FIFA 18 is the first football video game that managed to capture certain specialties of the football atmosphere. The new FIFA matches have their specifics and their atmosphere is not always the same. For example, the stadiums are more detailed than ever before. There are more facilities around the field, cameramen move on the field, trainers react to events; players celebrate with the audience, etc. The audience responds differently depending on the situation so, for example, if you score a goal in an away game, the whole stadium will go silent or the opponents’ fans will whistle. Matches in England, Spain, the United States and other countries are visually different from each other, breaking the monotony and reducing the fatigue that arises by observing and listening to the exact same atmosphere from one match to another. This is best shown in the new Journey mode season with Alex Hunter, who now comes out of the Premier League box and gets acquainted with the football culture of other nations. Since there was still plenty of room for story development after the first season, it is not surprising that the Journey mode is still interesting enough. It’s true that the RPGs are just an illusion, but there are also decisions that carry lasting consequences, and you can modify your Hunter at will. EA Sports has also decided to give you additional motivation to play the Journey mode so now you can win some valuable FUT cards during Hunter’s career.

FIFA 18 is great at capturing the football atmosphere, which looks great with a new model of lighting and HDR support, but what about the gameplay, the simulation on the green field? Unfortunately, this one has nothing to do with real sports. FIFA 18 is the culmination of the direction the series has gone in the last five years, the direction in which the game moves away from the simulation. FIFA is a self-proclaimed fast, attractive football without the need for tactics, game building or using its opponents’ advantages or weakness. To be quite literal, FIFA is once again an arcade game that does not simulate football but rather demonstrates it. How else can we interpret that the match between England’s second league Bristol City and Swiss BSC Young Boys has the intensity of a game played in the Champions League final? Everything in FIFA 18 screams with offence, just like the last year’s game. There is no game in the centre of the field, you can skip a half of the field with driven passing, and to make things worse, you can score goals like it’s nothing. However, playing defence is, for some reason, awkward and uncomfortable.

The difference between football players is something that almost does not exist in FIFA (unless you are the star player), especially when looking at their physical characteristics. When you control the ball in PES with Poggio or Fellaini, you really feel the difference in comparison with other players who are not as good or as dominant in the duels. In FIFA such differences are less pronounced when the focus is on quick passing, sprinting and shooting at the goal.

It is also worth mentioning that FIFA seems like an arcade game primarily in online matches. When it comes to the single player mode, you can still slow down the match, turn off all the aids, and adjust the difficulty setting sliders. This way you can somewhat simulate a football match with probably less goals scored, in which passing will not be automatically precise and football that ultimately will not look like table football.

The problem with this is that this year’s single player modes, except Journey, have not received any significant novelties that would make you want to switch to FIFA 18 if you already have FIFA 17. In the Career mode, the only new thing is that transfer agreement arrangements are now interactive and different clauses can be added to them. These interactive arrangements are probably the most unsuccessful addition to the Career mode in the last ten years.

It is somewhat ironic that the most useful novelty of the Ultimate Team mode this year goes to the single player content. FIFA introduced a Squad Battles mode, in which the game takes over the player’s teams and gives the control over them to the opponent on the computer. The prizes you win depend on the difficulty setting, and you can choose from four offered opponents each day and therefore compete in the success rankings. Another useful addition is the introduction of daily and weekly challenges, which is modelled on mobile gaming, an additional incentive to stay with FUT for a long time. This time, you have more cards available because FUT Icons is no longer exclusive to Xbox consoles. For those who are not familiar with this topic, it is all about old football players like Maradona, Ronaldinho, Ferdinand, etc., with whom you can play in three different editions or stages in their career. It is nothing revolutionary, but for those who love FUT this will probably be an additional reason to spend money on it.

There are some cool novelties in FIFA 18 but nothing you would pay 60 euros to move from last year’s version. Dynamic Quick Subs are practical, but will not be entirely useful if you are used to stopping every animation because you can use them only during the animation. The most useful change is that the pause during an online match is now delayed until the first stop, i.e. a foul.

However you look at it, FIFA will pick up all the superlatives this year, but not all will be desirable epithets. On one hand this is the best virtual football display on the market, the best football drama and the most eventful football game. On the other hand, this is by far the closest FIFA has been to becoming an arcade game recently and the most offence-focused football you can play.