EA Sports FC 27 Review: Great Tactics, Frustrating Grounds

FC 27's expanded Tactics system is a genuine win, but The Grounds open world, stiff cutscenes, and server issues drag the experience down.

Ever booted up a new football game only to wonder why you're running through a low-res city just to find a match? That's the weird spot EA Sports FC 27 puts you in.

The good news first: the expanded Tactics system is easily the best thing here. It builds on the playstyles and roles from recent years and gives you real control over how your team behaves in different phases of play. You're not just picking a formation anymore — you're understanding the purpose, strengths, and weaknesses of each approach, which matters a lot when you're building around individual player attributes.

As a Manchester United fan, our reviewer found a deeper defensive approach worked wonders for Noussair Mazraoui, whose patient style lets him hold position and disrupt attacks without constantly stepping out of shape. A short-passing buildup gave him chances to use his technical ability without abandoning that defensive structure. Switching formations mid-match against Crystal Palace — moving to a 4-2-2-2 and letting Bruno Fernandes operate between the lines — created quick combinations through the middle. Against Manchester City, a 4-2-3-1 wide with Fernandes more central and Kobbie Mainoo combining through one-twos helped counter their wing control. That flexibility is genuinely exciting.

Then there's The Grounds, the new open-world hub, and this is where things get rough. It works as an active lobby for matchmaking and makes it easier to find players and move between activities, but it often feels like EA is solving a problem that didn't exist. Simple menus could do the same job more efficiently. The hub is visually saturated and low-resolution, populated by lifeless NPCs, with framerate drops and unnatural animations. Unskippable cutscenes and NBA 2K15-level voice acting don't help.

The return of Alex Hunter from The Journey should have been a highlight. Voiced again by Adetomiwa Edun, his delivery here feels rigid and detached compared to his passionate, natural performance nearly a decade ago. Kylian Mbappe's appearance is even stiffer — his lines sound like they were read straight from the script in one take. You'll be grateful your created character doesn't speak.

Multiplayer remains a mess too. Disconnects, server lag, and errors plagued the first full week, with more kicked or abandoned games than you can count. One match saw an opponent's keeper float up the pitch with the ball during a goal kick before returning to his posts — and a corner was awarded. The minigames, from Balloon Ball to Football Tennis, are fun in small doses but feel like they belong in FIFA Street. Progression tied to coins and XP that can be bought with real money only deepens the worry that the series keeps drifting from the beautiful game toward microtransactions.

So FC 27 is another year of one step forward, one step back. The tactics are worth your time, but The Grounds and ongoing online issues make it hard to fully enjoy. What do you think — will you be picking this up?