For some time now, EA Sports FC and FIFA before it have led the football genre with few competitors. With the game regressing in some aspects and trying to squeeze as much money out of players every year, fans have expressed the desire to at least try UFL, a free-to-play football game with ‘fun’ at its core.

Since FIFA and FC are deeply rooted in the minds of fans around the world, it is difficult for UFL to occupy a place in the market. To gain market share, UFL must have a good gameplay experience that surpasses or catches up with FC 25 in many aspects. The question is, how does UFL compare to FC 25 at launch? Which football game is the better one? We will find out by analyzing several different key elements of the two games.

Gameplay

Gameplay is the real key. Since UFL is not a game that is released every year, but will be updated regularly, it needs to have a solid gameplay foundation. We saw eFootball struggle with this concept a few years ago, so it’s not an easy task.

Like FC 25, UFL has strengths and weaknesses. The game is a little clunky, with players taking some time to control the ball and turn, and shooting animations not always natural, but there’s a consistency and balance to the game that EA Sports FC can’t match.

The game is also very open, with long balls and aerial shots always an option as long as you have time in the midfield. Whether this is a strength of the offense or a weakness of the defensive design, time will tell, but the fun of UFL is undeniable. If the developers can improve the overall physics, the game will be much better.

Opinions on UFL will also change over time. Gameplay in FIFA and FC games always evolves over time as patches change things and the community learns what’s too strong. The same will happen with UFL over time, and if the gameplay is going to remain impressive, it will depend a lot on how the developers manage it over the long term.

Thanks to UFL, FC 25’s gameplay is the worst ever. While there have always been some overpowered mechanics, like this year’s finesse shot playstyle+ and cut backs in FC 24, the consistency and reliability of moment-to-moment gameplay has never been worse.

Weird player interactions, misplaced passes, and goalkeeper errors pop up in nearly every game. Tackling from behind is overpowered, high-depth plays trigger automatic offside traps, and AI ​​is downright stupid.

That last aspect is the most egregious, as players you don’t control are constantly out of position, both in attack and defense, making the game mode incredibly difficult to put together. Offensive players will run away from open goal opportunities, stay in offside positions, or ignore instructions related to their role.

While it’s hard to prove it, the constant stream of new features is overwhelming the game. Playstyles, roles, and FC IQ have all been added over the years, but gameplay has regressed. Something is wrong, and it’s up to EA Sports to fix it.

Graphics And Presentation

This is where UFL falls short. FC 25 was developed and distributed by a multi-billion dollar company with a history of nearly 30 years. UFL is a free-to-play game for the first time, so it’s no surprise that FC 25 looks better. However, the difference between the two is not as big as imagined.

Watching the entire pitch together, it’s hard to tell the difference between the two. Where UFL lags behind is in the overall presentation of match days, with less lively crowds, limited celebrations, and less fanfare at all times.

UFL also falls short of FIFA 25 in terms of player animations. While FIFA 25 is full of physics issues, players do move more smoothly and interact more seamlessly. For now, EA FC 25 wins in terms of graphics and presentation, but the competition is more intense than you might think.

Modes

It’s a bit unfair to analyze which game is better in terms of modes. EA Sports FC has had more time to design and launch new modes for players. However, more is not always better.

UFL is essentially the equivalent of Ultimate Team. You let players build their own team and then take that team into online competitions. There’s a weekend mode, similar to Champions in FC, and a ranked mode, similar to traditional ranking modes in shooters. Other than that, the game offers very few modes, although that’s by design.

FC 25 has career mode, Clubs, kick-off, online friendlies, and the various modes of Ultimate Team. Modes like Draft, Moments, and Squad Battles range from boring to abandoned, but there’s definitely a mode for everyone. UFL was designed with Ultimate Team competition in mind, so that’s where we should compare it. If they did branch out into other areas, we’d obviously like UFL to have a career mode, but the idea here is clearly to focus on online competitive play.

Monetization

UFL is a free-to-play game, while EA FC 25 will cost $60 if you get the standard edition at launch. Also, UFL is designed to last a long time, far longer than the annual cycle of EA series.

EA Sports has started to increase the number of promo packs you can get at any one time like crazy. Often, you can find promotional packs worth hundreds of dollars in stores, but paying for them doesn’t guarantee you’ll get any players. You open the packs with the slim hope of getting something good, but you may not actually get it.

But with FC 25 Coins, players will be able to build their fantasy team with more flexibility, using this virtual currency to access not only rare cards but also exclusive content such as exclusive skills and match passes, injecting more personalization options into the game.

In contrast, UFL’s monetization is more direct. You can get packs of skins by earning CP, which can improve the attributes of the players in your team. In addition, you can use any CP to get any player in the game. Each player has a specific CP price, so as long as you have enough coins, you can spend any currency on them.

While both games have pay-to-win elements, and the money you spend is directly related to the quality of your team, FC 25 is by far the worst culprit. You can clearly know which players your hard-earned money is spent on, which makes UFL far ahead in terms of monetization, and after all, it is a free game.

The Bottom Line

UFL has two advantages, price and time, as it is a service game rather than an annual paid version. Therefore, the developers can work hard to ensure that it continues to improve over time without players having to pay $60 for those improvements. In terms of presentation and mode, FC 25 is ahead, but it has had nearly 30 years to hone its craft.

But more importantly, UFL puts the fun and consistency of the game first. Since FC 25 is the worst in the series in a long time in terms of gameplay, now is the best time to improve its gameplay as soon as possible to take advantage of its advantages.

The above is a comparison of the relevant content of FC 25 and UFL. Which game do you prefer in your mind? If you are affected by the lack of certain props in the game, you can follow IGGM Discord giveaway channel, where we will regularly release free props information.