Game Review: FIFA 20

FIFA, like any great football squad, has been through ups and downs. But as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One reach the zenith of their generations, this game feels stuck in a moment.

On-pitch gameplay has been tweaked in favour of defenders. Now defensive AI will block shots quicker. In past iterations, slow defenders would catch up with attackers: unrealistically so. That’s been fixed too. But controlling the ball feels less fluid in FIFA 20. Clever ball physics – the balls getting slowed down by grass, for example – interrupt the flow. Career Mode, a go-to for many a footie fanatic, is largely the same as it was in FIFA 19 and 18.

Volta, a new player mode, mixes FIFA Street with FIFA Journey. Playing 5-a-side football on a rooftop in Tokyo is great fun, but the story mode is full of the usual underdog clichés. Modes such as King Of The Hill, in which your side aim to possess the ball more than your rivals, and Mystery Ball, which brings a dose of the surreal to the pitch, are worthy additions.

6/10