The EA Sports game comes to the new consoles with a major facelift, but the same errors at the playable level.
FIFA 21 is already among us in Next Gen format. On December 4, the next generation version for Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X | S was activated, not with few problems. It also arrived with everything that we had been promised in the pre-departure impressions: a real facelift with obvious visual improvements that are appreciated in a long-stalled saga in the technical section. But it comes, also and as we feared, with a gameplay that follows step by step the virtues and defects of the version that we already knew on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. For FIFA 21, the premiere of the new generation of consoles is like for Madrid or Barça the summer Champions and those games in Los Angeles at six in the morning in Spain. There were little things and there was something new, but you could tell that it was still preseason.
If we focus on what comes at first sight, the game surprises. The initial introduction, narrated by a girl who accompanies the players as they enter Anfield with Alexander-Arnold, allows us to see all the details that were not present in the previous version. Surely the facial recreation of the Liverpool and PSG players is the first thing that catches your eye, but not the only thing. So does the new technology that allows hair to be recreated in a much more realistic way (Alisson, in this sense, is spectacular because of his beard and “live” hair), but it is other things that really end up catching on.
The design of the shirt, its naturalness and the amount of details in colors, folds and movement is noteworthy. All this is also benefited by the lighting, much better than what has been seen so far and much more television. Because FIFA 21 on PS5 and Xbox Series is a game that visually resembles what we see on TV much more than what we had until now. And that is also noticeable when the initial whistle sounds.
It must be said that the backward compatible version of PS4 and Xbox One in the new consoles was already winning both in image and fluidity, go ahead. But the jump is now remarkable. The grass is simply spectacular, with a realistic color that is neither dull nor excessively bright as it happened in different fields. Now it is seen in relief, with a convincing green and also, when it is worn down it is noticeable without being something exaggerated or implausible. It also accompanies the atmosphere of the stadium, which reminds us when football was football and life was life, with the stands full of fans without repeating themselves, with different patterns and the feeling that there is more variety, as there are also more personnel surrounding the field and many more details offering better overall packaging. FIFA 21 looks great as a starting point, no question about that.
And when does the ball roll?
Plus, it not only looks great but it also moves more real. Here are several reasons that contribute their bit. First, the ball. The sensations with the ball is that it has gained in weight, that the impacts in passes, shots and drives give a feeling of more plausibility than the previous version and that in the air it also has a more convincing trajectory. To that we also add that the animations have become more fluid, and the greater number of them make any movement no matter how small, from making a pass to turning to a specific side or starting a sprint, look optimal. Details such as the leg muscles when shooting or the ball bending when receiving a hit.
The new more television camera also helps all this, which has a different perspective, with a wider field of vision but maintaining a certain closeness in the actions of the players. Although you have to get used to it, and in the area the perspective can give us a problem when looking for certain shots or headers, it offers a point of view that is worth trying during several games to adapt to it, because it is a good mix of spectacularity and usability.
Unfortunately, all the beauty that the game looks like in the many details that we have mentioned, are not enough once we play game after game if we keep the game in its previous version in mind. At the gameplay level, FIFA 21 continues to have the same errors, not minor and not resolved after several patches, as the game we met a few weeks ago. It is worth noting that yes, it seems that the game outside of FUT is somewhat slower in pace, but it maintains those tics and imbalances that keep it from being the best installment of the saga.
On the one hand, the one on one, both with the individual dribbling with the left stick itself and the new fast dribble that is executed by pressing and holding the upper right button, are still totally broken and remain a huge imbalance between the attacker and the defender . The ease with which one can slip away from defenders, start quickly and stand in front of the goalkeeper continues to offer an arcade feel far removed from today’s football. The pass into space with a triangle is still devastating, so we have already commented in other texts that the speed of the forwards and their unchecking are well above the ability to place and close gaps of the defenders.
If to all this we add that we maintain some problems with the shots, where the natural leg crossed shots towards the long stick end in a goal most of the time, the result is that we have an impressive face lift and with much to offer in the future, but a game that is still anchored in a gameplay that has not convinced a large majority of users during these weeks and that the patches are shaping without luck (now they touch the defense autoblock, now they remove it …) a attack-defense imbalance that we already talked about in the original Reviews and that is still in force. Its calmer tempo and some improvements – like new goalkeeper animations – help, but they are insufficient because the base remains the same.
If you want to know all the modes that the game brings, we recommend our original Reviews where they were detailed since they remain the same.
Dualsense and performance
Another of the great novelties of the title was precisely the use of the DualSense, which offers us one of lime and another of sand. On the one hand, the sensation with the vibration when driving the ball, giving a pass or a shot or being made a tackle is quite good, since there are small vibrations that accompany us in almost all movements and it is a satisfactory proposal. On the other, the issue of adaptive triggers has work to do. In theory, the triggers stiffen when players are tired, but we have found it quite arbitrary, making resistance at times and not at others, making resistance in L2 to deal with defenses that are not tired, etc. We do not doubt that the idea is good, but we believe that it is necessary to implement it better. And, at least on PS5, we have noticed some drops in framerate at certain times, something unheard of in the saga, which as seen are linked to the use of the DualSense. On the other hand, loading times have been drastically reduced, something that is appreciated when navigating through the menus.
Rate: 7.7
CONCLUSION
FIFA 21 arrives with a necessary facelift and crying out for a long time, which thanks to the power of PS5 and Xbox Series X | S has been able to carry out. The visual, lighting, turf and animation enhancements are remarkable and a great starting point. But the game maintains the playable errors already indicated in the original Reviews and that after several patches, it has not been solved so far. The one against one, the attack-defense imbalances and other tics present in the original version remain in the Next Gen version. There are interesting news, but it shows that for the saga, this first installment is like being in preseason.
THE BEST
- The improvement at a visual level is important: modeling (not all players), lighting, grass …
- The new camera offers a large field of view without losing spectacularity
- Infinity of modes and proposals offline and online, like the original version
WORST
- Playably maintains most of the imbalances and imbalances of the original delivery
- Some drop in framerate and need to improve the response of the DualSense triggers
Good
It meets the expectations of what a good game is, has quality and does not have serious flaws, although it is missing elements that could have taken it to higher heights.
