At a recent preview event, I went hands-on with EA Sports FC 25 to check out Rush and Kick-Off gameplay. Rush is the new game mode that’s being added across most modes and pits four human players against four more real players. It’s being touted as EA Sports FC 25‘s most social and fast-paced mode, serving as an evolution of Volta and Clubs. Kick-Off is, of course, standard EA Sports FC 25 gameplay. I spent the bulk of my time testing out the new Player Roles system to see how much it affected gameplay. That said, the developers at Electronic Arts still have a few months to tweak gameplay, so take everything I say with a grain of salt until we’re able to hop into the final build.
EA Plays it Smart With Rush
As mentioned, Rush is a 4v4 (with a CPU goalkeeper) version of gameplay. You can play it offline in Kick-Off and Career Mode, but the focus is on delivering social gameplay in places like Ultimate Team. During the demo, we played two, seven-minute matches. It’s important to remember that when you’re playing at an event, you’re generally playing under ideal circumstances. You don’t have to worry as much about connection speed or being matched against players with a much higher or lower skill level than you.
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With that acknowledged, Rush was a blast in my limited time. I don’t think it’s replacing anyone’s favorite mode, but it’s not supposed to. Unlike Volta, Rush isn’t its own thing. For example, in Ultimate Team, you’re bringing in your own card to team up with three friends or randoms. You can even bring in Evolutions and continue working on them in a low-stakes mode. EA isn’t trying to move players to a brand-new mode. Instead, the developers are smartly using Rush to augment its existing modes. Whether the mode is a success or not, that’s a smart design decision from EA.
When talking to the developers, it was clear that the focus for Rush is one word: “fun.” Each game begins with a ball roll-out that often gets chaotic. I’m sure strategy will develop over EA Sports FC 25‘s life cycle, but seeing eight players all run at the ball at once reminded me of the XFL rule for kick-offs. The ref tossed the ball out ten yards and then a player from each team sprinted to try and gain possession. It’s a little silly, but it absolutely hits that fun factor.
There are other gameplay changes, including the addition of a blue card. Instead of being sent off for the entire game, players who commit a severe penalty are sent to the sidelines for a set amount of time, similar to how hockey handles things. It’s strange to effectively get a power play in soccer, but it works. Speaking of hockey, if you give up a penalty, players won’t line up at the spot. Instead, they’ll have a run-up from around the half-life before taking their shot, similar to the ice-bound sport.ย
As you’d expect with fewer players on the pitch, the actual field is slightly smaller as well. However, you still have plenty of space to work with the ball at your feet. Since every player is controlled by a human, finding and creating space with off-ball movement is key. That said, players who excel with skill moves will be able to take advantage of the more wide-open pitch to truly do some damage. The developers claimed during the presentation that “everything you do matters.” After playing a few rounds, that doesn’t seem like it’s purely PR speak.
Player Roles Might Be a Game-Changer
Over in Kick-Off, I spent most of my time playing with the new tactics made possible through Player Roles in FC IQ. In the presentation, EA producer Thomas Caleffi called this the “most significant change in a decade.” That sounds hyperbolic (and to some degree, it probably is), but FC IQ does have the potential to change the game in some major ways.
Gone are the days of old work rates and concrete formation tactics. Now, you’ll be able to use Player Roles to develop tactics that suit your players and playstyle in ways that were never possible in the last few versions of the game. For example, using Player Roles, Liverpool players can send Trent Alexander-Arnold into his real-world position of a deep-lying midfielder as soon as the team takes possession. You can create tactics based on whether your team has the ball or not, giving you unparalleled control over how your team moves around the pitch.
Again, I didn’t have a ton of time on the sticks to try out Player Roles, but my limited time with the feature was promising. I mainly played with Manchester City and was able to create tactics that sent Bernardo Silva out wide when we took possession, while Rodrigo would settle back as essentially a third center-back. That then let Kyle Walker sprint upfield and effectively give me four wingers to ping in balls to Erling Haaland.ย
That’s only a small example of what you can do with Player Roles and FC IQ. There are a few improvements I’d like to see in future games, including the ability to set conditional instructions based on which side of the field you pick up the ball, but this seems like a solid foundation. Of course, it’s equally possible that players will quickly figure out the meta and the game becomes stale, but after an hour of tweaking settings and then seeing them play out in gameplay, I’m excited to see how well Player Roles will work once EA Sports FC 25 is available worldwide.
Fortunately, we don’t have to wait too long before that happens. EA Sports FC 25 launches on September 27th for PlayStation, Switch, Xbox, and PC. If you purchase one of the deluxe editions, you’ll get seven days of early access, letting you hop in on September 20th.
