EA Sports FC 27 Review: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Platform Tested: PlayStation 5

Modes Played: Offline Only (Online modes were not played)

EA Sports FC 27 arrives with promises of steady development and smart iterations, pitching a heavier, more measured tempo on the pitch along with structural redesigns to its game modes. But putting aside the publisher hype and taking the game onto the pitch for an extended offline session on PlayStation reveals an experience that takes one step forward and two steps back.

On-Pitch Gameplay: Pretty Graphics Masked by Broken Mechanics

Visually, the game makes a solid first impression. The visual engine delivers decent overall graphics on the console, and defending has received a genuinely satisfying upgrade—tackles look and feel remarkably realistic, making a well-timed crunching challenge in midfield feel weighty and rewarding.

However, once you get past the initial polish, matchplay falls apart quickly:

• Overpowered Shooting & Broken Keepers: Finishing is wildly overtuned. Attacking players can score far too easily, largely because the goalkeepers are completely hit-and-miss. All too often, shot-stoppers dive out of the way of routine strikes rather than attempting a legitimate save.
• Artificial Difficulty Tuning: Adjusting difficulty settings fails to improve tactical AI intelligence. Instead, higher difficulties simply handicap your team—your players feel noticeably slower and sluggish, while the AI opponents receive an unnatural speed boost to artificially inflate the challenge.

Bugs & Technical Mess

While there are subtle underlying attempt at weightier gameplay and refined player weight, the actual day-to-day match action is hindered by severe visual and system bugs.

Replays regularly break immersion by placing camera angles underneath the pitch, showing players floating over a void. These aren’t isolated visual glitches; they speak to a broader lack of quality assurance across offline modes.

Career Mode: Better Direction, Broken Execution

Career Mode represents the core of the single-player experience, and structurally, it shows signs of promise. The decision to remove tedious cutscenes in favor of streamlined administrative menus is a major step in the right direction, getting you back to managing your club faster without unnecessary filler.

Unfortunately, poor menu optimization and game-breaking bugs completely undermine these improvements:

1. Sluggish Menus: Despite the UI redesign, navigating transfer hubs and squad management screens still feels slow and clunky.
2. Game-Breaking Contract Bugs: Negotiating contracts is a gamble. Offering a contract that gets officially accepted often fails to register in the system. The result? Key squad members walk away on free transfers for no reason at all, completely destroying your team build.
3. Frustrating Morale System: Morale plays a major role in squad performance, but it is overtuned to an annoying degree. Players constantly drop into negative mood states for trivial reasons, suffering harsh drops to their overall rating (OVR) and noticeable hits to their pace on the pitch.