FC 25 Career Mode hands-on preview – everything it’s cracked up to be

Listen, I know what you’re thinking. Every year, EA claims that this is the year Career Mode is getting the changes it needs, and every year those changes are disappointingly small. This year is different, with sweeping changes coming to the mode to almost completely overhaul it, returning it to its rightful place among the game’s flagship modes.

We were invited to Bucharest to spend some time at EA Romania, the home of Career Mode, where we got a few hours to preview the mode hands-on. And while we, unfortunately, didn’t have the chance to dig fully into everything on offer, what we did get to experience was leagues ahead of what we’ve seen from the game in recent years, and we think it’s finally time for Career Mode fans to get excited again.

FC IQ makes anyone a tactico

We’ve already talked about this in our previous feature, but after experiencing the tactical changes in person, it’s hard not to see FC IQ as a game-changer for the series. Players now have player roles that dictate how they play, with each player having a familiarity with each role that determines how well they play with it.

It’s immediately apparent how big of a change this is. My starting striker was most comfortable as a False 9, but the rest of my team was built for wing play, leading to me rarely having someone in the box to finish off moves. Moving them to an Advanced Forward and my right winger to an Inside Forward completely changed my attacks. Every small tweak you make to your tactics has a real, tangible impact on the way your players act in matches.

Simulation makes every match unique

Perhaps an even greater achievement than FC IQ is the introduction of the new Simulation settings, which have delivered some of the most impressively realistic gameplay I’ve ever seen from the series. Errors are more common, with sloppy passes flying off course. Previously overpowered strategies like controlled dribbles or cutting inside simply don’t work anymore. 

Depending on how you set up, the weather now impacts your gameplay. Strong winds will send long balls flying off the pitch, while rain will dampen the pitch, slowing down your players and making dribbling more difficult. These changes mean you can’t simply rely on one strategy for every match. After relying on my pacey wingers to carve up the opposition, my first rainy match was a struggle, forcing me to change tack and start working the ball around, hunting for any opportunities for a through ball over the top.

This all applies to your opponents, too. In one of my first matches of the season, I came up against a seemingly impenetrable low block. Defenders harried my front three, marking them tightly and never giving me even a sniff at goal. In previous years, you could abuse a controlled dribble to break their ankles, but as mentioned before, that doesn’t fly anymore. So instead, I had to tweak my tactic, relying on controlling possession and looking for that killer ball instead of simply giving it to my wingers and letting them bomb down the wings.

Out of all the matches I played in the preview, not a single one was the same. Last year, you’d find a tactic that worked and stick to it, effectively going into autopilot for all but the most important matches. This year, you actually have to think about each game. Every team is different, and every match will require you to think on your feet, altering your approach as required to overcome these various styles of play. 

You CAN win anything with kids

Youth development has also had a shake-up, and it honestly might be my new favourite part of Career Mode. No more will you have to do tedious training drills to develop your youth, with the new Rush mode being the core means of development. It’s an excellent way of involving you in the development process, getting familiar with your players before they join the first team, and giving you a refreshing change of pace from the wall-to-wall first-team matches.

Every couple of months, you’ll be able to enter youth tournaments, wherein you’ll play the five-a-side mode in a knockout format with your youth players, either at their current ratings or at their maximum potential to get a taste of the world beaters they might one day become. How you perform in the tournament determines how your kids will develop. If you’re knocked out on day one, you won’t see much growth, but if you take home the title, your players will grow massively, with your best-performing players seeing the most improvement.

Scouting has been upgraded, too, with a huge number of countries added that can now be scouted from. While most star players will come through in Europe or South America, you’ve still got a chance of unearthing a hidden gem in the Solomon Islands or Fiji, letting you build a fantasy team of minnows if you want to. It might not be totally realistic, but it’s fun and gives fans of weaker footballing nations the chance to find their own Aubameyang or George Weah, and I for one can’t wait to unveil Malaysia’s future Ballon d’Or winner.

Women’s leagues at last

The long-awaited addition of women’s leagues is here, with the top divisions in the USA, England, France, Germany and Spain all coming to Career Mode, and my preview being spent as manager of TSG Hoffenheim in the Frauen-Bundesliga. The Career Mode team have been keen to make it as representative as possible, consulting with various ex-pros to determine what to include and what would detract from the mode. 

Finances are a major aspect that the team have decided to keep realistic. Star players will go for hundreds of thousands, as opposed to the hundreds of millions that are being thrown around in the men’s game. Outside of the USA, funding for the women’s game is not as secure as it is for the men, with the team keen on showcasing the struggles that women’s football still has to endure in 2024. 

You can also swap seamlessly between coaching men’s and women’s teams throughout your career. With the likes of Sabrina Wittmann at German club FC Ingolstadt breaking through to managerial roles in the men’s game, it seems likely that this is something that will only become more common as time goes on and something that EA want to be ahead of the curve for. 

Final thoughts

After everything I’ve spoken about, there are still aspects I haven’t even had the chance to cover. Live start points that let you take over mid-season. Snapshots that let you return to certain points in your career to relive them. Player career and the introduction of Icons to the mode. I haven’t been this excited for Career Mode since I was a kid playing FIFA 09, so if you, like me, have been waiting for this game mode to get the treatment it deserves, we might finally get what we’ve been looking for.

EA Sports FC 25 releases on September 27, 2024 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.