FIFA 20 has been running since the end of September on players’ consoles and PCs. The game impresses in many respects, but others spoil the fun. This is how the current fan feedback looks.
Here are the reviews for FIFA 20: For an initial assessment of the game, it’s worth taking a look at the reviews. Especially at the release of the game, the reviews were predominantly positive to very positive.
The ratings on Metacritic showed that the game is apparently going in the right direction – even if it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. An overview of the ratings can be found here:
How is the game received by players? Since the release, enough time has passed for players to form a comprehensive opinion. Some points are heavily praised while others completely fail. We have summarized this in an overview: What works – and on which points should FIFA 20 urgently improve?
How FIFA 20 is received by players
Gameplay
What is liked about the gameplay: The gameplay in FIFA 20 feels overall slower but also somewhat more realistic. Many fans praise that the attributes of a player are reflected in the game. The foundation of FIFA works, therefore.
This is especially noticeable in passing stats or speed. Players with significantly better passing stats are more likely to get the ball to their teammate than those who aren’t born playmakers. Fast players can utilize their speed better and are not intercepted by every defender – unless they are positioned correctly.
Because the defense has changed. Active defending is significantly more emphasized compared to FIFA 19. It’s not that simple, which is why it requires an adjustment of defensive behavior compared to its predecessor, especially at the beginning of the game. How to achieve this is explained in our defending tips.
What is criticized about the gameplay: On “reddit“, there are some discussions about gameplay. While most agree that gameplay has made a step forward, there are still several points of criticism. Most notably: headers have become extremely difficult and rarely lead to success.
The main points of criticism are grounded in the fact that the translation of controller input to the execution of an action sometimes takes too long – or does not occur at all. However, this is less about the fundamentals of the gameplay but rather about another, yet very strong criticism.
Servers in FIFA 20
The problem with the servers: Many players report that their internet connection often disrupts their experience. There are occasions when games start to lag extremely or suddenly run at twice the speed as before. These are known issues from earlier installments, but especially in the first days of FIFA 20, the servers ran quite poorly.
At times, it was not possible to find an opponent or finish a game without problems. Skill moves are executed with such a delay that they become useless. And there are also complete outages, making it impossible to connect to the online features in FIFA 20.
“The game is fantastic when it responds. But when the connection is poor – well.” This conclusion in a post by reddit user “ad1075” summarizes the thoughts of many players. They hope that the server issues will be a thing of the past in the future. The game would definitely benefit from that.
Goals in Ultimate Team
How the new tasks are received: New in Ultimate Team is the season progress. It resembles the battle pass from Fortnite: By playing XP, you can secure various bonuses.
These range from packs to club items like choreographies or emblems to new players. And it is well-received overall that EA Sports has implemented such a system: It’s possible to earn decent rewards without investing extra money.
However, the best rewards require an extremely high amount of XP. And obtaining those in large quantities is not easy – or rather, it’s extremely time-consuming. For example, in the gold objectives for the first week, you have to score a header with a player who has at least a physical rating of 82 in two separate rivals matches.
Players desire slight changes: This is an extremely specific and difficult goal. Many players wish for more ways to earn XP. Reddit user “Carloops” suggests, for example, that players should earn a certain amount of XP for completing matches. This is currently completely missing.
Also difficult, some players find that some objectives are tied to specific modes like “friendly matches”. “I don’t want to play friendly matches, I don’t want to play squad battles. I don’t have time for that, I only have enough for rivals and Weekend League,” complains player “so_grandiose“, who also receives much support for this.
However, other players point out that this is precisely what it’s about, trying something different. And modes like the “Mystery Ball” are well-received in the community.
Volta
How Volta is received: The Volta mode was one of the major selling points for this year’s FIFA. Many players desired a new street mode before release. So everything is good?
Not entirely. Volta has proven to be a double-edged sword in the community, for several reasons. It is particularly well-rated when played on the couch with friends – meaning offline. That’s where the street futsal hybrid is the most fun. Alone or online, it looks quite different.
User “Mohd759” described Volta as a “disappointment” from the time of the demo because it is not FIFA Street, but only FUT in a smaller scale. “SebJS74” agreed weeks later, seeing Volta more as an “extended minigame”. Moreover, many players hoped to start a type of “Volta Pro Club” online with their friends. However, this function is missing, just like a possible incorporation into Ultimate Team. Many players see a lot of wasted potential here where EA could still improve.
Additionally, it is said that Volta is partly extremely difficult in terms of finishing – which can be frustrating on one hand but also pretty funny. Many players agree that Volta at least provides incredibly funny moments that are happily shared on “reddit“. Like this video from user “Arabskillz“, who consistently failed against the goalkeeper or the post itself:
Career Mode
How the Career Mode is received: Anyone who has been following FIFA 20 will have noticed: The Career Mode still isn’t really running smoothly. To put it bluntly: Players who primarily want to play Career Mode in FIFA 20 are extremely frustrated.
And rightly so: Numerous bugs make the Career Mode extremely hard to enjoy. Top teams are underperforming in their leagues, sending strange lineups into matches, and the European competitions aren’t functioning properly – the criticisms are numerous. Under the hashtag “FixCareerMode”, the issue has ranked high on FIFA’s agenda – a solution is still pending.
The previous patches haven’t yet addressed the career issues. EA announced that they would like to address the problem, but it would take longer as it involves an offline mode.
Many players had hoped the Career Mode would improve compared to previous installments. This hope has been disappointed despite some innovations so far – and we hope that it will be addressed in the future.
Overall, FIFA 20 is seen as a good entry in the series – but EA should urgently address these points to continue optimizing it. The pay-to-win factor is also a recurring source of frustration in FIFA. You can see here how likely you are to pull top players in FUT:
