FIFA 17‘s newly released demo only offers a brief glimpse at its single-player ‘The Journey’ mode. Placing players in in the middle of protagonist Alex Hunter’s story, after he’s already signed for his boyhood club Manchester United alongside his best friend Gareth Walker, it’s unclear whether or not the small snippet of gameplay offered in the demo will be representative of the final product. However, that EA Sports is even attempting to deviate from the soulless, Sky Sports-esque presentation they’ve become known for in recent years is evidence enough that they’re addressing FIFA’s most enduring flaw.
Compared to Konami’s PES series, which after a slump in quality a few years back is finally managing to excel beyond its glory years of the mid-’00s, FIFA has always felt as though it was lacking in personality. Sure, it had the lion’s share of licensed clubs and stadiums, but ever since the landmark FIFA 12 the series has felt like it was losing its personality amidst the constant urge to mimic a football TV broadcast rather than the beautiful game itself.
The most beloved aspect of football is its unpredictability. Very few sports will see a team such as Leicester, predicted to face relegation by the bookies, pull out an historic season and actually top the Premier League ahead of the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City. By contrast, the past two FIFA games have felt as predictable as possible, nipping and tucking where necessary but failing to offer any meaningful deviations from the established formula. The series has instead decided to focus upon delivering an “authentic” football experience by way of making it appear as it does on Sky Sports, neglecting to address the fact that Sky Sports makes football look about as interesting as a James Milner post-match interview.
By contrast, The Journey finally looks to offer that feeling of actually being involved in this wonderful sport, rather than watching it from your sofa with a can of Foster’s like any old schmuck. Though I initially scoffed at the concept of a FIFA game introducing its own unique story, I couldn’t help but feel drawn in by seeing my player-character chilling out in the Manchester United dressing room alongside the likes of Ibrahimovic and Pogba. Watching a computer-generated Jose Mourinho telling me to get on the pitch before I went on to score a hat-trick to grab the three points at Stamford Bridge was, despite me being fully prepared to be thoroughly cynical about the mode, genuinely a lot of fun. The additional pre-match bonus objectives the game gives you, such as achieving a certain player rating or making a select number of link-up passes, also contribute to it having a lot more going on than the standard match of FIFA.
With EA only having made rudimentary changes to FIFA‘s single-player managerial mode, I’m hoping that The Journey will be a great new addition to the game for those who aren’t necessarily interested in its multiplayer offerings such as Ultimate Team. Though we’ll inevitably have to wait until the full game to see whether or not The Journey actually proves to be the worthwhile addition to the game that FIFA 17‘s demo suggests it will be, I’m at least glad that EA is looking beyond the series’ Sky Sports veneer in order to provide something more in keeping with the heart and personality of football.
