The newest
FIFA
title from EA Sports,
FIFA 13
, comes across as being similar to the previous instalment. And that
is a good thing.
With sequels, you have the option of wildly changing things around
to keep the game fresh at the risk of losing the things that made it
work in the first place, or playing it safe and tweaking, instead of
remaking the game.
FIFA 12
was the first type of sequel, and it was definitely needed—the games
had started becoming repetitive, and there was a challenge from
games such as
Pro Evolution Soccer
.
After shaking things up, it makes sense to take out time to
refine the formula and make the most of the distance gained last
year, before going in for a more drastic overhaul.
In terms of the gameplay, it’s similar to the last
instalment; so if you already have that, you might want to save your
money for a different type of game. There is a slight learning curve
to more complicated manoeuvres and feints, but you can quickly pick
up and play the game.
Game cover panel
Commentary is another aspect which has improved over the
years, with more dialogue being recorded so you don’t hear the same
lines a thousand times in the course of a single game.
There are some Kinect-specific functions for Xbox 360 owners,
but since we were testing the game using a PC, we could not check
these additional features. The game can use audio inputs from the
Kinect to change tactics of formations without pausing the game,
which sounds like a great idea, because the menus you use to change
these settings are not smooth.
Apparently, if the game hears you cursing referees in Career
mode, this will also open up storylines.
It helps that your teammates also seem to behave more
intelligently—it’s hard to call something like this, but it seemed
to be a better experience.
There are all the modes from last time as well—you have
Career mode, Pro Club Seasons, EA Sports Football Club and Ultimate
Team mode, which let you build and manage teams in different ways.
Ultimate Team is particularly enjoyable—you can create your
own team from scratch, trade players and build your way up to an
unstoppable team of A-listers. Completing challenges to unlock
better players is pretty important because the stats of the players
you control really do have an impact on the way they handle in-game.
A great new addition is skill games—it is essentially a
training mode, which is presented as a series of challenges instead.
Playing through, the skill games will improve your overall gameplay,
but aside from that, the mode is enjoyable by itself. If you don’t
feel like playing through a full match, the skill games are a fun
diversion.
Free kick challenges also pop up when you’re waiting for a
match to start, though they’re optional. Challenges cover the
different facets of gameplay, such as shooting, passing, free kicks,
penalties and more. They have different levels, and become more
difficult as you earn medals.
The game sticks with the tried and tested formula; it’s gotten
faster, and more enjoyable. The action moves across the field with
greater fluidity than before—these kinds of tweaks elevate the
already enjoyable
FIFA 12
.
It’s not a massive step up, but the game has improved in many small
ways—changes you can feel as you play. The improvements to
dribbling, in particular, can make the game more strategic than
previous iterations. These changes have come from the
FIFA Street
games, a sort of test bed for innovation for the franchise.
While the improvements are incremental, EA can’t be
blamed, particularly after the big shift they made last year. The
annual development cycle that sports games have limits the options
available for their creators, but as the end user who is expected
to put down his own money, that doesn’t really matter. If you
bought the last instalment, it’s safe to skip
FIFA 13
—if you’re interested in the genre though, or missed
the big change in
FIFA
last year, then you should play this game.
FIFA 13
by EA Sports is available for PC (
Rs.
1,499), PS3 and Xbox 360 (
Rs.
2,999)
. The version tested for the review was the PC version.
