I’d say I sound like a broken record but at this point I may as well chuck out the record player. FIFA 22 is a game with plenty of solid improvements, but it is – once again! – let down by morally bankrupt monetisation.
I’m going to start with the good news because I like to kick things off with a positive. FIFA 22’s gameplay is a crowd pleaser. It’s slightly slower, more considered, with less emphasis on ridiculous skills and more emphasis on passing. It is a reaction to FIFA 21’s high-scoring fun, which by the end of that game’s life had become something of a joke within the hardcore FIFA community. FIFA 22, then, plays harder.
That is to say, it’s harder to score and harder to win for a raft of reasons. The goalkeepers are much improved. In one-on-one situations they’re all prime Buffons, with an annoying habit of getting a hand to shots from inside the box that would almost always go in in last year’s game. There are some new animations for the keepers and you’ll see them quite often. They’ll reach across with their strong arm to save shots now, and pat strong shots to the ground before gobbling up the ball. Defenders with low pace are more viable because they have a habit of blocking shots and passes in the final third. They feel stronger, too.
