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FIFA Soccer (PlayStation 2 Import)

Being the first PlayStation2 game that Generation5 got its hands on, obviously the first thing that strikes you are the graphics. Fluid, jaw-dropping, hyper-realistic graphics are the order of the day with FIFA Soccer (FS). Hook up two controllers, grab and friend, and enjoy some of the most pleasing two-player football experiences ever. This game has it all: great graphics, superb AI (within reason), decent (albeit shallow) gameplay. A handful of small problems, though, keep this game from being one of my all time favourites.

Graphics

FS is a PlayStation 2 game, what more can be said! The graphics are absolutely incredible, from the pitches, to the players, to the crowd. The thing that strikes you first is just how well modelled the players are. The movements are absolutely perfect, and they transition from movement to movement without any sort of jump. It is the small subtleties that really make the game look so perfect - how the players will stumble if the goalie grabs the ball from their feet, how the goalie will drop the ball at times, how the players fall over or stumble if hit hard by the ball, or how they bash each other around with a slyly placed shoulder charge. You will never find a more realistically modelled game out there.

The players all are relatively realistic features - as in hair length, style, skin colour and other basic facial features. They all move their mouths and eyes as they beckon the referee to give a free kick, or celebrate a goal. While they don't look the most realistic of faces, it all adds to the depth of the experience for me.

The pitches all look beautiful, both at night and day - some of the pitches sport some very interesting shadowing effects. The pitches also sport ambient characters, cameramen (who follow the ball!), policemen that mope about watching the crowd, and the management team that get up and down from their seats randomly.

Gameplay

If this is where I had to fault FIFA it would be - the gameplay is just a little too shallow. You can play an exhibition match, the world cup, or an under-23s tournament as well as basic training. While this may sound like a lot, I've completed the world cup (ok, on "Amateur" game level) and the U-23 on my first time of trying. The exhibition matches always give you something, and I normally use the training to advance my skills. Unfortunately, training within FIFA is rather simple - no where near as in-depth as UEFA Striker (Dreamcast).

The only long-term playability of FIFA comes with 2-player matches against your friends and family. This though, is some of the best gaming experience you're likely to have. Into the early hours of the morning, me and my best friend battled it out, screaming and shouting at each other and the referee.

Which brings me nicely to the next point: the referee. The ref, even on a relative setting, seems to call fouls when he doesn't need to, and let others go sailing by. Singly, one of the most annoying aspects of the game is the offside rule. I have no idea how they determine whether a player is offside, but it is blatantly wrong! The flow of the game is seriously disrupted at times, and at seemingly random points.

These points aside, the game play is good. The controls are nicely done, with the left analog joypad being used to control your players, and the action buttons and L1,L2,R1,R2 buttons all being employed under different scenarios to do different things. The players can do some neat little tricks, like hook the ball up with their feet, or dribble around the ball then chip it over their shoulder. One really annoying control quirk is that if you double-click a button, often the game will repeat it twice. This doesn't sound too bad, but when the same button is used to tackle and shoot, it can mean the difference between a win and a lose. For example, I tackled a player around the halfway mark in the opponents half. Since I was pressing the button repeatedly, my player tackled beautifully, but then proceeded to take an impossible shot at the goal.

Artificial Intelligence

I must admit, I beat the computer 13-0 when I first played it. I nearly died from shock - the computer was so defensive, it never tackled, it rarely surged forward, and its players never sprinted. Luckily, after browsing the options for a while (thankfully, I read Japanese), I found the game level option, and quickly upped it to "World-class" level and played a quick exhibition game. I was thrashed 4-1 and had only 37% possession throughout the match. The AI is a monster at higher levels, you have to try very hard not to get tackled, the AI spreads out a lot more making use of the pitch - the computer players seem to be everywhere you don't want them to be! They are much more aggressive, and pass the ball around so quickly you find yourself smacking the "Change Player" button more than anything else!

I quickly toned the AI down to "Pro" level, and played a game. I lost 2-1, but the possession was nearly 50-50. A perfect balance, it seems, between the stupidly easy (I won the world cup, winning my games: 6-0, 8-0, 4-0, 5-0 and 4-1) to the definite world-class level. The cool thing is, the AI players use all the moves that the human player can use, hooking the ball up in his feet before he gets tackled, dribbling around the ball to effectively block any attempt at tackling, before volleying the ball into the top-left hand corner of the net!

Again, if I were to fault something, I'd pick on the goalkeeper. While he does a series of impressive jumps, he does little to avoid a goal if he misses or deflects the ball. One occassion, my friend shot wide, and the keeper deflected it, only to watch it roll to the corner of the box where another one of my friends players volleyed it in. Another occasion, the ball hit the keeper, and dropped to the ground where it slowly rolled into my goal. I've never shouted more profanity at a computer player than at that goalkeeper...

Nevertheless, the AI excellent - definitely on par with that of UEFA Striker, although it doesn't quite exhibit the same "uniformity" and collective strategy I felt UEFA had. It is enough to keep me up into the early hours of the morning though!

Conclusion

This is definitely a game worth getting if you often have friends round for battles. When they're not there, up the AI to "Pro" level and improve your tackling and ball handling. While FIFA lacks any deep gameplay, the in-game experience is great enough to keep long term playability at a high level. EA Sports really does have to fix that offside bug, though...

Cover 8.5

Platform: PlayStation 2

Liked: Excellent graphics, great AI, good controls and options.

Disliked: Training lacked depth, additional gameplay modes would have been appreciated, referee a little weird at times.

.: Buy at Amazon.com :.

Last Updated: 27/11/2000

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