FIFA 17 Review – Finally, FIFA 17 is here. I am one of the lucky ones that were given the opportunity to review this game before it’s out in PS4. So I will pay it forward by telling you guys my findings (I’ve been playing FIFA since FIFA 2012, by the way).
So what’s new in FIFA 17? The first thing I tried was the infamous FIFA Ultimate Team. All the game modes and transfers are there. But there is one thing noticeably changed in the online tournaments. It is now integrated with the newly created FUT Champions.
Winning the daily online tournament will earn you some in-game rewards and a spot in the Weekend League. Winning the Weekend League will earn you more in-game rewards and winning it consistently will help you climb the Monthly Leaderboards tiers where you can also find the best in-game rewards.
The second thing I am going to go through is the gameplay. The graphics are significantly improved thanks to the Frostbite engine. What intrigues me the most is the fact that I could easily adapt to FIFA 17 gameplay. In the previous years, when I played a newer version of FIFA, I had to change the difficulty to “Professional” or even “Amateur” to get used to the mechanic and “touch”, but when trying this version I was feeling brave and decided to try “Legendary” straight away.
It was very challenging, but I manage to get a draw a game 0-0 and lost the second game by a narrow margin of 1-2. The body challenge between players felt more real and the movements seemed more natural.
Watch where you are going at all times, even without the ball, because you can bump into another person in the pitch quite easily, you know, just like real life. So kudos to the EA team for making the gameplay transition so smooth despite having to upgrade the graphic engine.
First thing I noticed was how the AI makes more intelligent attacking runs. It enables us to explore more attacking options and make more creative decisions when attacking.
Free kicks has a small update, you can now use the the right stick to re-position the kicker on where he should start his run up. This open possibilities to do outside foot shooting and many more cool tricks.
Penalties are also executed in a slightly different way now. So basically you can move the kicker’s position before the run up just like the free kick, then you press forward with your left stick to start the run up, finally direct where you want to shoot with the left stick and hold your shooting button to determine how powerful you want the shot to be.
The way we do corners also have an upgrade. Instead of having a camera behind the kicker, it is now in the normal camera with ability to move the target man and also a little yellow cursor where you want to kick the ball to. This enables the opportunity for us to do more creative corners with unexpected passes and flick ons.
In the offline exhibition mode the Home and Away aggregate feature was added. This enables you to play 2 connected match one after another. They even went as far as mentioning the aggregate score in the commentary in the second game to improve the experience. How awesome is that?!!
Finally, let’s talk about The Journey. This is hands down the feature that I anticipated the most. I was really looking forward to experiencing the journey of a footballer trying to break it to the big stage of Premier League. The story was well written and the experience of being Alex Hunter is exhilarating.
I chose to join Leicester with Mr. Ranieri himself as the manager. Besides playing matches week in week out to reach your super-stardom, you also have to go through training. This is a good chance to enjoy the story while getting to know the touches and tips to hone your skills in FIFA 17 in general.
All in all, I get everything I expected from FIFA 17 and more. The little improvements here and there in the gameplay really improved the whole experience. What are you waiting for? Get your copy of FIFA 17 from EA SPORTS through EA online or Amazon.
Disclosure: Review copy was supplied by EA Australia for reviewing but all opinions are mine and not paid
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