The changes to FIFA Ultimate Team outlined in this article relate to current-gen versions of the game. Details about the game on PS4 and Xbox One have not yet been revealed.
Since its inception four years ago, FIFA Ultimate Team has become one of the most popular ways to enjoy FIFA. Over a million games are played daily. If you’re not one of converted, it’s a mode in which you get to build your own team from scratch, competing in leagues and competitions. Players are represented in the form of trading cards, which can be bought in packs or traded from other players. You can even manage your team when you're away from your console using FUT's browser interface. For many, it's become an addition as well as the default way to enjoy FIFA.
Changes are coming, though, with FIFA 14 aiming to bring more depth and accessibility to FUT. Added tactical depth comes from the more nuanced approach to team chemistry. Currently, a FUT team is bound by links that run from player to player – the strength of these links depends on a number of factors, such as the team’s formation, the player’s preferred position, the nationality of the players linked, and so on. This in turn affects a whole host of individual attributes – aggression, finishing, stamina, and more – which in turn affects the team's overall performance.
Up until now, that chemistry has operated with a degree of mystery. But in FIFA 14, there's more transparency than ever before, and you'll be able to tweak the individual 'chemistry style' of a player, making them fit in with the system you want to play. Currently, there's around 20-25 styles being worked one, with each given a catchy moniker like 'Sniper' or 'Anchor' to describe the attributes it enhances (the names are still a work in progress). Typically, two key attribute are enhanced with each chemistry style. For instance, select 'Finisher' for a player and they'll experience boosts to their shooting and heading ability. Each player will come with a default chemistry style, but you'll be able to customise them via the use of FUT consumables.
But in FIFA 14, you’ll have more direct control on chemistry of your team in the form of chemistry styles. You’ll be able to mould each player by giving them a particular way of playing. Currently, there’s around twenty – each one has a catchy moniker like ‘Sniper’ and ‘Anchor’ to describe the attributes it enhances. Typically, two key attributes are enhanced, allowing you to mould players so they can fit any style you want to play. For instance, the ‘Finisher’ attribute increases shooting and heading.
To give an example of how it works in the game: imagine you want to play with attacking fullbacks but your starting line-up doesn’t naturally support that formation. Normally, adopting such tactics would potentially lower your team’s overall chemistry. But this year, chemistry styles allow you to alter your tactics without sacrificing the team’s collective unity. So if you were playing as Manchester United, you could apply the ‘Powerhouse’ style to Valencia, increasing his defending prowess, so when Evra sets off on an overlapping run, the team isn’t weakened defensively.
It’s also hoped chemistry styles will add a more tactical edge to encounters, too. Say you’re facing a team that plays with out-and-out wingers, you might want to apply the ‘Shadow’ style to your own wide-men, which enhances their defending and pace. With around 25 styles on offer, there could be a lot of scope for this kind of tactical back-and-forth.
You can freely apply a lot of these styles. Any field style (i.e. not goalkeeping styles) can be applied to any player. Again, this allows you to mould players to your own needs. Messi is already an incredible finisher, so applying to the 'Finisher' style augments his natural abilities further. But you can choose to apply another style, making him a more all-round player.
It's a simple way to introduce complexity, and it's an innovation that's taken some inspiration from a very different genre: the RPG. "It's almost a skill tree lite," is how FUT producer Marcel Kuhn describes it to me. "It's not as deep as an RPG game, obviously, but it's a lite skill tree, and we want to see how people receive it. And we will build on it if people like it."
FUT has looked around the other games in EA's stable to draw inspiration for FUT this year. "We asked other developers within EA for their feedback – so the Mass Effects and other games that use similar systems. But we're all gamers ourselves, and we all play those games, so that's where draw our inspiration from."
Chemistry Styles are undoubtedly the headline addition to FUT this year, but based on community feedback there’s loads of minor additions. Single games can be played online – you don’t always have to be taking part in tournament matches where the stakes are high. Single games, it’s hoped, will allow players the opportunity to experiment, try out new formations, since a lot less will be riding on the result.
The transfer market also benefits from improvements to search and how individual players are compared. Predictive search makes it much easier and quicker to track down exactly the player you want to join your ranks. And for those control freaks, you can now customise every aspect of your team – you can set player roles, decide who takes corners and penalties, tweak squad numbers, and give the arm band to player who most deserves to wear it.
This year the aim is simple: add further complexity to FUT without making the it overly complicated. Based on what I've seen (I've not yet played with any of this stuff), chemistry styles seem a neat way to introduce a layer of nuance without overwhelming the player.
Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer. You can be part of the world's most embarrassing cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.
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