FIFA 21 earned its fair bit of criticism especially from us when we reviewed the game last year. FIFA is notorious for having little to no changes to its most popular modes and prioritizing Ultimate Team. While Ultimate Team makes Electronic Arts massive amounts of money through micro-transactions, the other modes suffer due to a lack of real changes. With our FIFA 22 wishlist, that needs to change.
Ever since EA started developing its football title on DICE’s Frostbite engine, EA Vancouver has used the engine to make “The Journey” and “Volta Football”. While these additions are a major step in a different direction for FIFA, these modes are not as popular as Pro Clubs or Career Mode. With FIFA 22 on its way this September, we are hopeful for major changes to the world’s most popular sports game.
These are 7 things we want to see in FIFA 22.
FIFA 22 Wishlist
Get Rid of Volta
Lets start with GET RID OF VOLTA. Yup! I said it. Not only does this mode need to go, but EA needs to use the resources within this mode to improve career mode. I’m tired of seeing Volta and The Journey get things like better haircuts, clothing options, voice acting and storylines and none of this makes it into other modes.
Using the same creativity in the manager and player career mode would make the experience so much better. But it must start with removing modes that fans never asked for in the first place.
Player Career Overhaul
This mode has been stripped down to being so bare that it’s not worth anyone’s time. In FIFA 11 you can go through the ranks from being a squad player to club captain. The potential of the mode was so exciting, but now player career is a far cry from that.
In The Journey we’ve seen EA use actual storylines and voice acting to bring a football career to life in FIFA 17. But instead of playing through Alex Hunters “journey” we want to play through our own career. This would feel similar to the NBA 2K’s my player, with a story, voice acting and the ability to make decisions that affect your career.
Nothing beats finding the next Ronaldo or Messi in career mode, and that’s why the youth academy needs changes. I love forming a team full of young faceless players I find within my youth scouting network. Its one of the reasons why I invest so much time into manager career mode.
FIFA hasn’t had many improvements to this feature, but for this FIFA 22 wish list we would love to see the introduction of an under-21 youth league. It would be a great way to better understand and improve youth players within your academy.
Weather you can play these youth games or just simulate them. You can promote players to the senior team depending on their match rating and stats.
Bring Back EA Game Face
Next up, how about bringing back EA Game face, it was such an awesome feature. Scanning your face into the game made your player feel more personal and relatable to you. Sadly, this feature has been removed from FIFA and is now only accessible through UFC 3.
I would love to see EA Game Face return in FIFA 22 with major upgrades and better facial recognition.
Realistic Team Playstyles
Realistic Team Playstyles is a feature I want FIFA to take from PES but make it even better. I hate playing teams like Burnley that start playing football like Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. Teams need to play like their real-life counterpart.
In eFootball PES, teams have different playstyles, Barcelona plays “tiki-taka”, Liverpool plays “fast-buildup”, and Burnley plays “long-ball”. While some of these options are in FIFA 21 within the tactic’s menu, teams seem to not reflect those tactics within gameplay.
This would cause players to change tactics depending on which team they are playing and challenge their knowledge of football.
Owner Mode
Within manager mode, you get objectives like “sale x-number of tickets”, “sales x-number of shirts” and other things you cannot necessarily control. Currently, the best way to achieve these objectives is to just win matches. But an owner mode could change that. It would be like a glorified manager mode that could replicate Football Manager.
Setting ticket prices, shirt prices, and maintaining stadium upgrades & management would be a new way to hit those objectives. Instead of spending a budget on players, how about allowing a set amount of funds to spend in a transfer window? How about being able to control sponsorship deals and other things surrounding football? The possibilities are endless with this mode, sign me up!
And finally, less focus on Ultimate Team.
This is Electronics Arts’ biggest problem, and why FIFA suffers every year from lack of changes. Way too much time and resources are being spent on EA’s predatory Ultimate Team. This is not a demand to have the mode removed in FIFA 22, because people do enjoy this mode. But because of this mode, EA is not focusing on what makes this game great, and what fans of this game really want.
In FIFA 22, we wish for creativity, respect, and major changes to the world’s most popular sports title.
What makes your FIFA 22 wishlist? Let us know in the comments and stick around with SGO for more FIFA Content.