FIFA 23: End of an Era

FIFA 23 is a fitting farewell to the franchise. This is possibly the last FIFA game to come out of EA sports

We have borne decades of whining about how FIFA never really changes enough to warrant a new game. But, sales for the game are ever-increasing at its peak, selling over 20 million copies. If you expect the best FIFA game of the series, we ask you to temper your expectation. Instead, FIFA 23 is the amalgamation of everything right and wrong with the series in one game.

Why stop now?

Predictably, the FIFA organisation got a little greedy, doubling their licensing fee to a rumoured $ 1 billion. So next year onwards, EA (Electronic Arts), the company that owned FIFA will continue the game under a new brand, EA Sports FC. It is also rumoured that FIFA might shop the franchise to other developers, which would create interesting competition in the football space, considering there is already a Pro-evolution soccer AKA e-Football PES. The good news is EA still has its licensing deal with around 19,000 players, 700 teams, and around 30 leagues which mean championship trophies will be part of the game, but the World Cup will not.

The game

The game starts with a test game that sort of measures your level and accordingly increases capabilities on artificial intelligence. FIFA 23 does an excellent job of selecting your proficiency in the game, allowing you to get a tailored experience of dealing with AI opponents that keep things on equal footing — resulting in a good game.

FIFA 23 also plays as well as any other FIFA; a few tweaks are in place to make it better than the other FIFA games. In this version, the pace seems a little slower now than with previous entries in the franchise. Each player has their own pace, and if you play the career mode in the game, you can see your character getting better and faster. Similarly, each licensed player has their speed of movement. The result is a much more dynamic game where things are not set in stone. 

Defending is also significantly improved AI controlling the game does an excellent job of keeping the difficulty just at the edge. Part of that is great defending, and there is a good chance that the AI players will catch up and prevent you from running with the ball to the opposition’s goal to score. Volta is back again, and it is fun, especially if you play online, but not much has been tweaked here. It could be EA is holding out to add such changes to the mode in its de-branded soccer game.

I found career mode very satisfying. You can choose to be a Manager or a player. However, you cannot be a woman football player for some reason, and this is even though EA has introduced Women’s club football to the game. A woman manager is fine, though. Hopefully, this prejudice will end when we get the new franchise. You can design your player to a limited degree, and you would be lucky to figure out how to make your replica in the game. The customizing controls are a bit vague. Once your player is ready to test out in the field, he will train and play matches to get new skills and upgrade.

Think of it as a football RPG with a repeated mission. The game rewards physically playing games. If you skip a few matches and automate, FIFA 23 ensures your progress is slowed down to a crawl, even if you have been performing in past games. The matches can be played as a team or as an individual. However, I found it was easier to take charge of the player and make an impact during the game, but the game feels a little less exciting than a full game controlling all the players.

The manager mode is possibly the best in the game, and it feels great to make decisions and control the fate of your football club. My least favourite mode is Football Ultimate Team (FUT) though it is EA’s money spinner and a way they continuously earn from the franchise. It, as usual, feels dirty and greedy. You can spend hours on FUT and get nowhere if you aren’t willing to fork out the cash. This is sad because I don’t hate the actual gameplay of it.

Graphically, there isn’t much difference, in my opinion, between FIFA 22 and 23. It feels more of the same, though I must mention that Ted Lasso and AFC Richmond are included this year. If you like the TV series, it is a welcomed addition to the franchise. Not that Ted does any talking, which can be a little disappointing. So there you have it, FIFA 23 goes out doing what it does best, giving us an incremental update to its popular football game. I would buy it if you are a fan and even if you have the previous iteration, simply because this is the last one in the series and nostalgic.

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