OPINION: What we want in FIFA 18's Journey mode

OPINION: What we want in FIFA 18’s Journey mode

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The Journey mode in FIFA 17 has been a revelation for the single player experience. In it, you play as Alex Hunter and go on a cinematic journey through the early stages of his career. While The Journey in FIFA 17 is fantastic, fans are already imagining what it could look like next year, so we came up with a few suggestions.

Better Feedback

FIFA 17 does a good job of giving you feedback on what you’re doing well or what could you could be doing better, but what really makes The Journey special is the cinematic cutscenes and the fantasy of playing for your favourite team. Getting specific feedback on your actions or match tactics would be a perfect way to make the most of those two selling points.

For example, if you’re playing a team that has a slow centre-back and your character is fast, your coach could tell you to exploit him by curving your run and beating the offside trap. Another example could be when you’re playing for a pressing team like Spurs or Man City, and the coach tells you to press for the ball rather than hold back.

If EA does choose to add this feature, it’d certainly be an improvement over that bloody flashy thing in the corner that penalises you for not being able to “keep your shape” even if you’re preventing a counter-attack.

Custom Character

You probably know that The Journey is not the only single-player mode in FIFA 17, with the older Be A Pro mode still kicking around. You probably also know that Be A Pro let’s you create your own character to play as rather than being Alex Hunter.

While Alex isn’t a bad character, The Journey would be a much more immersive experience if the two modes were combined and you could play as yourself with all the story elements intact.

The only problems with this would be the voice acting, but roleplaying games solve this with a few simple workarounds. Firstly, other characters could still call you by name by always referring to you by a preselected nickname or a middle name, like Hunter, for example. This is similar to how Mass Effect works, with Shepard always being called Shepard no matter what his/her first name is or what he/she looks like.

Secondly, the problem of having your character speak but not having your voice is not difficult to fix. In FIFA 17, Alex doesn’t have a lot of dialogue as it is, so it would be easy to simply have a few different voice actors record his lines in FIFA 18 so that you could choose a voice that’s closer to your own. This is something that games like Saints Row already do.

Playing as your own character would be much more immersive, and most players probably wouldn’t mind not getting to choose a backstory, so long as what they do get to decide actually matters.

More Choices

FIFA 17 has a lot of cutscenes that play based on what you do, but not much changes in the grand scheme of things. In FIFA 18, it would be amazing if your choices and performances were more influential in the story, impacting relationships and your career in drastic ways.

For example, the media could play a much bigger role, with journalists eager to create an ongoing scandal that you have to choose how to react to. Alex could also be more proactive around the club, like leading by example to earn the right to motivate players in the dressing room, giving tactical advice to the gaffer, fishing for a transfer or fighting off a transfer and getting invited to charity events, like a World XI match or a crossbar challenge.

It would be especially funny if you could be chosen as a fictional FIFA game cover star and choose which facial expression to make for your picture.

We think these are all good suggestions for The Journey in FIFA 18, but what do you think should be in the next FIFA? We’d loved to hear what you think, so please let us know in the comments.

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