EA Sports FC 27: our verdict

Every year, the same question comes back around EA Sports FC: is this really a new game, or a roster update dressed up in a 70-euro box? For this 27th installment, launching worldwide on September 25 with early access from the 18th for Ultimate editions, the answer is more nuanced than usual. We spent about ten hours on a press build, split between quick matches, a season launched in Manager Career, and a few Ultimate Team sessions, to form an honest opinion.

The essentials: the biggest Career overhaul in years

FC 27's headline marketing pitch is its six different growth profiles for players in Career Mode. In practice, every footballer now develops along a curve of their own: some peak early then plateau, others climb slowly but hold their level over time, and others still have a brief peak before declining. On paper, this is exactly what Career players have been asking for over the years: an end to linear, predictable progression that turned scouting young talent into a mechanical exercise rather than an exciting one.

In practice, the effect is real but gradual: over ten hours, it's hard to fully judge the impact of a system designed to reveal itself across multiple virtual seasons. What you notice right away, though, is the transfer market, largely reworked in collaboration with TransferRoom to make AI moves more believable: fewer big clubs letting their best players go for peanuts, more logic in the bidding. The "Unexpected Events," surprise injuries and point deductions for poor financial management, add a welcome layer of unpredictability, though their frequency can quickly turn annoying if the RNG decides to target your squad.

On the pitch, the most visible change concerns corners and aerial play: new attacking options, a reworked spatial defensive AI meant to better cover dangerous zones, and an expanded creative runs system that, on certain plays, genuinely feels like deliberate collective movement rather than scripted animation. Early sessions confirm these reworked corners are fun to experiment with, with several tactical setups that genuinely change the outcome of a set piece.

The experience: Ultimate Team breathes a little easier

The mode that keeps the franchise financially alive also got its spring cleaning. Squad Building Challenges (SBCs) now use a system where each card contributes a number toward an overall target, rather than demanding eleven specific players with a given rating or chemistry: a real relief for anyone who's spent an entire evening juggling transfer market filters to complete a poorly calibrated challenge. The Evolutions system now branches out from the very first stage, with paths favoring different stat boosts or playstyles, adding some strategic choice to a system that was starting to feel stale.

Notable addition: every special card now has a rarer, visually distinct holographic version, a cosmetic touch but one that speaks directly to the collector crowd. EA is also introducing, for the first time, themed solo challenges with themed AI opponents, custom squad requirements, and tournament-style progression, giving some content to players who have neither the desire nor the time to grind competitive multiplayer. End-of-match rewards have also been revised to hand out tradable content more consistently, something the community had been asking for after several seasons deemed too stingy.

The limits: old habits under the polish

That covers the appealing side. Now for reality: in the crunch moments of a tight match, FC 27's feel remains extremely close to FC 26's. Overall pacing, ball physics, ground duels, all of it evolves in small increments rather than sweeping changes, which is consistent with an annual franchise but makes it hard to justify a full repurchase for anyone who already owns FC 26 and doesn't play Ultimate Team obsessively.

And speaking of Ultimate Team, despite its welcome SBC tweaks, it doesn't give up anything fundamental: paid packs remain the backbone of the mode, the pressure to open your wallet to keep up with promos and special cards is just as present, simply dressed up better. As for Career Mode, promising as it looks on paper with its growth profiles and reworked market, it falls back fairly quickly into its historical flaw: a string of management screens interspersed with matches, without the narrative depth other genres have offered for years. Leaks promised a return of "narrative depth"; over our ten hours of play, what we mostly saw were slightly prettier spreadsheets.

Who is it for?

For diehard Career fans who dropped the mode two or three years ago for lack of new content, FC 27 is clearly worth a look: the growth profiles and reworked transfer market give a concrete reason to come back. For Ultimate Team regulars, the year ahead looks more comfortable on the SBC front, but don't expect any rethinking of the business model. For everyone else, those who play occasionally in FIFA's yearly carousel, the same question comes up every year: full price is mainly justified if you skipped last year's edition. If you do pick it up and plan on grinding Rivals or FUT Champs, our PC settings and controller setup guide covers the configuration worth using.

Score: 7.3/10. EA Sports FC 27 is a good vintage, arguably the most ambitious of the post-rebrand cycle on paper, carried by a Career Mode that finally regains a bit of soul. But on the pitch, in the moment-to-moment play, the franchise still looks a lot like itself: for better, the formula remains solid, and for worse, it keeps dodging the real breaks from tradition.