The FIFA series is Electronic Arts’ preeminent soccer series. They bring out World Cup games every four years, and also release the UEFA series annually, but FIFA remains the flagship title. For years FIFA has been in direct competition with the Pro Evolution Soccer Series. I must confess that I have been on the Pro Evo bandwagon since last generation and had not played a FIFA game since then. The argument for Pro Evolution fans has always been that FIFA was too arcadey, and that true footi fans play Pro Evolution. For its part FIFA has had the FIFA, Major League Soccer, and the major European league licenses while Pro Evo has had to use fictional teams.
A lot has changed since the last generation; in FIFA 09 you will not be scoring goals with your keeper. In fact, comparing this game to the last Pro Evo I played, FIFA has become the more realistic simulation.
Controls
The game’s controls are easy to pick up for anyone who has ever played a soccer videogame before. The buttons are mapped logically. Special moves, player selection, and sprint are assigned to the shoulder buttons. Your passing, shooting, and tackling controls are assigned to face buttons. The longer you hold the shot and pass buttons the harder you strike the ball. The default way to control movement is with the left stick, while the directional pad is reserved for team strategy.
The controls offer full customization. You can switch the button assignments to a nearly unlimited degree. You can change the amount of computer assistance on passing, shooting, and player switching. The selections are automatic, semi, assisted, and manual. I found assisted to be the most comfortable scheme for passing and shooting. Manual is entirely manual and a bit too intense whereas the other options take away too much control.
Despite the ability to customize and the ease of learning the controls are not perfect. Player switching does not work perfectly because it does not always switch to the player closest to the ball. This is a problem on any configuration of player control. Finally, sometimes your passes go awry; you may be trying to pass to the person to the left and in back of you and it will go to the player to the left and in front of you.
Game Modes
The dizzying amount of game modes is staggering. You can quick play a basic exhibition match or a Be a Pro Match. In a Be a Pro match you select one player and control only them for the entire match. Aside from your basic exhibition matches there is Manager Mode, Be a Pro: Seasons, Tournament Mode, and Lounge Mode.
Manager Mode is the game’s franchise mode. You pick a team in any of the game’s professional leagues and control them. You act as the team’s manager: setting lineups and formations, transferring in and out players, re-signing players, and deciding how much to spend on your staff. The more money you spend on your Attacking Coach the better your strikers will perform, but you have to deal with your overall budget as well. You will occasionally get e-mails from your staff or owner asking for decisions; how you answer can affect your team’s morale, your job security, and your fan support. You can simulate all the games during the season or you can play them manually. But you can only sim one game at a time; you cannot simulate a whole season or even a few days. In fact, the whole manager mode interface is a bit clunky. You do not have an easy- to- read team schedule and figuring out player transfers is not exactly intuitive.
Despite the barrier of entry for Manager Mode, hardcore fans will love it. For most the ability to play through a season as their favorite team from Major League Soccer, Barclays Premier League, or Serie A is the main draw of this kind of mode. Succeeding in this mode is very satisfying because you are in charge of all the important decisions.
Be A Pro: Seasons is the equivalent to Madden’s Superstar Mode. You can either create your own new soccer player or select a real life pro to play as. You play as that pro in both club matches and in the international ones. If you select Ronaldhino you control him when he plays for Milan and when he plays for Brazil. Before each match you are given three objectives to meet. If you meet those objectives you gain experience points that can be used to upgrade your player’s attributes. At the beginning of the season you will be given three objectives as well. Completing these objectives rewards you with a lot of experience points.
You are given a match rating for each game on a scale of 1 to 10. Your match ratings affect your Reputation. Your ultimate goal is to reach legendary reputation for both your club and your country.
Trying to meet your objectives and improving your player is very addicting. Earning a spot on your national team and then becoming captain is neat progression. It is the ultimate soccer fan’s fantasy. The problem with the mode is on the pitch.
On the field a small arrow points you to where you should be positioned. On defense a red circle is placed around the opponents you are supposed to mark. The default camera mode for Be a Pro is a slanted, disorienting view. Its purpose is to keep both your player and the action all on the screen at the same time, but it is too hard to follow. When your player controls the ball the camera zooms in on your player to give you a better view, but the movement disrupts the flow of the game. I ended up playing Be a Pro mode with the same camera I used for controlling the whole team. The problem with this approach is that sometimes you cannot see your player on the screen, and have to look at the radar. The radar does not show your position arrows or marking circles. On the pitch you never feel like you are in the cleats of your player because of the camera issues.
In Tournament Mode you can play a real life tournament or create your own. You can play national tournaments but not international ones. So while you can play through the MLS Cup or the Serie A Cup you cannot take the USA through the World Cup or Spain through the UEFA European Football Championship.
Lounge Mode is a meant as a light distraction for one to twenty players. You set up how many players are in the competition and then begin playing matches against each other. You can play up to three “Cheap Shots” cards before a match that affect the game play. For example you can start with a goal lead and have your opponent’s team all at 50% energy. Of course your opponent can also play their own three cards. At the end of each match you can earn medals for your performance and are awarded ranking points as well. The object is to finish with more ranking points than your friends.
Graphics
The game looks great. Player models look realistic and recognizable and do not have the weird dead-eye faces that many sports game do. The fields gradually degrade not only over the course of a match but over the course of the season. The player movements are realistic, and the collisions look reasonable as well. It looks like real life when Ronaldhino fakes out a defender or is slide tackled. The best thing that can be said about the crowd is that it does not stand out as clearly fake like it does in so many other games. The game is definitely the best looking and most detailed soccer game I ever played. Still, I would like to see more lighting effects, movement animations, and expressiveness on the players’ faces.
Sound
The sound is one of the game’s strongest points. The match commentary is top notch. English language commentators Martin Tyler and Andy Gray have nice chemistry together. While most of what they say is fairly generic, there is enough dialogue and it is insightful enough not to bore you. There are additional language commentary tracks available for the game and secondary commentary tracks are available for a 400 point download. It would be nice if there were some more player and team specific commentaries since there is almost none in the game. While I understand the huge task it would be to make a specific comment about every team or country, they could at least give us a little insight into David Beckham or Manchester United every once in a while.
The crowd noise is great as well. While I did not hear any team or player specific chants, the crowd is very reactionary to the play on the pitch. When you pause during a match a song from the soundtrack plays as if it is on the stadium loudspeaker. This small detail is a great touch. In Be a Pro mode the stadium PA announcer is also heard occasionally. Like the majority of sports games, no on the field chatter can be heard.
You can set the background audio for when you are browsing game menus. You can choose to simply hear the EA Trax, or you can select from a variety of podcasts and radio stations to listen to as well. Getting an ESPN newsbreak during your Manager mode adds to the authenticity.
Online
Online offers a good variety of modes. Other than your basic Ranked and Unranked matches, you can also play Be A Pro: Online Team Play, and a few types of online League Modes. Though I have not tried any of the League Modes I have played my share of Ranked and Be a Pro matches. The Be a Pro online matches work similar to the offline ones, you choose one player and control only them. The difference is all the other players on the pitch can be from Xbox Live (save for goalkeeper). It is quite the rush, and mimics playground soccer online. There are always a few ballhogs who want to score every play, and a few players who think they are coaching from the field. The great thing is just like in real life, the ballhogs get yelled at and the self-appointed coaches sometimes clash. The connections in the matches I have played have been solid, but a few times there have been sound problems. That is not surprising considering the amount of connections required for one of these matches.
Regular online matches are more hit and miss. I have had a few with terrible lag, a few with slight lag problems, and a few with none at all. When there is no delay the competition is great. Human opponents are much less predictable than computer ones and test your skill better. You can create custom matches which allow you to play others within your ranking level. Unfortunately, there is no way that I have found to sort by connection or even see your opponent’s connection before you start a match.
Replay Value
FIFA 09 is a game that you could easily play until FIFA 10 comes out. Soccer fans will love to live vicariously through Manager and Be a Pro Modes. Online offers a human element that will keep players coming back again and again. The game’s achievements are well-designed; they are challenges that take you out of your comfort level just the right amount. They are not punishingly hard but force you to play the game a little differently and try out things you may not have thought of.
Conclusion
Not one part of FIFA 09 can be considered perfect, but the game is more than the sum of its parts. Its staggering variety and amazing amount of polish gloss over its smaller problems. Its completeness is refreshing when so many other sports games are cutting corners or rehashing old iterations these days. As a Pro Evo fanboy it pains me to say this – FIFA 09 is hands-down an all around better game. If you are only going to buy one soccer game it should be this one. In fact, if you are only going to buy one sports game, this had to be a top candidate.
Franchise Mode: 5/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Graphics: 4/5
Sound: 5/5
Replay Value: 5/5
Overall: 5/5