FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Review FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Review
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FIFA 15 Ultimate Team Review

Our Review by Blake Grundman on October 2nd, 2014
Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: YELLOW CARD
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This season, EA Sports has decided to offer up a more bite-sized portion of the FIFA experience. Unfortunately it still feels like something is missing.

Developer: Electronic Arts
Price: FREE
Version Reviewed: 1.0.7
App Reviewed on: iPhone 6 Plus

Graphics / Sound Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Gameplay Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar
Playtime Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Replay Value Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar

The mobile versions of FIFA have been a progressively improving product over the last five years. Granted each year’s iteration was good in its own respect, but year-over-year it began to feel like a constantly building crescendo of quality. With last year’s outing snagging a coveted Editor’s Choice, can 2015’s installment continue the trend?

Imagine a world where developers are so content with a particular game mode that they decided to do away with the rest of the game altogether. This is exactly what happened with in FIFA 15 Ultimate Team. As the name might imply, this year’s focus revolves around EA’s ever present Ultimate Team mode, and not much else. Call me crazy, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, either.

The free offering dives right into the card-collecting mechanics before players even have the chance to hit the pitch. Instead of the prerequisite on-the-field tutorial and the like, players are treated to the pleasure of opening packs of cards and designing their squad from the ground up. For some this may be quite a change of pace, but given that the mode is far from a newcomer and EA’s added emphasis over the past couple of installments, it is hard to imagine that this will be new to many.

An improved casual control scheme will be waiting to greet competitors when they take the field, which further helps to take advantage of the iOS touch interfaces. That said, there's still an on-screen joypad, so complaints about precision should at least somewhat be predictable. Thankfully the stellar presentation is back, and it plays almost as fantastically as its visual polish would suggest. This is essentially the same footie experience that we loved last season, only with another pass of spit-shining.

For everything that the game does well, it is worth mentioning that the concept of an exhibition match or an online game with your favorite team and/or lineup will be next to impossible. Unless the player has managed to luck into recreating the squad using cards, there is little that can be done to settle a grudge match. Instead players are forced to use one of their Ultimate Team squads. While this is certainly not the end of the world, it does feel like a bit of a step back from prior seasons.

It's hard to be too critical of FIFA 15 Ultimate Team when it could, in theory, be played forever without the need to spend a penny. Sure, the grind will be long and hard, but it's not only possible, it's a totally feasible manner to play the game in its entirety. However, it is impossible to miss the fact that this is only a portion of the game that fans have come to expect. Luckily, what is present will prove to be more than enough to satiate most soccer fanatics.

iPhone Screenshots

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FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 1 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 2 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 3 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 4 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 5

iPad Screenshots

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FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 6 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 7 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 8 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 9 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 10

Apple Watch Screenshots

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FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 11 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 12 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 13 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 14 FIFA 15 Ultimate Team™ New Season screenshot 15
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