Score: By: Andrew Castenmiller Date: Saturday, 06 November, 2004
FIFA 2005
Game Type: Action
Developer: EA Sports
Publisher: EA Sports
Platform: PC, PS One, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, GBA
Is FIFA 2005 worthy of your purchase this year? Read on to find out.
Gameplay ?7.5/10
The gameplay has been improved significantly over last year in almost every way. A quick glance at the gameplay and you might think it’s much the same, but as you play further you’ll notice the differences. Despite the improvements as a football simulation it still does not match Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer series.
Let’s talk about “first touch? Surely this is a marketing gimmick just like last year’s “off-the-ball control? Yes, it probably is, but it sure does make the game a whole lot better this year unlike “Off The Ball?control that was introduced last year. First touch is performed by a flick of the right analogue stick when you receive the ball. So instead of having your player stop and control the ball you can instead get away from your marker using first touch. On the easier difficulties you’ll find this very easy to perform and in general first touch movement will bring you a lot of success. But when you reach the harder difficulties you will have to use it with a lot of care. While sometimes first touch can create a goal-scoring opportunity, other times you can recklessly lose possession. First touch is also well balanced with the type of player you want to perform the move. A player with low technique will take longer to control the ball than a world-class player. But when you are in control of a world-class player the limits to the goals you can score with first touch movement involved are almost endless. It’s an excellent feature and one I think should be incorporated in all soccer games.
Also mapped onto the right analogue stick are a number of freestyle moves. Many other EA Sports series, such as NBA Live, have had freestyle moves accessible on the right analogue stick for the past couple of years, so it’s about time it’s been introduced into FIFA. The freestyle moves a huge plus for when you’re dribbling. Depending on the direction you flick the stick in you’ll perform a different move, allowing you to fake-out your defender rather than getting by him with luck. Like first touch it is reasonably well balanced as well, as it’s not easy to perform these moves with a low-skilled player. This is another gameplay feature that I think should set the standards for future soccer games.
Now onto the fundamental gameplay such as the passing. Short passing is realistic in FIFA 2005. Especially on harder difficulties you won’t be able to get all your passes on target. Long passes are also fairly good. If you have played PES it’s difficult to get used to because you really have to hold the long pass button down for a long time if you want to do a cross-field pass. Personally I still prefer PES’s long passing to FIFA’s. Through balls is the other passing option. Out of all the passing options I would say the through ball is the least realistic because of its success rate. Most players, if given a bit of space and time, can get through balls spot on. Chipped through balls aren’t much better either, and the difference between a chipped through ball and a low through ball is insignificant that the result typically ends up the same. The lobbed through balls just don’t have enough air and distance on them, and on top of that there is no power bar. So if you see a player in the distance making a run and you want to play a spectacular long pass you’ll have to play a normal lobbed pass rather than a lobbed through ball. Lobbed through balls tend to only be successful when passing to a closer team-mate, which makes it almost useless as a low through ball is more effective in those situations.
Shooting is the other important fundamental of the game. This is one huge improvement over FIFA 2004. FIFA 2004’s shooting, quite frankly, was terrible. In last years version it seemed that every shot had super swerve on it. It was also far too easy to score from a long shot last year. This year the balance is far better and I find it to be very intuitive. The type of shot your player producers depends on the situation. If you tap the button near the goal your player will attempt to pass the ball into the net, but if you hold it down he’ll blast it. If you’re some distance out and in space you can hold the button down and your player will set himself for a high-powered piledriver. You can also curl shots and perform chipped shots, and I find all the shooting to be reasonably well balanced. The only criticisms I have of the shooting is that it still seems slightly too fast and it can be too easy with the top players. The balance is really good with lower league players but with the star players you’ll find it relatively easy to get your shot on target from some distance out. I think EA Sports are definitely heading in the right direction concerning shooting but the “arcade?elements to the shooting still haven’t been 100% ironed out.
The CPU AI is the weakest part of the gameplay, and is what stops FIFA’s gameplay from being great, not just good. The tactical movement of your team is not spontaneous enough, with your defenders, midfielders and attackers not moving around the pitch providing passing options. This ends up with a lot of your attacks being counter attacks that end up with a shot by the striker. But look at any great team in real life and you’ll see players moving all over the place, confusing the opposition. In FIFA 2005 you can manually send players on runs but it is too limited. The lack of tactical movement also shows in the opposing CPU that an unrealistic majority of goals are scored through strikers. Players like Pires, Scholes and Lampard are all midfielders that pose huge goalscoring threats in real life but in FIFA 2005 they don’t make enough forward runs and it’s rare that you’ll find them scoring against you. PES and Club Football out-do FIFA in off-the-ball movement and it’s definitely and area FIFA needs to improve upon if it can claim to even match PES’s gameplay.
Set pieces also remain a weak aspect of the game, mainly due to them being almost identical to last year. Corners and indirect free kicks are too scripted and direct free are still performed by aiming and a power bar. As I’ve said before this might work for a golf game of last decade but not even golf games get away with power bars anymore. You only need to look as far as PES to see how direct free kicks should be done.
FIFA 2005’s gameplay is a definite improvement this year and it has the advantage of first touch and the freestyle moves going for it. However it still does not match the realism and fluid gameplay of PES3, let alone even PES4 which I haven’t played yet. It’s on the right track and will definitely please anyone who’s loved the FIFA series in the past, but it won’t convert anyone who is addicted to PES.
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