FIFA Heroes preview - "The lad's got potential"

I used to play a lot of EA Sports’ FIFA before eventually bowing out around 2015 when the importance of Ultimate Team came at the detriment of every other mode. I understood. It was their cash cow, after all, but I used to love a good career mode. Since then, it’s become EA Sports FC, and I’ve been intrigued to see where the FIFA licence might end up. Now, it seems that it will be spread across several games, with one of them being Enver Studios’ FIFA Heroes, which I recently had the opportunity to go hands-on with. And while it certainly shows plenty of promise in spells, I’m not 100% convinced it’s ready for the big leagues ahead of its April 28th launch.

If you’ve read any of our previous coverage, then you’ll know that Heroes isn’t trying to be a perfect football sim. In fact, it has no interest in that whatsoever. If I were to describe it somewhat flippantly, because I enjoy doing that, I’d go with FIFA Street meets Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. By which I mean, Enver Studios is serving up arcade-style 5-a-side matches where the various players at your disposal possess potentially game-changing abilities. Some examples include Meteor Shot, which sees the ball struck with such power and pace that even if the goalkeeper makes a save, they’ll likely spend a bit of time lying on the ground, no doubt regretting their decision to go between the sticks, as another player taps in the rebound.

The streets meet MOBAs

There are defensive options, too. Magnetizer creates an area around the user which sucks the ball away from the opposition and back into their possession. There’s another character who can summon a gigantic whirlwind, while another simply charges with an intimidating ferocity. At present, they struck me as a bit of a mixed bag. Magnetizer seems like a far superior Brute Charge, while Meteor Shot initially seems like a guaranteed goal until you realise it’s fairly simple to counter, given its lengthy charge time.

That’s not all bad, of course. If these abilities had no counterplay, you’d feel more like a spectator in the crowd rather than a participant on the pitch. And it’s not exclusive to Meteor Shot either. It’s possible to avoid Magnetizer and Brute Charge by smartly knocking the ball around until the ability’s back on cool down. Essentially, then, when you do and don’t use them comes entirely down to timing, something that’s at the core of elevating FIFA Heroes above mindless casual football fun. In spells, at least.

When I initially sat down with it, everything looked fairly straightforward. When attacking, you can pass, shoot, do a skill or use your ability, depending on what it is. On defence, you can switch players, tackle or, again, depending on what it is, use your ability. So, alongside the joystick for moving your player, there aren’t many buttons cluttering the screen. For visibility, that’s great. For an engaging experience, it’s not always the case. However, after a few matches, I quickly learned that FIFA Heroes had a little more nuance hiding under the surface, both offensively and defensively.

By long-pressing tackle, pass, and shoot, you effectively unlock a whole extra set of options. The tackle turns from a long-range two-footer into a sprint that allows you to chase down an opponent to nick the ball off them. With shooting, an aiming line appears, meaning you can curve a shot in the bottom corner. And for passing, you also get an aiming line, which you can use to loft passes over defenders or even bounce them strategically off the boards at the pitch’s edge to put a player through on goal. Thanks, geometry.

From tika-taka to Sunday league

And all of these things can be incredibly effective if, to return to the crux of my point, your timing is good. While a pinpoint pass off the sides can carve open the defence, you have to aim it, inviting your opponent to pinch the ball, and likewise, lining up a finessed finish takes longer than hitting and hoping. It becomes a matter of learning when you can try these fancier manoeuvres and when it’s better to get a shot away instead. And when it all comes together, it feels great. Pulling off a last-ditch slide tackle before pinging the ball off the boards into your striker’s path so they can tuck the ball past the keeper in one fluid move is brilliant.

Throwing in abilities and skills, too, leads to some stellar combos. Using Magentizer to zip the ball away from an opponent mid-Meteor Shot, before tapping skill to dance past a defender and finally unleashing Meteor Shot of your own, is thrilling. It’s these moments that not only show FIFA Heroes’ potential for delivering intense, fast-paced matches but also the additional skill level that could separate the best from the rest. That, combined with the grandiose animations accompanying a perfect goal, provides the dopamine hit we all seek in gaming. However, it doesn’t always come together.

Now, I will caveat this by saying that we were handed an early build, with the developers stating that the version they’re currently working on flows a lot better. And I sincerely hope that’s true because, at times, everything felt a little too scrappy. And not the Stoke City on a rainy Tuesday night kind, where the grit is admirable. More of the unpolished, incohesive type. Occasionally, all of my players would bunch together, not offering a good passing option and others, it merely wouldn’t go where I was aiming. Some of that is teething issues with controls, I’m sure, while another part of the problem is the computer making bizarre decisions. There were moments my defence went completely AWOL, leaving me with no one back besides my poor goalkeeper.

I also found that my players ran painfully slow when in possession. I suspect this is likely to allow the defending team to get a tackle in, which I appreciate. It would become incredibly dull if it were too easy to score. That said, it is slightly too sluggish for my liking, particularly since fast-paced intensity is what the developers are pumping for. Of course, tweaking it could be risky as it could mess up the balance. I don’t envy the team in that respect.

For the TikTok generation

Another niggle I had, that, frankly, could entirely be my ageing eyes, is that I found distinguishing my team from the others tricky now and then. You see, FIFA Heroes has characters more so than players, with most of the roster in our demo featuring former World Cup mascots. That means they have a set kit. To address this, Enver has opted to put names above your squadmates. I found this hit and miss, particularly in the heat of tackles when button-mashing and desperation come into play. Adding the option to choose kits would rectify this, although it might go against the developers’ ethos.

And it’s this ethos that Enver Studios is hoping will help the game stand out. The plan is to add folks from all walks of life, be that real footballers, celebrities, influencers or, seemingly, anyone with any resonance whatsoever with the intended demographic, Gen Z and Gen Alpha. The sillier the better, according to Andy Tudor. So, to put it bluntly, not me. That means that whoever gets added needs to keep their distinctive look, not just to maintain their personality on the pitch, but so it’s clear who’s who when people share their goal-scoring escapades on… I  believe it’s TikTok these days?

The team believes that creating bizarre moments, like Conor McGregor scoring a bicycle kick after receiving a lofted through ball from Barney the Dinosaur, is what will put their target audience in when they see it on social media. I won’t claim to know if that’s a foolproof plan or not. I’m neither Gen Z nor Gen Alpha, and the people I do know around that age all give off forty at heart. Of course, they could be the exceptions rather than the rule.

That doesn’t mean I’m opposed to the silliness or attempts at virality. While I care not one jot for social media, I appreciate the potential fun and chaos crossover characters could bring, with new abilities keeping matches interesting and potentially introducing tactics offensively and defensively. My only concern is that Enver’s big aims in this department and plans to add a ton of modes might come at the cost of the core gameplay. I don’t want the basics, which aren’t too far from being spot on, to be forgotten in all the excitement of seeing Kylo Ren lace up against Walter White for five-a-side. What I’ve played is super promising, and Enver certainly have the pedigree to pull it altogether. I just hope the game can match their ambition.