EA SPORTS FC 27 Review

We had a fantastic summer of World Cup action, and after a short break, the beautiful game is back. With a brand new season, my team, Manchester United still performing terribly; it’s almost like nothing has changed. That said, it’s part of life I can’t live without, and one window I always look forward to is the annual release of the most popular football game in existence. EA SPORTS FC 27 has finally dropped onto Xbox Series X/S and even the trusty old Xbox One. Also available to players on Playstation 4/5, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC, with full cross-play functionality.

Now, I know many always say the same thing: it’s the same game every single year, and on the surface it may come across that way. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth, and there have been some fruitful additions and changes in comparison to the previous couple of years. With 21,000+ licensed players, 800+ clubs and national squads, 140+ stadiums and 35+ fully licensed leagues, it just grows bigger every time.

The Grounds: Football’s New Social Playground

Perhaps the biggest attraction to EA SPORTS FC 27 this year is The Grounds. The easiest way to explain this is to compare it directly with the infrastructure of NBA 2K’s City. It’s basically a social hub where players can create their own pro and explore an online football-focused world with lots to get stuck into. You’ll be wandering around virtual districts and can interact with up to 100 players at a time. It’s a neat feature where you can just dive into the plethora of modes as a solo player, find new friends or jump into games with your mates.

Players may be wondering where Pro Clubs has vanished to within the main menu; Clubs has now integrated into The Grounds experience. It knits in exceptionally well, and whilst I wasn’t wowed by everything, it’s a good stab at setting the foundations for this to be the future of EA SPORTS FC.

Whilst you can just plod on and play Pro Clubs as you would have previously. There are other activities within the grounds, such as a catalogue of different skill games, plus an opportunity to play 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 matches in small outdoor areas. What blew my mind was being able to stand and watch others play in these games and potentially pick out players you want to team up with. It’s a welcome distraction from Ultimate Team, and actually it gave me incentive to absorb into this adventure rather than just playing constant drop-in matches without a club.

Career Mode: Smarter Transfers, Deeper Decisions

Some people solely invest in EA SPORTS FC every year simply for the Career Mode. I totally get why: leading your team to glory, making your own management decisions and running the logistics of your team. There is nothing more satisfying than taking a lower league side, whacking it on World Class difficulty and seeing how far you can push them.

Career Mode hasn’t had much love the last few years, and it needed a bit of adjustment to keep the fun factor there. What I like this time round is that EA have overhauled the transfer system to make real-world transfers a bit more realistic. Transfer negotiations can now happen across multiple stages rather than just an in-and-out meeting over a dining table.

Another neat change is that player ratings are no longer completely static. Overall ratings can increase or drop throughout the season. It all goes off player morale, form, fitness and their injury status, along with how much they play. This makes picking your matchday squad and week-to-week tactics way more interesting than just banging in the best players each match.

There are that many changes this year that I could write much more here. But some other changes include improved scouting and squad ranks, which show where players fit in with your squad hierarchy. Add to this, more realistic injuries and live custom Career Mode scenarios which can be uploaded or taken on by yourself. Trust me when I say, Career Mode is deeper than it’s ever been.

Ultimate Team: More Reasons to Keep Every Card

Ultimate Team as ever is the main reason people keep returning to the game. Starting that all-important fantasy football team from scratch and seeing what chemistry and players you can pack. One of the biggest additions here is the new FUT gallery. This ultimately is a collection and progression system that records when you gather a set of players. It could be that they want a set of 30 Premier League players or any other combination. The collection is then graded, and you can earn rewards as you fill in the different collections.

I adored this as it was almost like collecting football stickers and filling in the book, but I can see this also becoming dangerously addictive. It also makes you think before you quickly sell cards or pile them into squad-building challenges. Holographic cards also help boost the rating of your collections and are purely for aesthetics rather than gameplay boosts.

A Smarter, More Rewarding Ultimate Team

Squad building challenges have also had a slight change. Traditional challenges where you build a combination of cards remain, but there are certain new ones which allow you to simply cash in cards towards a special card. For instance, a card may cost 20,000 points; a standard bronze card is worth 20 points, whereas a decent 87-rated gold could be worth 11,000. It all works on how much you’re willing to sacrifice to secure the card forever.

One of my favourite changes is the progression towards the premium pass. In the past, you needed to go after objectives to gain XP to unlock tiers of the pass. It made getting through the rewards a painfully slow experience. Luckily, now you can gain XP towards it wherever you play; there are also daily check-in rewards that sometimes count towards it too. Of course, some objectives still push the XP meter along, but it’s just so much better.

Visuals & Audio

Visually, EA SPORTS FC 27 is perfectly polished with fantastic player likenesses, incredibly accurate stadiums and that matchday broadcast atmosphere in every game you play. Whilst it doesn’t look like the biggest leap on screen compared with the 26 outing, it still offers that premium feel with the best sports engine in any game going. Animations when it comes to celebrations, on-screen analytics and player physics when battling for the ball are all impressive.

EA SPORTS FC titles and previously FIFA games have the best soundtracks around; that hasn’t changed here. I’ve always enjoyed the music in every game, and the quality of the playlist hasn’t changed. Whoever picks out the tunes in these games needs a high-five, because they just nail it every time. Almost every year, there are several songs that I then go and find and add to my Spotify playlists; it’s brilliant that some niche artists are brought to millions of listening ears. The rest of the audio is as you’d expect; the roar of the fans and singing their match day chants adds to that authenticity. The commentary could do with a little work; it does come across as a bit repetitive when you’re playing long sessions.

Final Thoughts

EA SPORTS FC 27 doesn’t reinvent the wheel in how it presents itself, but it does have some meaningful changes rather than subtle ones this time around. While Ultimate Team tends to dominate, it seems much more accessible to even the most casual players this year, despite its monetisation. There is a big scattering of changes to almost all of the modes throughout the game. So no matter which angle you’re coming into the game from, and even if you want to dodge Ultimate Team, I think you’ll see there is enough there to take the plunge for another year. There are so many more reasons to load the game up. If you fancy purchasing a copy for yourself on Xbox Series X/S, you can do so HERE.