If you wish, you can manually set the skill level on the FIFA 16 trainer. Otherwise, it will analyze your rank, and start suggesting similarly leveled commands. As you get better, more advanced options make their way onto the overlay. It wasn’t long before “Finesse Shot” and “Jockey” displayed on my screen, and my character (now playing midfielder for the Sounders) was making a name for himself. The same can’t be said for matches against the AI, which very quickly lose their charm despite the impressive array of game modes and competitions to compete in. Like FIFA 16’s underlying mechanics, the AI is repetitious, performing the same old predictable runs down the pitch.
Despite numerous improvements over the years, playing against the AI feels no closer to playing against a human opponent, let alone a real-life football team. Perhaps your line-up has the top offense in the league and is going up against the one with the best defense. Or maybe your custom character was able to score a hat trick in the past game, and is looking to continue their score-streak. In my case, my mustached up-and-comer was getting recognition for his amount of assists. Whatever your story may be, FIFA 16 does a wonderful job of making each and every season feel unique and special.
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Apart from this, FIFA 16 has a trainer option we liked. Click the right analogue stick in a game and it shows you button prompts for various moves. You can configure it depending on your skill level, to show basic moves like a short pass, or more complex things, like a chipped shot or a nutmeg. EA Sports has managed to implement this in a way that never clutters up the screen. Of all of the changes, this perhaps makes FIFA 16 the most appealing to newbies. And if you're the sort who has been playing FIFA over the years, you just might learn something new.
There's some obvious visual variety to be found thanks to the inclusion of women's international teams, however, and although you wouldn't be blamed for assuming that a skin swap is all that they bring to the table, you'd be wrong to do so in this case. A huge step forward for the franchise, sports games, and even football as a whole, the 12 included women's teams bring a surprisingly fresh flavour to gameplay. A lot of effort has clearly been put into how to correctly differentiate the ebb and flow of women's football, and the result is a less physical, more deliberate style of play that provides an interesting, alternate angle on FIFA 16's systems.
Of course, it's a bit of a shame that all of this is limited to online friendly matches and offline tournaments, but if EA Sports can build on what it has over the next few years, then women's football should turn out to be a very welcome addition. The modes in which you play these matches remains largely familiar but, again, have tweaks and improvements to help them along. Career mode lets you set up pre-season tournaments abroad, and finally makes use of the excellent training mini-games to improve players between games. The scouts seem to have lost their marbles, however, recommending top tier players like Sergio Aguero no matter who you are playing as.
The presentation and Career Mode is the only thing that keeps this game still standing for me. The presentation with the plentiful content such as a huge selection of teams and players with so many stadiums, and a solid enough career mode that uses these foundations, keeps this game just about good enough to be a solid game at best.
