Also this year the time has come for the annual title dedicated to FIFA di Electronic Arts. The first thing that immediately catches the eye is the presence of some news, mainly related to the presence of a called mode Volta which echoes the street football we used to see in FIFA Street.
This year's challenge is quite fierce, PES 2020 has been able to conquer the critics thanks to its very versatile and functional engine. Electronic Arts certainly could not remain idle and this year wanted to renew the quality of its product a little.
Volta mode effectively takes the place of Travel mode, where we played the role of Alex Hunter in a single-player story.
It will be successful FIFA 20 to conquer a worthy place in our ranking? Find out in our review.
Street football is back!
Let's start with what is actually the main novelty of FIFA 20: the Volta mode. This new mode offers a side dish singleplayer story, a bit like the story of Alex Hunter did. The story puts us in the shoes of an emerging street player, who is part of the group led by one of the "kings of the road" Jayzinho.
After a series of matches, the famous player will suffer an injury thus forcing the protagonist to take part in the championship by replacing his captain.
We would like to say that this is not a thick narrative and that it aims to be, mainly its usefulness is to get us used to the mechanics of the Volta mode, familiarizing ourselves with all its features in the fields around the world.
Pleasant news
One of the elements that catches the eye is character customization through an editor almost complete, which allows us to modify not only the physical characteristics but also the aesthetic ones, also allowing us to unlock many customization elements as we advance in rank.
Even in the street mode it will be possible to impersonate a female sex character. Our character is not mute, but he will have an interaction within the story by also being voiced.
On balance, Volta is a rather valid mode and the singleplayer enriches and helps the learning of the new functions that are proposed. The real heart of street football can be experienced in the online mode, using our character and making him accumulate experience with the various online matches.
The other mode that stands out in a title like FIFA 20 is definitely Ultimate Team, which offers a super competitive structure and which is always played by gamers who love the online component.
Compared to the past, there are objectives that complement the daily challenges, in order to obtain more rewards for our team. Structurally the method remained almost identical, even if the HUDs are finally much more intuitive and easily open to a less elitist audience.
The carreer is one of those modalities that enrich the plate of the singleplayer sector, even if we anticipate that it has remained almost identical to the past. It is interesting to add a called phase "Press conferences", based on our choices we will determine the mood of the team, thus altering the performance on the playing field.
Often we will have to face individual players face to face, who will often ask us for explanations on certain of our choices, and in this case based on what we answer, we will determine the mood of the player and his "will" within of the match.
Basically it is a very contour element, which does not enrich the gaming experience at all, since after a few hours everything becomes rather monotonous and you almost always run into the same dialogues several times.
In some ways, the career mode seems to mimic some functions present in the simulator Football Manager. We will also have the possibility of being able to customize our coach's appearance, making him unique within the field.
Fluid but not enough
Le animations of game result such and such what view do you know FIFA 19. We have not found who knows what big changes, the only positive note lies in the input of the commands, much more reactive and fluid, which allow a dynamic game action and that gets tangled very few times, thus giving us a harmonious rendering.
We cannot say the same ofartificial intelligence, which he carries with him the same problems of the last chapter even at maximum difficulty. The sense of challenge for what is present is not "very high", a little practice is enough to get around the opponent's AI in a short time.
The same thing happens with playmates, they are not always reactive and force us (as far as possible) to take the reins of the game manually, trying to give the maximum within the game action.
Volta mode has a technical side of its own, as we won't play normally in matches. Within the matches we will be able to show off all our techniques from freestyler, starting from dribbles up to through passages using the walls. There is no slip on Volta mode, but instead there is a tackle of feet that allows you to take the ball away from the opponent.
Non-competitive techniques
Graphically we can hardly complain about anything, the polygonal models and the rendition of the players is almost perfect. In some ways, however, we are a few steps below what PES 2020 has managed to propose. Fortunately, the rendering of the animations is excellent, making the game much more fluid and pleasant to see. The version we tested was the one for PC, well optimized, despite having an annoying pre-launcher when starting the game.
We cannot express a positive judgment for i server online, which often forced us to finish several leave prematurely. We hope that the development team can improve the Online infrastructure, as this is mainly a title that is played online.
Final Comment
In conclusion, FIFA 20 on balance it brings some news such as the modality Volta, but fails to revolutionize anything but re-proposes an engine inherited from the previous chapter. Our wish is that in the future Electronic Arts can find the definitive "turning point" to revolutionize the brand, even if La Volta is a first step towards that path.
The title is mainly recommended for fans of the football title EA Sports or for those who want to play four games in the company of friends.
