Fifa 17 review: At last, an update that you can actually get excited about

New Fifas have mostly devolved into kit and team updates with some little tweaks stuck on top. Not this year

It should be the least that you can say about a major new game release. But this year, it’s the most exciting thing you can say about Fifa: this is a new game.

Every part of this year’s Fifa has been improved. The gameplay is more realistic and far more engaging; and new modes and features actually add something to the game.

None of which is to say that the updates are purely good, or that there is no room for improvement. But if the game is an expression of intent, rather than just a fluke – and it does feel like the former – then EA is going to seize on those things to improve and actually do them.

Here’s how Fifa’s own summary of what’s new goes: there’s better throw-ins, changes to the shot dynamic and different ways of starting set pieces. But here’s what you actually need to know: this is the first time in ages that Fifa has actually changed enough that the last game feels old straight away.

The traditional Fifa update has a familiar pattern. EA teases the game with talk about new gameplay and added features. It shows off the kits and meticulously recreated players.

And then the game comes out. Nothing much has changed but everyone buys it, because it’s weird playing with old teams and online multiplayer is such a central part of the game. It was a dependable but boring pattern; one that felt a little like being ripped off.

That is gone this year. From the minute you start playing the new Fifa, it feels properly new. Games are expensive nowadays – it couldn’t entirely feel like a pain to buy a new one – but this is actually worth getting.

The first thing you spot is the really subtle but properly significant changes that have been made to the ways that players and the ball move in space. Everything feels a little less on rails – players move around more like the physical things that they actually are, and the ball will weave, dip and dive as it makes its way across the pitch.

And a new gameplay engine means that everyone else around you feels more realistic, too. Players run into space intelligently – not just as if they are automatons programmed to get forward and keep running.

The mechanics of the play itself have been improved, too, so that it looks a lot more like an actual game of football. It’s possible, safe and rewarded to pass the ball about the back, for instance; on the other hand it’s now almost useless to pass the ball to Ronaldo, Messi or your club’s equivalent and hope that he can just charge through the defenders.

And then you get to the properly new features, rather than adjustments. Top of that list is The Journey – Fifa's new story mode, and really the first that it’s ever actually made.

The Journey is essentially the dream of every football fan, made real: starting as a youth player, you control Alex Hunter on his way to the top flight of football.

That game is played through a series of cutscenes, as well as interactive moments on the pitch in games and in training. It is often immersive, though occasionally it’s clear that this is the first time Fifa has done anything this ambitious.

Those cutscenes, for instance, can feel a little wooden. There’s very little you can actually do to control what happens in them, beyond getting the choice every so often to decide whether you react to something in one of three ways: fiery, cool or balanced. The game tells you which of those you’re picking, and they affect how likely you are to be played and how many followers you have on social media – though they don’t actually change very much about the game.

Much of The Journey's action takes place in believably recreated, boring office rooms

At the moment, the problems with The Journey mean that playing through it is fun and sometimes emotional, but not necessarily a central part of the Fifa experience. Choices feel limited and the game isn’t as strategic as other parts of Fifa.

But it does feel, like a lot of Fifa 17 does, like it is a real mark of what the series could potentially be. New versions of The Journey, if they come, will presumably be able to have more interesting, interactive storylines – and could eventually become a really central, new part of football games of the kind that hasn’t been seen for years.

Away from The Journey, EA appears to have taken some of what it’s learnt in that new game mode to other parts of the play. For instance, the Career mode is now far more detailed. Where before you might only be given specific instructions about where to come in the league, you’ll now been given specific challenges like maintaining the Brand Value or the club’s finances, each of which is tailored to the specific kind of club that you’re managing. Playing as a manager is no longer a question of just buying players and trying to win games – but truly a lot more like taking charge of a club, with all the choice that entails.

Ultimate Team is Fifa’s biggest feature and EA’s biggest moneyspinner, but receives a small tinkering rather than complete overhaul. Again, there’s more ways of controlling what you’re doing and a sense that things are more organic – challenges that set specific ways of setting up your team, for instance – but it is left mostly untouched. It does of course benefit from the huge and very convincing changes to the gameplay when you actually start up the match, though.

All of this feels like a huge step in the right direction. Fifa 17 is a truly great game in itself, and perhaps even more exciting as a statement of intent.

The fear, of course, is that it doesn’t actually get there. Last year’s PES felt like it was moving towards taking over from Fifa and becoming both the most fun and the most realistic football game out there. This year, PES is good but not good enough.

For this year, Fifa 17 is still the best game out there for almost everyone. In itself, it is a rewarding, exciting and genuinely fun update to an already loved game; for the future, it’s a welcome commitment to actually advancing the game. It all adds up to being the first Fifa in a good while that can be wholeheartedly recommended, even if you’re already on last year’s.