EA FC 26 Review: Ultimate Team’s Divisive Shift Alienates Football Purists, Embraces High-Octane Arcade Action

The transition from the FIFA legacy to EA Sports FC has been a tumultuous journey, and with the launch of EA FC 26, the division within the community has never been sharper. While the game delivers a wealth of requested quality-of-life updates and a genuinely refreshing ‘Authentic’ gameplay mode for offline enthusiasts, the seismic changes to the all-important Ultimate Team experience have cemented its place as a game squarely aimed at the competitive, high-scoring online player, moving decisively away from serving the traditional football purists.

This year’s title introduces a fascinating, albeit controversial, dichotomy: the splitting of gameplay into two distinct presets: Competitive and Authentic. The latter, restricted to offline modes like Career Mode, is a revelation. It features slower match tempo, more realistic ball physics, and a greater emphasis on tactical build-up and defensive shape, a move that will delight players who have longed for a true-to-life simulation. However, the online powerhouse—Ultimate Team—is tethered exclusively to the Competitive preset, and here, the game’s identity crisis is laid bare.

The Great Divide: Competitive vs. Authentic Gameplay

The core of the matter lies in this gameplay split. For years, the single, all-encompassing meta has dictated the feel of both casual and professional play. EA’s response is a bold, two-pronged approach.

• Authentic Mode: A genuine triumph of game design, offering a slower, more deliberate, and rewarding football simulation. It validates tactical intelligence over pure speed and skill-move spamming, making it the superior experience for the single-player.
• Competitive Mode: The default for Ultimate Team, this mode is a lightning-fast, high-scoring affair where defending is brutally difficult. The focus is on responsiveness and immediate control, often at the expense of tactical realism. It caters directly to the community demand for high-octane action, which unfortunately translates to an arcade-like frenzy online.

The disappointment is that the excellent Authentic gameplay is completely barred from all online modes, including the CPU-based Squad Battles within Ultimate Team. This deliberate choice confirms that, for its most profitable mode, EA has prioritised influencer-driven content and constant, massive goal totals over the principles of sound defensive football.

Ultimate Team: A Tsunami of Quality-of-Life Updates (Under a Questionable Gameplay Roof)

Despite the contentious on-pitch action in its online modes, Ultimate Team in EA FC 26 is arguably the most feature-complete and responsive it has ever been. EA has listened to a vast amount of player feedback, implementing a swathe of structural improvements that tackle long-standing frustrations and enhance the squad building experience.

• Live Events: A new pillar of the mode, introducing varied, themed competitions like the return of classic knockout Tournaments and the new Gauntlet mode, which forces players to utilise their full club depth by limiting player reuse. This adds meaningful variety beyond the weekly grind of Rivals and Champions.
• Rivals and Champions Revamp: The removal of the Champions Playoffs and the introduction of direct qualification streamlines the path to the competitive weekend league. Furthermore, the inclusion of Rivals Bounties—mini, match-specific challenges—adds extra rewards and motivation to every game, even a loss.
• Evolutions Refinement: The highly popular Evolutions system is expanded with the much-requested ability to evolve Goalkeepers, and critical quality-of-life updates like cosmetic stacking mean you won’t lose visual customisation when applying new evolutions.
• Slower Power Curve: In a bid to maintain the relevance of base cards for longer, EA has promised a more gradual power curve, with less aggressive stat boosts on early-season promotional items. This could be a significant boost to early-game player value and FUT market stability.

These off-pitch improvements are universally positive and make the grind of building your dream club feel far less punishing. The menu navigation is cleaner, and the path to rewards is more transparent, which speaks to a genuine desire to fix the logistical issues of the mode.

The Financial Cost of Competition: Microtransactions and Monetisation

It is impossible to discuss Ultimate Team without addressing the constant presence of microtransactions. While the structural changes are generous with in-game rewards like coins and packs, the model remains fundamentally tied to loot boxes. This year, the monetisation shadow is even longer, as key rewards—including unlocking Icons and Heroes for the revamped Manager Career Mode—are tied to a Season Pass that heavily encourages playing Ultimate Team, effectively extending the economic pull of the mode to even the offline-only player base. For the highly competitive Ultimate Team player, the pressure to buy FC Points to keep pace with the power curve remains an undeniable factor.

Conclusion: A Game Torn in Two

EA FC 26 is a game of two halves, literally. The single-player experience, powered by the new Authentic gameplay, is the best, most realistic football title EA has delivered in years. It’s mature, tactical, and deeply rewarding. However, the game’s core pillar, Ultimate Team, has sacrificed all pretense of realism for speed and goal-scoring chaos.

For the veteran players who exclusively play online competitive modes, this will be exactly what they asked for—fast-paced, skill-move-heavy, and high-scoring matches. For the football purist, the forced switch to the arcade-like Competitive preset for all online play will feel like a definitive step away from the sport they love. I am torn because the advancements in Career Mode and the quality-of-life updates in FUT are exceptional. Yet, the core online gameplay—where the community spends the majority of its time and money—is a frustratingly high-scoring coin toss that rewards explosive aggression over defensive mastery. It’s a step forward for the arcade genre, but a noticeable step back for the football simulation faithful.