career Mode and Ultimate Team.
As we mentioned earlier, Volta and Career Mode have been seen further improvements on previous FIFA releases.
Career Mode is likely to gain a lot of new fans this year, as fans will no doubt be tempted to let their imagination go wild with the new ‘Create a Club’ feature. No doubt this is a first step towards further customisation and flexibility for future releases of the FIFA series.
From the small number of games we played in this mode, it was noticeable that the AI computer teams were much harder to break down and beat than in previous versions, as much fun as it was smashing them off the park previously, it did get a little monotonous after a while.
Volta Football yet again takes a step nearer to FIFA Street, something which many gamers have been calling for and the return of the player customisation and skill progression trail is certainly a step in the right direction.
FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) is the most favoured mode amongst younger FIFA players and it is easy to understand why. However, parents need to be aware of the FIFA 22 loot boxes (often referred to as micro-transactions) which sees players purchase player cards to boost their Ultimate Team. It is a controversial feature for sure, but we feel that FUT offers enough variety without the need to spend further than just purchasing FIFA in the first place.
Another thing we loved about the various game modes in FIFA 22, was the broad and diverse range of artists used for the licensed soundtracks, which meant we were foot tapping and nodding along in between getting down to the serious stuff of playing the games.
Graphics
Recent versions of the game have seen EA Sports concentrate more on the gameplay and to an extent this is the same for FIFA 22, especially on older consoles BUT there are subtle improvements even on the PS4.
The in-game stats are vastly improved and will have the statto’s amongst you purring with delight.
As with the gameplay, there are sure to be even bigger and more noticeable improvements on the newer generation consoles, given their improved FPS power alone.
Sadly, it’s the visual inconsistencies of player facials that let the graphics side of the game down. Don’t get us wrong, having a perfect virtual double of each and every player in the game would be nigh on impossible, but Swans goalkeeper Ben Hamer (for example) looking more like Travis Fimmel of hit TV series Vikings is something else.
The actual player pictures on the stats screens can sometimes also a tad annoying, purely because you can tell which players have recently been transferred – because you can still see the colours of the previous club’s jersey around the neckline and shoulders.
Think of Jamie Paterson in this case and a Bristol City jersey! It must be a red thing, as the Michael Obafemi is wearing his Southampton shirt in another stats screen.
However, these are small annoyances, which are easily fixed and ultimately won’t get in the way of you being able to enjoy a great virtual game of football representing your heroes.
Swansea City FIFA 22 Player Ratings
Player ratings in FIFA games are always a much maligned topic, with fans and players alike often bemused by their FIFA Rating.
In terms of the Swans, the highest rated player is midfielder and captain Matty Grimes, with a rating of 74.
The player with the lowest rating is 19 year old Swans Under 23s left-back Lincoln McFayden.
No doubt you’ll have your own opinions on the rating given to each player and when you play the game as we did, you’ll have some questions as to the accuracy of some of the ratings given for some of the players skill levels too!
But that doesn’t detract anything away from playing FIFA in all honesty, as it is just fun being able to play as Swansea City and take control of the players – much as some of us wish we could on matchdays sometimes no doubt.
Of course you have to also bear in mind that the player ratings do fluctuate on a regular basis, in line with real life performances. For example at the time of writing, striker Joel Piroe had seen his rating go up 74, having netted 10 goals already this season.
Here is the full breakdown of all 26 Swansea City players currently featured in the game.
Thanks to Futhead for the graphical ratings of each Swansea City player graphical ratings in the chart shown above.
Final Thoughts
As we’ve already mentioned, whilst the game isn’t without its minor graphical irritations, our overall lasting impression of playing FIFA 22 is that it’s the most realistic and fun to play FIFA game in years.
Perhaps the best analogy of all is that playing FIFA 22 is like Swansea City under Russell Martin, as opposed to previous incarnations under Steve Cooper, who did a decent job done, but it wasn’t anywhere near as much fun.
The game is available to buy for PS4 & PS5, Xbox One & Xbox Series-X, PC, Google Stadia and Nintendo Switch.
We’d like to thank EA Sports and 160over90 for kindly providing a Playstation 4 version of the game for us to review.