FIFA 16 Review
FIFA has been a game series that really hit it’s heights last gen. Built from the ground up from FIFA 08, FIFA each year kept improving leaps and bounds from its predecessor. FIFA 13 really hit its heights and reached it’s known peak, with FIFA 12 and 13 being absolutely fantastic football games at the time, you wondered if they could keep pulling it off yearly. Unfortunately that dried up and they changed FIFA 14 into being more physical and sluggish, in their view more realistic. 15 achieved everything in presentation for the next gen consoles (or current gen now). With the official premier league licenced HUD, and all 20 premier league stadiums which was a dream come true, it was shaping up to be a perfect game… Until you actually had to play the game… the gameplay was that boring and sluggish and merely a refined FIFA 14, a refinement on a flawed FIFA in my opinion. FIFA 15 was a boring game in my opinion and it hit that point where FIFA really needed a big change, a huge innovation in the modes and gameplay.
FIFA 16 has arrived, with the general message being, “balance” The developers pledge that there has been refinements in all areas of the pitch making a much better football game, and new features to the large amount of modes that FIFA has. Is this enough? Or has FIFA just become stale milk?
FIFA 16 has arrived, with the general message being, “balance” The developers pledge that there has been refinements in all areas of the pitch making a much better football game, and new features to the large amount of modes that FIFA has. Is this enough? Or has FIFA just become stale milk?
Firstly lets talk about the most important part.
The Gameplay - Balanced is the key word they are throwing out here, dull, boring and unintuitive but solid is the keys words I am throwing out here.
At times the game can shine, some of the goals you can score can be very satisfying. Shots feel more varied and refined than last year and I like that. Passing is slightly more responsive now and the moves you can make is better than last year. Crossing is more effective, most notably the double tap cross button. Heading seems to be a good balance of not being too easy or difficult to win headers. Physical play feels very prevalent in this years FIFA, it seems to be a bigger factor than pace and pace feels less important than it ever has on fifa which is a good thing, it adds a different dynamic to the players now, the game is not just all about pace.
The improvements are neat improvements but really nothing to shout and scream about, although you won’t really want to go back to fifa 15 after playing 16, it’s not a game that feels hugely different and if anything feels even more dull at times than the last years dull FIFA 15.
The Gameplay - Balanced is the key word they are throwing out here, dull, boring and unintuitive but solid is the keys words I am throwing out here.
At times the game can shine, some of the goals you can score can be very satisfying. Shots feel more varied and refined than last year and I like that. Passing is slightly more responsive now and the moves you can make is better than last year. Crossing is more effective, most notably the double tap cross button. Heading seems to be a good balance of not being too easy or difficult to win headers. Physical play feels very prevalent in this years FIFA, it seems to be a bigger factor than pace and pace feels less important than it ever has on fifa which is a good thing, it adds a different dynamic to the players now, the game is not just all about pace.
The improvements are neat improvements but really nothing to shout and scream about, although you won’t really want to go back to fifa 15 after playing 16, it’s not a game that feels hugely different and if anything feels even more dull at times than the last years dull FIFA 15.
Defending has been improved, and slide tackles have been improved. You can sometimes effectively win the ball back with a slide tackle now, but they do still feel underwhelming however. Slide tackles should be a risk reward factor, it should be a case of having to time it perfectly or receive a booking but if you time it perfectly, you win the ball back in a fast effective satisfying manner and can save you at the last ditch. Slide tackles should have that element of aggressiveness or desperation to win the ball back, imagine the risk of someone being through on goal unless you make that slide tackle knowing if you miss time it you’ll be sent off? You don’t get that at all from FIFA, where as you do with PES this year. FIFA’s siding is so poor in fact that it’s actually hard to deliberately take someone out with a slide, it’s that poor at times. Winning the ball back in a great manner from a slide tackle is immediately tarnished when the ball ricochets back into the attacker or your player fails to take control of the ball after he has just won the ball and loses it. This isn’t in a realistic manner, this is in more of the game being stupid and unresponsive.
Unresponsive, sluggish and clunky is the general feel of fifa 16’s gameplay. Shots still take far too long to release where sometimes the player will actually take several touches taking over 3 seconds to shoot which is an extremely long time when you have a defender on your case. Passing is more responsive but it still takes too long to release, certain balls you play also just slowly trickle to the player and the player makes little attempt to chase it, in result making it easy for the defender to intercept it. The game just doesn’t feel fluid or smooth. Then we go onto the dribbling and movement, something that has been an issue in my opinion since fifa 14. With pace being less important, dribbling and sharp turns feels more important, and yet the game struggles to give you that fluidity in movement. Players are really slow at turning and it often gets you tackled. You can still struggle to turn a few players and burst on with the likes of Messi. Messi is known to be able to glide past players and dance around players so fast that no one can deal with him. You do not feel like that at all. Although dribbling with top players do feel more fluid, it still isn’t effective enough, Messi has drastically improved from previous fifas where he is no longer useless and can be effecitve, but he still doesn’t feel like him.
Unresponsive, sluggish and clunky is the general feel of fifa 16’s gameplay. Shots still take far too long to release where sometimes the player will actually take several touches taking over 3 seconds to shoot which is an extremely long time when you have a defender on your case. Passing is more responsive but it still takes too long to release, certain balls you play also just slowly trickle to the player and the player makes little attempt to chase it, in result making it easy for the defender to intercept it. The game just doesn’t feel fluid or smooth. Then we go onto the dribbling and movement, something that has been an issue in my opinion since fifa 14. With pace being less important, dribbling and sharp turns feels more important, and yet the game struggles to give you that fluidity in movement. Players are really slow at turning and it often gets you tackled. You can still struggle to turn a few players and burst on with the likes of Messi. Messi is known to be able to glide past players and dance around players so fast that no one can deal with him. You do not feel like that at all. Although dribbling with top players do feel more fluid, it still isn’t effective enough, Messi has drastically improved from previous fifas where he is no longer useless and can be effecitve, but he still doesn’t feel like him.
The cover star does not feel like you are playing as the cover star, and that is also the general feel of the whole game and has done for years. The players are dolled up, with licenced kits, cinematic camera angles and real player faces very accurately rendered thanks to the high production investment from EA where they have actually scanned players faces in the studio. The players look like them, but they don’t feel like them, they don’t play like them. Yes players differ and slightly play like the real life counterparts, but overall everyone kind of feels the same, and it is so noticeable now with PES absolutely nailing player likeness on the head. What was noticeable to me with the past few fifa’s has now become dam well obvious. The players don’t have any real character to them. If you took away the player face, licenced shirt, commentary name and all HUD would you still recognise the player you are using? I don’t think so personally. I think the animations are decent, but not so distinguishable where you would instantly know who it is on the ball, but not just that it’s the way they act in gameplay when you’re controlling them and not controlling them, they just don’t feel like the player. Teams don’t feel drastically different to me, it’s almost like sculptured models that are all the same and generic, and then all given a huge coat of different paint and decorated differently, but they’re still the same sculptures behind the decoration. Now I am exaggerating, teams and players do feel slightly different but, really not that different and once you start playing the same game every year which FIFA is starting to feel like the same game every year, and then play PES this year which blows fifa out of the water in terms of gameplay and player likeness, you really start to look at fifa in a different light.
Now this isn’t a FIFA vs PES article, this is a review of FIFA, but I will have to sometimes throw in comparisons, because the differences in PES to FIFA has made the issues in FIFA seem a lot more apparent, and using PES as an example shows a good scale of things.
Now this isn’t a FIFA vs PES article, this is a review of FIFA, but I will have to sometimes throw in comparisons, because the differences in PES to FIFA has made the issues in FIFA seem a lot more apparent, and using PES as an example shows a good scale of things.
AI drastically needs a huge overhaul rather than little tweaks each year. The AI is just dull, unhuman like and still fairly dumb and unintuitive. The AI in terms of your team mates have been improved, it’s actually not too bad but it could be better. Player runs are fairly inconsistent, sometimes they can be clever and actually for the first time this year very instant, and then other times they either stand around like clowns or make stupid runs and give you no options and instead of running into space, run into marked areas. In fairness to the game, the team mate AI seems to vary based on the modes I play, the team I use, and what I have done to the gameplay sliders in offline play. I think the team mate AI has improved a lot since say fifa 14, but I still think it could be a lot better. Something I don’t seem to like and never have is how the AI doesn’t respond to your tactics, formations and instructions that accurately or effectively which almost makes tactics and instructions more of a gimmick than something actually useful. Players won’t do the things you want them to do in the instructions such as giving a winger the free roam ability, you only occasionally see them in the centre but most of the time they will still be glued to the position they are set at, especially when the ball goes out of play. This makes world class players playing on the wing feel wasted. In terms of tactics and team mentalities such as “ultra attacking” or “all out attack”, they don’t feel that different to “balanced”. You will notice fullbacks pushing forwards and players making a few more forward runs, but notice how I said a few. All out attack for example you would expect the whole team rushing forward with movement from everywhere but that does not happen and most of the time what I have noticed is your defenders push up higher and sometimes join in the attack but the midfield and strikers are still stale in movement and then what happens is you get punished on the counter attack. Formations do work very well in Fifa and have done for many fifas which is something they have done well, but it does have a strange sort of trigger in career mode which I will get into later.
I believe the tactics etc would make a huge difference if the teammate AI were significantly improved. UT team chemistry can sometimes massively improve your team mates AI, or more of the fact that they actually move, not so much the AI being smarter but just more lively and actually helpful in that fact. Sometimes in certain matches, again to do with changing formations too in career mode will suddenly make team mate AI more up for it. It probably explains why so many FIFA players believe matches are scripted.
So that is just the team mate AI, I haven’t even started on the opposing team AI. This is something that needs to be completely overhauled and it is appalling how dull and generic playing against the AI is. It comes across that the developers believe more people will play online head to head and UT online so they didn’t need to prioritise the AI and never really looked at changing it. What they don’t realise is there is a huge community that care more for playing offline mainly for the Career Mode, such as myself. I won’t get into it on my review but Ultimate team and playing strangers online in random matches in head to head, really isn’t my cup of tea anymore, and I only enjoy online matches these days against a friend.
I believe the tactics etc would make a huge difference if the teammate AI were significantly improved. UT team chemistry can sometimes massively improve your team mates AI, or more of the fact that they actually move, not so much the AI being smarter but just more lively and actually helpful in that fact. Sometimes in certain matches, again to do with changing formations too in career mode will suddenly make team mate AI more up for it. It probably explains why so many FIFA players believe matches are scripted.
So that is just the team mate AI, I haven’t even started on the opposing team AI. This is something that needs to be completely overhauled and it is appalling how dull and generic playing against the AI is. It comes across that the developers believe more people will play online head to head and UT online so they didn’t need to prioritise the AI and never really looked at changing it. What they don’t realise is there is a huge community that care more for playing offline mainly for the Career Mode, such as myself. I won’t get into it on my review but Ultimate team and playing strangers online in random matches in head to head, really isn’t my cup of tea anymore, and I only enjoy online matches these days against a friend.
Opposing AI lacks any characteristic and charm about it. It is so boring to play against that it actually makes the gameplay feel that even more dull and has really got to a point for me where it actually significantly lowers the quality of enjoyment of Career Mode and is making the mode become stale very fast.
If I go back to my point about the game not capturing the player likeness in gameplay very well, it is very, very apparent with how the computer plays with teams and players. A criticism I have had year after year about FIFA and playing against the AI, is how they just do not play anything like the team does in real life, the players don’t play anything like they do either. You get this general feel that every player on the pitch is the same and either poses equal amount of threat or no threat at all. It is quite evident when you start seeing defenders score screamers or defensive midfielders wiggle through your defence like they’re Messi. Something I like about PES is how you could be all over a team but if you know they have a world class player upfront such as Tevez for example, you know he’s capable of anything and is always a threat, and then he will do something really unexpected and score a goal he had no right to score… and you’re left thinking to be fair I could imagine Tevez doing something like that, for f**k*** sake Tevez, which by the way the computer scored. You don’t feel like that with FIFA’s AI, you don’t feel like that player had just done that against you, you just feel like the computer scored against you, if that makes any sense.
If I go back to my point about the game not capturing the player likeness in gameplay very well, it is very, very apparent with how the computer plays with teams and players. A criticism I have had year after year about FIFA and playing against the AI, is how they just do not play anything like the team does in real life, the players don’t play anything like they do either. You get this general feel that every player on the pitch is the same and either poses equal amount of threat or no threat at all. It is quite evident when you start seeing defenders score screamers or defensive midfielders wiggle through your defence like they’re Messi. Something I like about PES is how you could be all over a team but if you know they have a world class player upfront such as Tevez for example, you know he’s capable of anything and is always a threat, and then he will do something really unexpected and score a goal he had no right to score… and you’re left thinking to be fair I could imagine Tevez doing something like that, for f**k*** sake Tevez, which by the way the computer scored. You don’t feel like that with FIFA’s AI, you don’t feel like that player had just done that against you, you just feel like the computer scored against you, if that makes any sense.
The AI also seems to play the same style of boring football against you every single game no matter what team they are, and the only time you ever see the computer play differently is literally when the next FIFA comes out, where they will tweak the AI to play slightly differently in the next iteration of FIFA. For example in this years FIFA the AI seems to love to knock the ball really far forward and sprint onto it, whilst they didn’t do that last year. The odd occasion you will play the computer where they are really aggressive and the match feels scripted, usually in cup matches. The general type of match you play when playing on world class and above is, you will dominate the game, but struggle to score and break their defence, they will either not get a shot off, get some shots off and miss or get one chance and score it and you’ll lose. Sometimes you can scrape the win, but you never have a really easy high goal scoring win, or even a high goalscoring thriller. If you play around with the gameplay sliders to adjust how the computer plays, it does help, and you can make them easier to breakdown but be more attackive, but it doesn’t seem as effective this year. This basically means now pretty much every match you go into no matter who you play, you play a type of game where they park the bus and hit you on the counter. It is boring, and not just that but also very repetitive. I want to see teams play differently, positive football. Maybe some teams can play that style but not every team. It is a huge issue for me personally.
Playing on world class is unbelievably unfair. Now the computer doesn’t actually seem better than me by skill, it doesn’t play that much differently from professional either. The main difference is that the computer on world class can read everything you do in milliseconds, faster than what any human player could do because of how long the game would take to respond to your input. They close you down, and read what you do instantly and lock onto you like homing missiles and perfectly tackle you every time. It gets to a point where their players genuinely feel like they all have better attributes than your players despite who you are playing against. It feels like the difficulties don’t take into account player attributes. Players on world class will be stronger and faster than you, meaning beating players is difficult and you will be 2nd best to so much. Winning headers in their box is also really difficult, they will perfectly time the defensive header almost all the time.
Playing on world class is unbelievably unfair. Now the computer doesn’t actually seem better than me by skill, it doesn’t play that much differently from professional either. The main difference is that the computer on world class can read everything you do in milliseconds, faster than what any human player could do because of how long the game would take to respond to your input. They close you down, and read what you do instantly and lock onto you like homing missiles and perfectly tackle you every time. It gets to a point where their players genuinely feel like they all have better attributes than your players despite who you are playing against. It feels like the difficulties don’t take into account player attributes. Players on world class will be stronger and faster than you, meaning beating players is difficult and you will be 2nd best to so much. Winning headers in their box is also really difficult, they will perfectly time the defensive header almost all the time.
Playing it on a easier difficulty just makes the game equally as boring, although it is quite fun to actually be able to beat players and be able to play the football you want to play because the computer isn’t so unfairly fast at reacting to your move, it also becomes no challenge after a while which gets boring, you may score goals but you will never concede a goal and pretty much win every game comfortably which gets equally as repetitive.
I actually remember the late PS2 Fifas started having different styles of play, PS2 AI could even achieve it, I think if I remember correctly, when they introduced tactics and team chemistry into career mode, which by the way needs to return. Now something else I could settle for is even just making the AI play in a more human like manner. The way the AI defends for example is in a way that near enough no one can play like, they lock onto you like homing missiles and tackle you, their players respond instantly whilst you have to select the player first to be able to win the ball, they can lock onto you and take the ball from you faster than you can actually turn thanks to the sluggish controls that don’t help.
The AI needs a massive overhaul, it’s a simple as that. As it stands it makes the game offline very dull, repetitive and frustrating.
Referees can get decisions wrong, and players can also make mistakes. Some people find this very frustrating, now I don’t know if this is a game error or it is intentionally put here for authenticity purposes. I am perfectly fine with it happening, because it happens in real football, sometimes things can go against you and sometimes things can go your way. However I have to admit if this is put in intentionally, it needs to be removed from online, element of luck in competitive play is not cool at all.
The gameplay online works well as usual, most of the time you do not get input lag, although you do sometimes get your players making really dumb decisions and screwing you over, otherwise known as getting “EA’d” or ‘fifa bs goals”. However playing against humans is so much more enjoyable and you actually get a fair chance of scoring, although the balance of the improved defence but still poor dribbling and pace not being a big factor anymore, means you get more boring matches even online sometimes.
I actually remember the late PS2 Fifas started having different styles of play, PS2 AI could even achieve it, I think if I remember correctly, when they introduced tactics and team chemistry into career mode, which by the way needs to return. Now something else I could settle for is even just making the AI play in a more human like manner. The way the AI defends for example is in a way that near enough no one can play like, they lock onto you like homing missiles and tackle you, their players respond instantly whilst you have to select the player first to be able to win the ball, they can lock onto you and take the ball from you faster than you can actually turn thanks to the sluggish controls that don’t help.
The AI needs a massive overhaul, it’s a simple as that. As it stands it makes the game offline very dull, repetitive and frustrating.
Referees can get decisions wrong, and players can also make mistakes. Some people find this very frustrating, now I don’t know if this is a game error or it is intentionally put here for authenticity purposes. I am perfectly fine with it happening, because it happens in real football, sometimes things can go against you and sometimes things can go your way. However I have to admit if this is put in intentionally, it needs to be removed from online, element of luck in competitive play is not cool at all.
The gameplay online works well as usual, most of the time you do not get input lag, although you do sometimes get your players making really dumb decisions and screwing you over, otherwise known as getting “EA’d” or ‘fifa bs goals”. However playing against humans is so much more enjoyable and you actually get a fair chance of scoring, although the balance of the improved defence but still poor dribbling and pace not being a big factor anymore, means you get more boring matches even online sometimes.
Goalkeepers still also feel really overpowered in my opinion and feel quite unrealistic to me. Especially when it comes to lower rated goalkeepers, I feel like most of the saves you see on FIFA, you only should be seeing from world class goalkeepers. I also hate how they continuously make great saves every single matches especially noticeable when playing against the computer, when in reality, you don’t see that every game which is what makes the great save so dramatic. You just don’t get that in fifa, it doesn’t feel realistic at all. It’s even worse when you do eventually go up against a top keeper such as Neuer, who is unbelievably overpowered. It’s like having superman in goal, everything he does is superhuman.
The game can be very enjoyable at times however, it can sometimes play a decent game of football, and nice moves can be created. The game shines when goals are scored, that’s when you start to take enjoyment from the game and the variety of goals you can score is good.
The thing about FIFA is it’s all about the goals, the goals and shooting is the best thing about FIFA, playing a goalless draw feels like you have wasted your time and you feel unsatisfied with the match, whilst for example again with PES, you still actually enjoyed the match with a goalless draw and always feel like you took enjoyment out of it regardless of the result. That’s because every area of the pitch feels fun, whilst I don’t feel that way with FIFA this year.
The game can be very enjoyable at times however, it can sometimes play a decent game of football, and nice moves can be created. The game shines when goals are scored, that’s when you start to take enjoyment from the game and the variety of goals you can score is good.
The thing about FIFA is it’s all about the goals, the goals and shooting is the best thing about FIFA, playing a goalless draw feels like you have wasted your time and you feel unsatisfied with the match, whilst for example again with PES, you still actually enjoyed the match with a goalless draw and always feel like you took enjoyment out of it regardless of the result. That’s because every area of the pitch feels fun, whilst I don’t feel that way with FIFA this year.
The gameplay as a whole for fifa 16 isn’t bad, it can play a decent game of football, it just isn’t great, it isn’t anything amazing but it’s still enjoyable despite all the criticism I have given.
I may sound like I am being very harsh and critical and just picking at small things, but for me it’s gradually over the years becoming more and more of an issue purely because they still remain after all the years. The gameplay is becoming more and more stale each year in my opinion. However I don’t want to sound like I am saying the gameplay is awful and the game is awful, because I understand that’s what the review is now coming across like. It is not an awful game, the gameplay is solid, but nothing to shout about. For me it is more of the fact that I buy FIFA every year and I am starting to see how stagnated the game is becoming since fifa 14.
I may sound like I am being very harsh and critical and just picking at small things, but for me it’s gradually over the years becoming more and more of an issue purely because they still remain after all the years. The gameplay is becoming more and more stale each year in my opinion. However I don’t want to sound like I am saying the gameplay is awful and the game is awful, because I understand that’s what the review is now coming across like. It is not an awful game, the gameplay is solid, but nothing to shout about. For me it is more of the fact that I buy FIFA every year and I am starting to see how stagnated the game is becoming since fifa 14.