FIFA Soccer 2004

"Off the ball, out of control"

NOTE: I have NOT played any versions of Winning Eleven before. I have played FIFA for a few years, but this review will focus solely on FIFA 2004.

FIFA 2004 was a game that I really wanted to love. I had heard fantastic things about Winning Eleven and had wanted to buy that instead, but I had a gift certificate for this other place, and…well, you know how it goes. FIFA had received decent reviews from what I read, and since I was itching for some futebol action, it seemed like a reasonable choice to me.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great choice.

Controls / 4

The problem with FIFA's controls is TIMING - sometimes it's ahead of you, sometimes it's behind, but time after time it gets in your way. For one thing, FIFA tries to simulate the reality of ball-handling in soccer – this means that the ball is never attached to the player (as in a basketball game) but constant dribbled ahead of him. However, FIFA fails to emulate the full diversity of ball-handling, causing frustrations beyond description. In real soccer, a player can play the ball in front of him as he sprints down the field, but when it comes time to pass a defender or make a shoot, he must regain control of the ball very quickly while maintaining speed, even if this means making contact with the ball at a less-than-optimal position. This is impossible in FIFA. If you run towards the goal and press the shoot button, there is about a two second delay before the player’s footpace matches the ball and makes the shot. The same thing happens when you use try to use footwork (which by the way is lousily implemented with the right analog – a tap in any direction will have your player run the ball in that direction. You can’t pull the ball back, or have the ball between your feet) – there is an obvious delay in the action, at which time the defender can easily make an interception. Yes, it’s true that when you play the ball forward you don’t have perfect control, but watch a real game and you’ll see players catching up to their ball to make abrupt movements constantly. Another time where this fails is when you try to retrieve the ball from the sidelines – if you don’t run up from behind the ball, you are almost certain to knock it out of bounds, which is ridiculous. By adding this element of “realism” FIFA instead causes players to feel disconnected to their on-screen counterparts. It runs as if there is a two-second lag between your controller and the game. Subsequently, it becomes very difficult to break through the defence or get anywhere near the net and make a shot without losing the ball to the closest defender who simply runs up to you. For beginners, the controls usually lead to a lot of attempted long bombs – and the problem is that they so often work! How’s that for realism?

And it gets worse. You often feel you have to mash at the buttons to make the players respond, but that makes things even harder. Most importantly, FIFA allows you to make “one-timer” plays – by pressing shoot or pass before a player reaches the ball, you can immediately execute the action when he gains possession. The problem is that if you start to tap your buttons – even slightly – the game becomes infuriating. Imagine the anguish you’ll feel when you’ve made the perfect lob into midfield, only to have the receiver kick it to the opposing team because three seconds earlier you had pressed the pass button more than once. Very often you will feel that you’ve lost complete control as the game runs five actions ahead of you. Absolutely atrocious. They could’ve at least let you cancel the move, or perhaps had a button you hold to make one-timer plays.

To make up for things, EA implemented off-the-ball runs, which allows you to control a second player on the field. With the shoulder buttons and right analog, you can have a teammate run to an open spot on the field or make a dash towards the goal so you can boot the ball a few yards ahead of him for the perfect pass. It may sound like a bit too much multitasking, but you have plenty of opportunity to master it in lower difficulty settings, where opponents never rush you if you just stand still or press slowly along. Getting it to work in multiplayer, however, is a different story, and for a good part this option will be reduced to selecting a player to pass to, and not actually controlling him (which, of course, has been available in sports games since the 90’s). The times it does help you target the open man, though, it’s really quite beautiful. Still, an improved passing game doesn’t make up for zero footwork (unless there’s no offside!)

Graphics and Sound / 7

With gameplay like that, I really can’t think of much else to talk about. Perhaps a few words on presentation, I suppose. For graphics, I’m sure EA put a lot into making crisp polygons and fluid motions during play, but the animation is wretched. The only upside is that, at this point, most sports games still look like this. Thankfully, since I play zoomed-out in the Tele view, most of the time I can barely notice. But when the replays come on – damn, why did they even bother? Players are terribly disproportioned, and move awkwardly across the field. Tackling basically consists of a player running into another, and shots are made without any windup motion. I also have a problem with the fact that a player can be slide-checked, but he can simply do a somersault and magically roll back on his feet (this is a gameplay issue, but it looks pretty ridiculous too). And the goaltending! NEVER watch the goal replays. Whenever you do score, especially from far out, goaltenders often simply choose not to dive and watch the ball fly by them. Or, they flop down in the most useless manner – or even in the wrong direction. Playing this game with a real soccer fan gets embarrassing pretty quickly with stupid things like that.

On the sound front, the crowds are loud and lively, which really adds to the game. Problem is, they drown out the commentators. Prepare to turn the TV way up to hear just what the hell they are saying. But having musical acts like Radiohead in the menus is certainly a plus.

Final Word

So for all the criticism, why the 6? Well, once you get past the insulting controls, it’s a reasonably fun game to play, and I do spend time with it regularly. You get to fool around with the off-the-ball controls and do a bit of fancy playmaking. The atmosphere of a real premiership soccer match is definitely there. The teams and players are all there (minus World Cup!) and the career mode is sufficient (5 years) with enough aspects (day-to-day player fatigue, prestige points) to keep you interested. And if you have a network adapter, I’m sure you’ll find something fun to do. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that it’s a game that you’ll have much to bitch about, but only after having played it for hours and enjoyed part of the experience. If you do decide to try FIFA, get your hands on WE7 too and let me know how the control issues compare.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/28/04