EA Sports FC 27 lands with the series' best on-pitch football, but The Grounds falls flat

Early reviews praise FC 27's on-field gameplay and the new TransferRoom-powered Career Mode, while the open-world Grounds hub and a clunky UI hold the overall score back.

EA Sports FC 27 has already unlocked for anyone who bought an Ultimate edition since September 18, with the full worldwide launch for every version landing this Friday, the 25th. The cover formula stays the same as always: Kylian Mbappé solo on the Standard and Ultimate editions, and Mbappé sharing top billing with Jude Bellingham on Ultimate Plus, both wearing Real Madrid white.

What stands out across the early reviews is how much agreement there is on the pitch itself. Manual defending is finally worth using again, passing responds better, and competitive online play actually seems to reward people who can play football rather than people who've memorized AI animations. If you spent the last couple of years fighting the auto tackle, this is the kind of change you feel in your very first match.

EA's big marketing push this year is The Grounds, an open-world hub split into three districts themed around different football cultures, where street kickabouts, group mini-games and Clubs all live in the same space. There's an annoying catch though: anyone still on PS4 or Xbox One is locked out entirely, since the mode only runs on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Switch 2.

In Career Mode, the real headline is EA's partnership with TransferRoom, which folds its Expected Transfer Value (xTV) system directly into scouting. In practice, that gives a manager a realistic price anchor before sitting down to negotiate a signing, making the transfer market feel a lot less like guesswork and a lot more like the job of an actual sporting director.

On OpenCritic, FC 27 currently sits at a "Strong" rating with an 82 average across 16 critics. One outlet scored it 7 out of 10, praising the on-field play and Career Mode while calling The Grounds "recycled mini-games and scattered collectibles" rather than a social hub worth sticking around in. The interface took its own beating too, described in that same review as slow, laggy and "agonizing" to navigate.

Honestly, the reviews seem right on the money here: on the pitch, this is probably the most enjoyable FC has felt since the FIFA split. The catch is this series has pulled this move before, where a satisfying manual defending tune-up quietly gets nerfed in a patch months later to push Ultimate Team grinders toward buying boosts. It's worth jumping in, just go in with your eyes open, because the game that earned today's good scores might not be the exact same game come January.

If all you want is a pretty social space to hang out with Clubs friends, The Grounds probably won't hold your attention past the first week. Whoever's putting real hours into Career Mode, on the other hand, genuinely got a deeper system this year, and that matters a lot more than any decorative hub.