FIFA 23 Review
Ali Hasan October 1, 2022
FIFA 23 marks the end of an era as the long-running and much-beloved football simulation series is set to receive a marked branding change for next year’s title. In its final outing with the FIFA license, EA has delivered a few new flourishes to the gameplay, new gameplay features and the evolution of the hyper motion technology to deliver a proper send for this era of EA’s football game series. Although It isn’t perfect and lacks any new bold direction for the series, long-time FIFA and football fans will be pleased will the overall package.
HyperMotion Kicks into the Next Gear Delivering True-to-life Animation Work
HyperMotion made its debut in last year’s FIFA 22 and returns this year with all new bells and whistles. For those uninitiated with the technology, HyperMotion is essentially a proprietary motion capture technology that uses actual motion capture data from a football match and combines it with machine learning to produce authentic and true-to-life animations within the game.
HyperMotion 2 adds a staggering 6,000 unique animations to the game and it really shows. During my time with the game, I was often taken aback by just how fluid and true to life the in-game animations looked. From the subtle movements of the player’s legs and feet as they anticipate the ball coming towards them or the way their entire body shifts as they get ready to line up a shot, it was immaculately done. The development team event went a step ahead and recorded separate motion data for both women and men players.
This technology has given EA an upper hand in its game as it adds a sense of authenticity to the game that is often times lacking in annual sports titles. It sets it apart from other football games and I imagine it’ll be hard for the next development team that acquires the FIFA license will try and match up to this level of finesse.
FIFA 23 has Iterated its Gameplay Significantly
One of the places that FIFA 23 has made significant changes is in its gameplay. The most significant of which is the addition of the power shot. The power shot essentially works as a finisher allowing you to hold down the two triggers on your controller and press the shoot button to deliver a strong kick to send the ball flying towards the goalposts.
There is a bit of theatrics involved here as the camera will shift towards the player as you get ready to make that shot and to me, this is perhaps the best addition the game has made. It makes for a satisfying play and when you can time and execute it right makes it one of the most memorable aspects of the new game.
I also found that it widens the skill gap in the game just a touch. Trying to perfect the power shot does take quite a bit of practice and goes hand in hand with the new ball passing mechanic which also has a steep learning curve. In FIFA 23 passing the ball from player to player has generally been made more difficult. You can easily lose control of it as the entire mechanic has been made more methodical. I personally found this to be a step in the right direction as it really pushed me to be more conscious of my movement and next plan of action. I think this is one of those mechanics that players will either hate or love at the start but eventually settle into during the game’s lifecycle.
Furthermore, free kicks have been completely reworked. It now allows you to be far more specific as you can control the direction and curvature of your ball it is however important to note that like the new passing and power shot mechanics this will also require a bit of learning after putting in several hours I’m still quite unsure how the mechanic actually works.
I found the dramatic changing around of core game mechanics lends a bit of freshness to the game and no doubt will severely affect the meta as well. Going into the game I was prepared for another year of recycled mechanics but EA has done enough to really help FIFA 23 stand out from the previous entry, it is subtle, however, and does feel more like an evolution than a revolution.
Career Mode
Apart from the changes to gameplay and animation work FIFA 23’s career mode has also received some tweaks. In addition to women’s teams being added in. EA has added different player personality types to add nuance to the career mode.
Each player type has certain personality traits that when you side with grant you stat boosts. Heartbeat characters tend to be exemplificative while virtuoso players tend to be intelligent players. Activities such as launching a phone app or a clothing brand are also tied to the specific type of character you choose to build.
Career mode has largely remained static throughout the past few years so in my book every bit of change is a welcome one while the new player types don’t offer much in the way of new gameplay scenarios it does add a touch of variety for the players who do play the career mode. Even so, apart from this and a few tweaks to the menu career mode still remains the least impressive part of the entire package.
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Women’s Football Finally Comes to FIFA
For the first time ever EA has added the women’s football league complete with unique HyperMotion motion capture data. The addition of women’s football has been a long time coming and something fans (myself included) have been vocal about for the last couple of years. Although it doesn’t add new mechanics what it does add is a level of representation that was severely missing in previous titles.
In many ways, FIFA 23 seems like the fitting entry to add this long-requested feature not only is this the last entry in EA’s FIFA series but the FIFA women’s world cup is set to take place this year. The game will receive a free post-launch content update adding in player kits and stadiums from the women’s world cup as well as for the long-awaited 2023 FIFA world cup which is set to take place in just under two months.
Verdict
FIFA has always been an iterative game series with each new entry building very subtly on the work of the previous and this holds true for FIFA 23 as well. while the addition of the power shot and women’s football teams are welcome and changes to core gameplay mechanics are nice the game still ends up feeling very similar to the previous entries.
The graphics remain largely the same and the changes in career mode feel phoned in. However, changes to key mechanics are more than enough to keep long-time FIFA fans engaged and deliver a worthy send-off for EA’s tenure with the FIFA license.
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