FIFA 22 - What's new in Volta

Volta premiered in FIFA 20, re-introducing street football (or soccer, depending of where you live) as part of the main series. The thing is, Volta is a completely separate mode from the rest of the game, as 11v11 football is a totally different game then street football. EA sees this as an opportunity to push for a more arcadey style of game, with flashier moves, faster games, and lots of cosmetics for players to unlock.

Well, Volta will indeed return if FIFA 22, but with a few new additions that try and re-focus it on it's real purpose. "Everything that we've done is to make sure that, when you try to get together with your friends and just have fun and something a bit more light-hearted, Volta is the place for you," as shared by Volta Senior Game Designer Richard Walz. The whole mode has been redesigned as an online lobby, to make it easier to connect with friends or other players, as each one controls his own avatar. You can also customise the looks and the skills of your avatar with a ton of new jackets, sneakers, and other cosmetic items.

Perhaps even more important is the fact that EA has redesigned the Volta gameplay, and it even uses the new HyperMotion technology, even if only in the new-gen editions. "In previous versions of Volta we weren't really happy with how effective defensive or passive play was, and that was also pretty boring to watch," admitted Richard Walz, before adding that they want to "incentivize players to take people on with flair."

How? With a new Skill Meter, that you can build during the match by performing skill moves and fancy passes and shots. By building up your Skill Meter you will increase your goal value, meaning you can get two goals scores with a single goal, for instance. Another change are Signature Abilities, and you get to choose one when you create your avatar. These Signature Abilities boost you avatar's scoring, speed, or tackling prowess, and you can activate them several times during a match, although they will be locked by a cooldown timer after a use.

EA showed us an example of using a scoring Signature Ability, significantly increasing shoot power and precision, so much so that if the shoot hits another player, it will knock him to the ground. The team also introduced a series of new animations that are exclusive to the Volta gameplay, including several new skill moves - that you can now perform with a single button press, if you choose a simplified control scheme. And there's also several new two player goal celebration animations, like two players hi-fiving. EA has in addition tweaked how the ball bounces off the walls, allowing for a lot more play with them - like using the bounce to pass it to a colleague, or even to come back to yourself.

Finally, there's Arcade Mode, a new online mode with several "party games" for you to play with or against other players. EA mentioned variations of dodgeball, foot tennis, skill move keep-away, and disco lava. There matches are played by four players, either a in free-for-all format or 2v2, and you can play with friends, strangers, or a mix of both.

To wrap all of this together, EA Sports will implement Volta Seasons, changing cosmetics, environments, objectives, game types, and other features every few weeks.

So it seems there's a lot of new stuff coming to Volta this year, but also to other game modes. You can get a sense of what's new with our gameplay, Pro Clubs, Career, and Ultimate Team previews.