FIFA 14 is one of the most brilliantly tactile, immediately fun, and profoundly challenging to master video games out there right now. It’s a great way for fútbol fans to engage with the world’s favorite sport second, and a brilliant interactive digital amusement first. That’s FIFA’s greatest success, and it’s why FIFA 13 sold 14.5 million copies during its first eight months on sale last year. FIFA 14 replicates that success and brings a number of welcome improvements to the package while leaving the field game identical.

 

FIFA 14 expands its breadth with the addition of co-op play to the Seasons format, and a new scouting mechanic for the Career mode. The latter tasks you with setting up scouting network (separate from the one for youth players) to do your due diligence for transfer signings. While it’s just a more convoluted way to get you to the same end result as last year, good scouts cost you money and it adds drama to the transfer windows. Different scouts can offer up different players, and the accuracy and speed at which you get their evaluations of players depends on the scout’s skills. Be sure to tweak your instructions to scouts, as this changes who they find. It’s frustrating when they come up empty - especially since there are only select countries they can visit - but you can also use the old search method if you’re looking for a specific player that doesn’t appear in your scouts’ Transfer Network.

 

You’ll notice the difference when receiving the ball and maneuvering it on the pitch, too. Players now feel like real flesh and blood, with skeletons that move in a more lifelike fashion. Those extra animations improve the range of movement and add to the ways players can shift their bodies about in order to shield the ball or move it away from their marker. It means the whole game feels more precise, which gives you more confidence in your players’ abilities.

 

It also makes the game feel more physical - and that’s no coincidence. In previous FIFA games only two players could challenge for a header, a restriction that the Ignite engine has put an end to. Now corners and set pieces around the box lead to much more realistic aerial battles, with larger groups of players all going up to meet the same ball. Winning it effectively is all about timing and movement. Get it right with a suitably powerful player and you’ll be hard to defend against. This added physicality is particularly noticeable in the goalkeepers, who now appear to battle gravity more convincingly than ever before and really give it their all.

 

With FIFA 14, EA Sports have made the biggest changes to the way the game plays in recent memory. It could be a moment that splits the fans, however, because the impact on gameplay is drastic, and one that takes a lot of getting used to. And that in itself is impressive, because with the next-generation of consoles on the horizon, and the new Ignite Engine coming to FIFA 14 for PS4 and Xbox One, it’s in stark contrast to the EA Sports of old and in no way a quick cut and paste job to see out the current line of consoles.

 

Where the game truly makes substantial strides is in the on-the-field gameplay, which pushes AI to a new level. From the way opposing defenders react to the layered approaches teammates will take based on context, FIFA 14 has a ton of tiny under-the-hood improvements that make matches more challenging, but also more realistic. Many of the “cheap” tactics that might lead to an easy goal in the current-gen version are rendered useless in the next-gen, and so are dumb teammates. That isn’t to say the gameplay is perfect, but these subtle improvements show that EA Sports clearly knew where the game needed work.

 

To deal with the caveats first - FIFA 14’s highlighted advancements include Pure Shot, a system for more realistic shooting with makes them dip agreeably, Protect The Ball, where players in possession enter a resolute squat to keep it that way, and Precision Movement, the biggest of this year’s changes which alters every player’s ability to accelerate, decelerate and shift direction.