FIFA 19 impresses at Gamesom 2018

At Gamescom 2018, I got to play three matches of FIFA 19 as Liverpool, Real Madrid and Arsenal. FIFA has always been criticized for relying too much on pace which is why I generally play with teams having fast wingers/striker. But the first thing I noticed was that I had a really tough time getting past defenders. Even when sprinting with Salah, the defender was easily able to shrug me off and I had to use other tactics to get past him. Thankfully, spamming 1-2s still works and that’s how I created most of my chances.

The biggest reason sprinting seems to have been nerfed is that players felt too loose and the ball was just at the edge of being under my control. So I couldn’t just move slightly to either side and run straight like in FIFA 18.

As a side effect, I also had difficulty in holding the ball. In previous games, it was pretty easy to get your players in the enemy box by holding the ball just outside the D, but here it genuinely felt like I will not find it easy to get inside the enemy box by holding, dribbling or using flair players. I was still able to pull off some moves but they took more effort than before. All of this, changes the gameplay for the better, as it means it will be harder for players to exploit systems and it will be difficult to create chances against a tight defence. This may not be the final code of the game but things are already looking up from last year’s game.

Taking shots now gives you an indicator above your player wrt the quality of the shot. Even though the mechanics are the same, and I was able to score goals using the standard far corner shots that were so affective last year, its still a good addition for players new to the game to help them perfect their shots. Its also an extremely useful tool to learn how to score goals from long distances and awkward positions or make that perfect connection with relatively harder to hit shots.

After playing two matches of regular football, the final match was a round of Survival. It’s a part of the new additions to kick off which allows players to customize rules or have no rules at all. In Survival, a random player is removed from the team that scores. Think of it like this, every time you score a player from your team is sent off, and you have to adjust the team, formation and tactics accordingly. The variety of scenarios this can lead to is staggering. It is extremely unlikely that a match will end 3-0 as it is difficult to score goals unless your opponent also scores.

I was extremely pleased with the gameplay of FIFA 19, but anything can change between now and launch, or even post launch. It isn’t a drastic upgrade in any way, but the new modes, smart changes to ultimate team and other QOL enhancements are a welcome addition.

— Parth Bagaria