➤ FIFA 22, the PS5 and Xbox Series X | S review of the best-selling football game in the world 🎮

However it turns out, 2021 will be remembered as a watershed for sports video games. It will be the year in which Konami broke the duopoly with FIFA, trying the path of free-to-play. It will also be the year in which two experiences were presented that aim to snatch a slice of this very rich market. In all this chaos EA Sports remains immovable, thanks to the millions of gamers who each year trust it and guarantee it the necessary funds to assemble the most complete product on the market.

This does not mean that the American giant and its Canadian division are standing idle, only that for the moment, also due to the almost monopoly position, they seem to be the least likely to embrace revolutions, experiments and the new trends on the market.

In FIFA 22 review we will discover how the development of the game was therefore very linear and focused mainly on trying to evolve and enrich what worked last year, with some corrections from a gameplay point of view and a further step forward from a technological point of view.

We are essentially faced with last year's backbone, enriched and renewed just enough to convince millions of players to invest their days and above all their hard-earned savings in Ultimate Team and other game modes.

Customization

FIFA 22, the PS5 and Xbox Series X | S review of the best-selling football game in the world — A custom FIFA 22 stadium

The leitmotiv of FIFA 22 is the Customization. For the sake of inclusion, since in this way everyone is free to express their self within almost all game modes, partly for commercial reasons. Between aesthetic objects belonging to the most famous brands and those dedicated to the upcoming EA video games, the developer has managed to insert products for commercial purposes within the game in the most painless way possible. The classic two birds with one stone.

Because it is true that in this way Volta has become a sort of digital catalog of the latest sportswear or the most recent sneakers, but this can only make the gamer happy who in this way can dress his player (or football player) in the most imaginative and stylish as possible ... or do as we do and show the world a style worthy of fashion collection Derelicte, the new Magatu brand.

In FUT, thanks to the ability to customize the stadium, EA has introduced banners and banners that praise Battlefield or its other games. Thus one can not only make one's stadium as crazy as possible, but can also show one's tastes and tendencies in a completely free way. This is because you can both try to create something consistent with your club, but also try to make it as crazy as possible.

The options (especially for the original stadiums, with the real ones you have much less room for maneuver) are many and rather imaginative and we are sure that in the coming weeks more and more themed customizations will arrive.

Volta changes face

What was the breaking mode of a few editions ago, in FIFA 22 continues to make sense thanks to this renewed social side. Volta Football, in fact, around a structure of minigames and lightning-fast matches to be played in "street" pitches, it has become the place where you can meet with friends to have fun with football-themed party games and to dress up your alter ego in the most stylish way possible.

The attempt to include "the street soul" in FIFA 22 has somehow been lost: Volta's first game was played in the dusty alleys of a Brazilian favelas, where the greatest Carioca footballers have honed their imagination and their technique. Volta's first match in FIFA 22 we played in a glittering "stadium" in Milan, with people with absurd names and incredibly brightly dressed, as well as apparently very uncomfortable.

Even the "soccer" is no longer the heart of the experience, but a whole series of skill tests and mini-games to live with other people. All fun and colorful, but they show how EA is looking for a new path for this component of FIFA: for the moment it has found that of arcade divertissement, complete with superpowers to activate after completing a certain number of dribbles and spells.

Create a star

The development of your avatar in Volta follows the same - renewed - rules of Pro club and a single player's Career Mode. In other words, the athlete's physical and technical abilities will no longer develop, which instead will grow based on the skills we unlock. There are 6 skill trees (plus one dedicated to goalkeepers) to choose from, which will allow you to build the skills of each player. By opting for skills of a certain type, you will end up matching a certain archetype of footballer, something that will grant additional specific bonuses. In any case, each player has perks that can be unlocked during the match that can enhance certain personal or team aspects. Defenders will be able to improve their teammates' defensive skills in the last few minutes, while attackers will get shot bonuses, and so on.

In Volta, moreover, as we said, there are also special moves such as super shooting, super speed and the super push to give further spice to the games. Definitely more simulative i Pro club, where you can create a player or a female player (with a system very similar to the other modes) to face 11 vs 11 matches with other human opponents. Again, customization is the order of the day, while EA has been working to make it a little easier to play and hang out with others.

Le Career mode continue in the wake of what is expected of them, with some changes that improve the quality of life, such as more agile menus and a greater range of options available, such as the ability to customize the stadium for managers or the possibility of live the locker room for footballers.

For the latter there are dynamic goals to be respected to climb faster in experience and in the team hierarchies, even if they are not always very in line. Asking, for example, a central defender to score a goal from outside in the debut match, moreover as a substitute, and give a penalty because we did not succeed is not really the best choice to help out. Indeed, it looks like an attempt to put a spanner in the works.

FUT

As per tradition, the mode that has undergone the biggest changes is FIFA Ultimate Team. This should come as no surprise, as it is by far the most played and most profitable (and also the most targeted by Swedish regulators and footballers) in all of FIFA 22.

If the backbone is always the same and will ask to progressively build a competitive team by buying and selling figurine of the players in order to assemble the most close-knit eleven possible, the way to play FUT has changed radically.

EA, in fact, wants to try to maintain the same level of challenge, while easing the time barriers. Prizes will continue to be won on a weekly basis and the Weekend Leagues will always be played at the weekend, but two great innovations have been designed for those with less time to devote to FIFA 22. The first is the introduction of the Seasons, something that allows even those who don't play hard every week to accumulate game prizes.

The second is the ability to play for access to the FUT Champions playoffs when you want and not necessarily during the same week. In this way you can decide to face this appointment when you are sure you have the time and tranquility necessary to do it calmly.

The same mechanism is also used for Squad Battle. The rest are less incisive changes, such as the introduction of an elite rank where the best players in the world can challenge their peers or the elimination of fatigue from the parameters of FUT, a little fun element to be taken into account between one match and the next. . The preview packages are also back, the trick that EA has designed to try not to incur the ire of legislators who are increasingly worried that the children of their constituents spend too much money on microtransactions. In addition to worried that the billions that EA earns do not enter (in a small part) even in their pockets ...

On the playing field

From technological point of view, FIFA 22 is one of the best sports games on the market. Thanks to the improvements contained within the name of Hypermotion Technology, the game moves in a much more convincing way than in the past, thanks to a very varied and well-designed set of animations, able on the one hand to give greater personality to the most famous football stars. , on the other hand, to enrich the variety of shots available to all players, including goalkeepers.

The extreme defenders, in fact, are much safer than in the past and able to get their hands on many more balls, safeguarding the goal from the many incursions of the attackers. Unless you use an attacker with a very high shooting parameter (such as Ronaldo or Messi): in this case ai goalkeepers the arm always comes and they take a goal in a disarming way, with the ball passing a few centimeters from the body.

As we have already said, in fact, from the point of view of gameplay the game has remained unchanged (and who would upset a product so sold?), With a strong emphasis on offensive phase and the most spectacular side of the game. This means very fast and very precise passes, lightning-fast dribbles and a frenzied pace made of reversals in front that make the midfield practically superfluous.

We can try to remedy all this by acting on the renewed one tactics management -Now divided between with and without the ball and modular based on the attitude on the field-, moving back the defense and trying to intercept the balls, but for a philosophical choice the attack and the possibility of scoring are always rewarded. It can be understood from the fact that the defenders, if made an intervention out of time, lose several meters of ground, while the attackers have the new explosive sprint, that the containment seems to purposely mistake the position of the defender to leave the passage of the door open for a shot. or a dribble and elements of this kind.

It is a philosophical question, which rewards the asphyxiation of the opponents with an all-field pressing for 90 minutes (obviously effective only in the opposing half of the field), the continuous run, the network of passes, the shots and dribbles.

The only way to defend, therefore, is to try to go it alone, closing the gaps that are created and trying to press the opponent to catch the ball before it does too much damage. The gameplay, in fact, in attack is still very physically based with the most powerful players (Lukaku, but also CR7) who make the difference and have the better of practically any ball. In this case it is necessary to act on individual player instructions to try to limit their runs in attack, hoping that once in a while they find themselves between the attacker and the goal and not a run-up to the latter. as we said it is a very specific choice, a choice that moreover should not surprise the regulars of the series, given that it is on these foundations that the gameplay of FIFA has been based for many years now.

Personally we would have liked a slower and more balanced gameplay, in which fatigue is felt and technical errors find space, more in line with the European style, but EA Sports wants us to score, as well as put the fate in the hands of the players. of the match. From this point of view FIFA 22 offers a lot of freedom, with the best players and the most articulated fingers who will be able to do many things, such as protecting the ball, dribbling fine, making high, tense through passes, precision shots, stop to follow. The moves available are many, all very effective, but to a neophyte all this freedom could even scare, with the same button that can change the purpose several times in one action. It will always be possible to activate aids, but to play online you must necessarily learn to tame the controls.

Those who do it will be able to perform elegant dribbling, sumptuous changes of field, also thanks to the renewed ball physics, much more realistic. Thanks to him, new and more effective high and cross throws will be made, but more realistic carom shots and more varied shots will also be seen, even if almost always directed towards the goal in a powerful and precise way, it does not matter that you try a conclusion on the fly. or from 30 meters.

There are, however, anomalous behaviors on which EA still has to work. Elements that can certainly lead to frustration, such as less reactive defenders than might be expected, too effective crosses at the far post and a certain woodiness in the goal kick, which could lead to goals that are too easy for the attackers.

Technically speaking

The arrival on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S allowed EA Sports to evolve its graphics engine to give FIFA 22 an even more cinematic feel. Great replays, close-ups and shots of the stadium help make the experience even closer to what we see on television. The work with the faces and bodies of the most famous athletes is also valid, too bad that with all the other EAs he hasn't even tried and the gap between the scanned players and the others is embarrassing, with the first completely anonymous and almost unrecognizable.

Good debut of Daniele Adani alongside Pierluigi Pardo in the commentary. The phrases are well recited and funny, too bad they get bored after not long. Note of merit for the Italian edition of FIFA 22, completely dubbed and adapted in our language.

The use of the dualsense of PS5: if during the game its use is less extensive than in the past, during the penalties the vibrations are felt if you are close to the pole, allowing you to angle shots despite the absence of the cursor.

Comment

Tested version Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 Digital Delivery PlayStation Store, Xbox Store Resources4Gaming.com

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6.6

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FIFA 22 arrives on the market with a substantially unchanged formula compared to previous years. EA Sports has worked to improve the game in every aspect, keeping its DNA intact, of course. So great attention to FUT and a marked emphasis on the offensive phase and the spectacularization of the sport, with the defenses and midfields acting as non-paying spectators. Everything is put in the hands of the players who, if good enough, will be able to reach the goal with ease, with airy maneuvers and elegant dribbling. The others will have to adapt or take refuge in the many single player modes where, thanks to the slides and a good artificial intelligence, they will be able to shape the game in their image and likeness. It is, therefore, a solid and complete package, perhaps the most solid and complete on the market, which is based on a gameplay that has evolved, but which is well recognizable and recognized, for better or for worse.