FIFA 21 aims to be more intuitive, presenting changes and updates that seek to position it as the best option to play virtual soccer.
Last week remotely, we had the opportunity to have a session with Sam Rivera, Lead Gameplay Producer, Ionel Stanescu, Line Producer, Tyler Blair, Creative Director and Jeff Antwi, Lead Producer of FIFA 21 of EA Sports to talk about the changes and updates to the predominant global sales of soccer video games.
This presentation was divided into different pillars to address the gameplay, which we will use to describe what we saw when playing several games in its version of PlayStation 4. It is important to highlight that these changes will be present in both the current generation of consoles and the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Player Personality
The number of attributes have been increased to determine the quality, animation speed and effectiveness of movements. Now, for example, the passes will be determined based on the attributes of each player, when previously these basically were summarized in short or long passes. This we could verify in the previous version we played, since there is a differentiation in each player for their different way of passing the ball which is very marked.
More agile haggling
The Agile Dribbling will make you move the ball faster from one side to the other so that you can open the space, breaking waists and deceiving the rival when he delivers himself in a play by means of some sweep. In FIFA 21 they will seek to make it more balanced, although at least in the previous version, we saw that artificial intelligence was easily delivered with feints of a stuck ball by pressing and holding R1 or RB on Xbox One while moving the left stick. It is important to note that all players will have this function, only that the higher the attributes of a player’s dribbling, agility, reaction and ball control, the faster, more precise and better they will be to keep the ball stuck to the foot.
For novice players this feature will be contextual, this implies that by default players will make feint moves in certain situations. This can be disabled in the configuration, if you want to run it manually. They also improved the agility of animations when dribbling with the left stick using L1 on PlayStation 4 or LB on Xbox One as in FIFA 20.
More creative plays
Creative Runs is a new function that relies on artificial intelligence to have movements without the ball. This will help our players not go out of place with directed movements, which we can control in their entirety with the right stick. This function will be pressing L1 or LB and then move the partner with the control. You can also call a partner for short passes with R1 or RB.
Within this section, we can also decide where to send our partner after the pass in order to make more complex plays. This function applies to any type of pass, including filtered ones, by pressing any button and then moving the right stick.
The interesting thing about these functions is that you can move up to 5 players at the same time in this type of play.
In turn you can make the player through the CPU, hold the ball when you go to the attack by pressing both stickers at the same time and you can ask the ball back in what you find a better position with another player using the right stick. This new feature includes a kind of coach that shows the path of the AI controlled player on the court. Although up to 5 can be done at a time, only the routes of the last 2 players will be shown on the screen with this option enabled. This feature will be by default for everyone and can be removed from the configuration menu.
Personality in movements
FIFA 21 has worked on deeper artificial intelligence for player movements on the field, both offensively and defensively, trying to bring movements as close as possible to that of players in real life. For example, in attacking plays, we will see a lot of the classic steps backwards to be able to catch first the passes that make the ends. On the other hand, on the defensive we will see something a bit more realistic when scoring.
Positioning to attack
In this new version of the EA Sports game we will see how players are aware of when to run or stop depending on the move and even to get out of place.
Now the AI is also capable of creating opportunities between attackers and defenders when the lines are very tight, we will see this more in diagonal movements where we can open the field.
We will also see the classic races emulating an offensive movement, and then approach the player to receive the short pass.
One of the things we liked the most was that the forwards when the team is having trouble leaving, they go down to support the average and even the defensive line to create game opportunities.
Defending
Anticipation is key with artificial intelligence, although as we mentioned previously it is a point that still has to work because the players were let go with simple feints.
The 2 against one can be applied in cases where the striker has high attributes to be able to nullify it, thus avoiding against blows.
The media on the other hand are now cutting more passes and supporting more defenders who are marking some more dangerous striker.
A slight change that we saw in this version are the shoulder to shoulder encounters, since they now work better when it comes to recovering and covering the ball.
Smoother movements
This installment has a new animation system so that players interact better with each other when they crash. This seeks to reduce animations that did not make sense in FIFA 20.
Enhanced artificial intelligence
For all those looking for a bigger challenge in Legendary or Ultimate difficulties, Competitor Mode will seek to emulate real-life professional players through AI.
Passes
The main change we will see in the passes in depth, which was rebuilt from scratch to have more opportunities to open the field and to give clearer scoring opportunities.
There’s also a new semi-assisted ball setup that takes the angle of entry into account to decide the goal of the pass and give you more control.
First impression FIFA 21 looks similar to its predecessor, but since we played a couple of games, we feel all these changes have to be polished since many, especially defensively, showed certain permissive opportunities.
FIFA 21 will arrive on October 9 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC, as well as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X on a date to be confirmed.
