My thoughts about recent FC games are actually comparable to Arsene Wenger’s final years at Arsenal: Fine, they did the job, but it felt like everyone was afraid to move on. What followed was a period of instability before Arteta came in and had to rebuild the team from scratch.
However, Arsenal are now a powerhouse again after taking time to start from scratch. That’s where I feel we are with EA FC 27 (and the games in general). The initial gameplay this year is great, and there are nice tweaks across the board, but this has become a franchise now where every team sheet is the same. There’s a stubbornly unwavering approach to its overall philosophy, and EA seems reluctant to hit the reset button.
EA FC 27 gives us another solid year of Wenger, when we really need an Arteta (Liverpool fan, by the way).
Grounds For Improvement
We know the EA FC drill by now, so I’m going to get straight into the bits you want to know about: The Grounds—is it the new game mode that makes this a must-buy? I can say without question that it is not.
Now, we knew about The Grounds pre-launch from all the leaks, and the reception wasn’t positive. I hoped EA would make some fun adjustments, and what we have is a very mundane hub area with a smattering of quick mini-games, most of which are recycled gameplay, the odd football fact/graffiti littered around the city, which will cumulatively take you a few minutes to find and read, and some targets to kick a ball at.
It’s completely lackluster, and while it’s the necessary step forward for greater social interaction and helping the community to visually and literally engage with one another, given The Grounds has been in development for several years, it’s the equivalent of Cristiano Ronaldo gearing up for one of his famous free-kicks with all the pomp and circumstance, before ballooning it in Row Z.
There is something here, and if EA continues with The Grounds, which they inevitably will do, then there needs to be more to it. More content is coming, but I think the lack of it could already ward players off. If you want a chill night with friends, you might have fun hanging out and playing a few games and messing around. But The Grounds was advertised as one of EA FC 27’s biggest features, and it needs more time on the training ground.
Career Mode has had more tweaks, and I’m impressed by the game’s start-up options, as you can micromanage almost every aspect of the beginning of a career. I might be in the minority here, but aside from the constant overlooking of a co-op career, I think EA’s take on a years-long journey is quite deep. The addition of TransferRoom and AI has made signings far more immersive and realistic. I’m quite happy with the level of detail overall, and Dynamic Overalls help keep the experience alive and constantly fresh.
Ultimate Team is Ultimate Team. The new Gallery feature is nice and encourages you to care more about who you pack, as greater diversity and picking up bargains on the transfer market rewards you with currency you can use for greater rewards. Removing ‘Commons’ is a nice touch, and it definitely feels like there are more Coins to earn this year. Again, if you already play Ultimate Team, you’ll have fun, but if you oppose EA’s cavernous cash cow, there’s nothing new that demands your attention.
Gameplay is King…For Now
So many have come, attempting to dethrone EA FC: GOALS, UFL, Rematch, to an extent. But there’s no doubt the arcadey flair of EA FC 27 is still the king of the jungle.
I’ve extensively tested out Competitive gameplay in Ultimate Team and tried my hand at offline Career Mode with the Authentic gameplay. I can tell you that both are fun and formulated in a way that I wanted more, which is the goal (no pun intended) at the end of the day.
Competitive has delivered what EA promised: You HAVE to manually defend this year. Sit deep with your Centre-Backs, or ease off with your CDMs, and watch as your AI betrays you and neglects to put much of a tackle in. Not only that, but your team will be like the force of opposing magnets, almost scared of the ball. FC 27 requires you to be in full control: Engage with a standing or slide tackle when the moment calls, and bring forth a second defender to contain the opposition player.
Haphazard challenges, weak pressing, and errors in judgement will be punished. I struggled immensely early on, with some of my early Division Rivals games being very high-scoring, but I acknowledge I was at fault. Purists will revel in FC 27’s return to skill over serendipitous AI doing the work. Authentic gameplay is still one of my favorite additions to the franchise in years, carrying on from FC 26, and its pacing feels perfect. I wonder if Ultimate Team could incorporate a specific authentic event or mode?
The overhanging, looming threat to EA FC 27 lingers like Sir Alex in the dressing room, with EA ready to kick a boot at us at any moment. What will this game look like two or three months from now? The developer consistently releases a new game, then undoes everything by changing the gameplay with new patches to suit a minority—anyone else getting EA FC 26 PTSD?
EA FC 27 plays incredibly well right now: Passing is smooth and responsive, the work into better 1-2s shows, crossing and scoring headers is a thing again, and defending is an art form once more. All it takes is one higher-up to drop the hammer and make defending completely AI-controlled, and the game you’ve paid for is gone. I’ll give EA the benefit of the doubt and trust that ‘EA FC 27 won’t have “Significant Gameplay Balance Changes” in its first updates.‘
Ultimately, though, I’m still left wondering now…did we need a new game for this? It’s a common sentiment; these are gameplay updates that could easily be patched in. The boomer that I am remembers when FIFA 10 introduced 360-degree dribbling, which genuinely blew my mind. Or when FIFA 12 introduced the Impact Engine to create realistic collisions and overhauled the Defending system we still know today.
Years have passed, and I would love for someone to tell me the last true innovation in an EA FC game that demanded a full price tag.
Lazier Than Berbatov
I will never understand how the devs can work on and playtest every new EA FC game, and continue to let the god-awful menus exist. With so many game modes and sub-options now, the user interaction cost to do anything continues to grow exponentially. EA needs to update its slow, laggy menus to be more modern, intuitive, and as liquid-like as the football it presents.
It’s agonizing and frustrating plodding through every menu like my boots are stuck in treacle. All the usual issues continue to plague the experience as well: The irrational EA servers freezing or kicking me out at a moment’s notice, text overlaying or going missing more than Haaland in big games, and rewards and objectives not working.
This is a consistent gripe across all EA sports games, and the DNA is uniform. Lack of care for the presentation because the focus is on gameplay. EA FC 27 is supposed to be ‘The World’s Game,’ but it’s hard to read or accept this when the world’s recurring complaints are continually ignored.
We’ve graphically plateaued, and it was always going to be the case, and they look lifelike. I give EA all the kudos and all the credit in the world for its face-capturing and updated player models and running styles, but you’ll find that we probably spend more time in menus than we actually do on the pitch, and both should be a pleasurable experience.
EA SPORTS FC 27 Review Verdict
It doesn’t matter what I say or do, EA FC 27 will be one of the best-selling games of 2026 and 2027. EA’s juggernaut is unstoppable, and the multi-billion empire doesn’t need FC to be perfect—and it’s not. The Grounds is a hollow headline addition, and the UI, interface, and menus continue to be a disjointed mess, which is incredible as it juxtaposes the gameplay in a magical way.
At launch, EA FC 27’s offline and online gameplay is utterly addictive, more so than watching long-range goal compilations. The changes across the board are incremental, and a fun football game awaits those who do purchase it. Time will tell if it stays this way, but we so desperately need a big year from EA sometime soon.
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EA SPORTS FC 27
Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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