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Career Mode has always been one of my favourite aspects of the FIFA, and now FC series. But at the same time, the lack of any real progression in the mode over the last five to ten years has left it feeling stale. FC 24 made a few moves in the right direction with a marginally deeper scouting system and more streamlined training, but these felt more like touch-ups than the overhaul that the mode desperately needed.
FC 25 is set to completely change the game when it comes to Career Mode, adding in new ways to play, set up your teams and scout and develop players, and much improved AI in matches. If these changes are as significant as EA is promising, FC 25 will have a Career Mode with a level of customisation and depth that could potentially rival Football Manager.
Play out real life seasons
For me, the biggest new addition is the introduction of live start points. Imagine it’s January 2025, and your club (heaven forbid) is sat rock bottom of the Premier League in real life. You can now set up a Career Mode save that starts at that very moment, giving you the chance to play out a real-life scenario and try and save your club from relegation. You can start a save from any point during the season and the real-life standings will be reflected in your game.
As the season goes on, you can take on special challenges called Snapshots. Let’s imagine that things don’t work out for Enzo Maresca at Chelsea and he gets the sack midway through November. You can take over from this point and try and save their season. The same thing can be done in player careers, such as taking over if they make a big transfer to another club.
And speaking of player careers, FC 25 heavily leans into creating your own stories with a new origin stories system. Whether you’re creating your own player or taking over an existing one, you can play out a certain scenario to turn your career into a real saga. Perhaps you’re a hot prospect looking to make it big or a former star aiming to return to the top of their game – either way, there’s a story to be told and a whole new dimension to a mode that hasn’t seen much love for many years.
You can also now play as certain Icons in your player careers. From launch, there will be a selection of legendary players such as Andrea Pirlo, Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane that can be used in Career Mode so you can see how they stack up against the greats of today’s game. You can retrace their career club by club, or you can change things up. What if Henry had ended up at Manchester United instead of Arsenal? Well, now you can find out.
Tactics matter more than ever
Career Mode also makes heavy use of the new FC IQ tactics system, which we go more in-depth with in our other preview, but in essence, it gives players a significantly higher level of tactical control over their teams. With players now able to make widespread tactical changes and give players certain roles, there is now a tactical familiarity system. You can coach your players to play in your tactic, and over time they’ll become more familiar with it and perform better, rewarding long-term saves and sticking with a core group of players. This is a nice reflection of reality where a new signing won’t always hit the ground running if they’re playing in an unfamiliar system.
These changes come into play for the AI as well, who now have a far more dynamic approach to tactics. Each team will now play with a distinct style that befits them. Manchester City will control possession and Liverpool will press high, while lower-league teams will lean more towards route-one hoofball. Every time you play a team, their tactics will differ slightly too, keeping things fresh and encouraging you to tinker with your own tactics to match the opposition.
This also plays handily into the improvements made to youth development. You can now scout for specific player roles and develop your youth players to fit your tactics right from the start, making it even easier to handcraft a team without having to break the bank. Developing your players now centres around bi-monthly youth tournaments where you can play with your youth teams, rapidly improving their development the better your team performs.
Customise your Career Mode experience
There are now more settings to play around with when setting up your save to give you as much or as little control over the game as you want. I have never enjoyed the training aspects of Career Mode, and in this year’s game, I’ll be able to simulate it so I can focus on the parts of the mode I do enjoy like tactics and transfers. Someone who enjoys training can enable that and perhaps streamline the scouting or transfer systems instead. These are little changes, but welcome ones.
Women’s football is finally making its long-awaited debut in Career Mode with the six best female leagues in the world joining the game. The likes of Barcelona, Wolfsburg, and Lyon in Europe and Seattle Reign, FC Kansas City, and Portland Thorns in the USA will finally get their time to shine in FC 25. While it’s a shame that lower leagues like the Women’s Championship in England won’t be in it, we hope that it’s only a matter of time before they get their FC treatment, too.
On the sidelines, there are a few smaller changes to give the mode a bit more of a realistic feel. You’ll be able to see how fans react to your performances on social media, which surely can’t be any worse than the social media in Football Manager. Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano is also joining the game, ready to announce every transfer you make with his trademark “Here we go!”, which I recognise is quite a cool addition despite my personal beef with him for ruining all transfer announcements forever.
All in all, Career Mode in FC 25 is shaping up to be huge. The changes made are going to drastically alter how the mode is played, massively rewarding players who love to dedicate themselves to a long-term save. If you love the idea of writing your own stories, building a club identity, fostering young talent, and taking on new challenges, it looks like you’re in luck as EA is seemingly promising all that and more.
EA Sports FC 25 releases on September 27, 2024 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.