Fifa 17: The Journey
After you've indicated your favourite club in the pre-game menus, The Journey opens with Alex Hunter and his best mate, Gareth Walker, playing Sunday League football on Clapham Common. Your legendary ex-pro grandad, ever-supportive mum, and deadbeat dad look on as the kids cup final comes down to penalties - with yours the deciding one. If you score, the match ends there with plenty of glee from your team and family - miss, and so will the opposing team after you. Gareth gets another chance to win the game for you with the next kick, and does. Either way, you'll win the cup and go home happy - catching the eye of a scout or two - and the ire of your bitter dad, career cut short by injury - in the process.
Flash forward to the present day, and it's you, Gareth, mum and grandad once again, this time at the infamous 'exit trials'. The two of you have been released from an unnamed academy and this is your final chance to impress a scout and get a foot in the door at the top level. Here, you'll need to complete three objectives: stay in the top half of players during a half-length practice match; finish in the top 10 after a few training sessions, and the top 10 again in another practice match. Fail to do so, and you're met with a game over screen and an option to reload an earlier save (note that, in our experience, the game saved automatically and often, with no option to do either save or load manually). You'll also get to choose your position here, from four options: Left Winger, Right Winger, Centre Attacking Midfielder or Striker - we went for attacking mid in our main playthrough, which we'd recommend, as it allows you to drop a little deeper to win back and pass the ball, and affect matches throughout, which is surprisingly important. Your choice here has little other impact on story though, as far as we know
Choose your new club
After succesfully negotiating the exit trails, you're approached by an agent, the slightly-slimy Michael Taylor, who tells you there's not a club in the league that isn't interested - congrats! You can now choose from any of the 20 Premier League clubs, although it's worth bearing in mind that bigger clubs will afford you less playing time - but more money, and glory - than the league's minnnows.
Choose your club, and it turns out this one happens to be your legendary grandad Jim Hunter's old club too, and your old mate Gareth has happened to get a contract there too - fancy that!
First training session, meeting the team and the gaffer
Your first session sees you meeting the squad, the coach (not the actual manager, who remains a silent background figure throughout the story), and Gareth at training. There are a couple of dialogue options, where you'll see Gareth is isn't quite striking the same 'chemistry' as you are with teammates. The better you do in training, the more chance you have to break into the first team, but at big clubs at least, you'll be starting on the bench for your first game regardless.
First match, tour, start of the season and coming off the bench
Your first games take place on tour, with you coming on as a sub in each.
Soon enough you get your chance in a real game, in the section of the story which was featured in the FIFA 17 demo. Gareth Walker has started ahead of you - and seems pretty smug about it - and you're brought on from the bench to replace him around the 65-minute mark, with the score tied at 1-1 (Gareth getting your team's goal) in a big game.
You'll be given three objectives by your manager in every game where you come off the bench, which break down into a target match rating out of 10, a tactical target like scoring the next goal or getting two assists, and a result-based target like winning the game or holding onto your lead. Complete them to increase your chances of starting future games.
The Big Money Signing
Uh oh. On Transfer Deadline Day your club decides to splash out on a Big Money Signing (always referred to under that name, rather than the player's name) which was in our case, and many others, Harry Kane. Even worse, they're going to play Gareth with him instead of you up top, meaning you face some major competition.
Farmed out on loan
Things go from bad to worse for Alex now, as your mate Gareth starts to get a little Big Time Charlie and stops responding to your messages, whilst the boss decides that, despite you being a valued player, it's time to send you out on loan.
As far as we know, this is a scripted even that happens no matter what, regardless of your match ratings and training scores. You have no say in the matter - other than choosing how well you want Alex to take the news - but you do have a choice of three Championship clubs: Aston Villa, Newcastle United, or Norwich City - which are probably the options because FIFA still has assets for their stadia, seeing as all three were in last year's Premier League competition. Choose whichever takes your fancy - we went for Villa, because Norwich are boring and Newcastle are just a mess, let's be honest.
Meeting the new team, and a familiar face
Over at your new club, you'll meet your new boss, Dino, who seems pretty scary on first impressions but is actually a pretty lovely guy, who's all about the squad working together as a unit. You'll also meet Danny Williams - who you first encountered at the exit trials giving it large because he already had a contract, and has had a few pops at you on social media since - who just happens to be at your loan club.
It turns out Danny's actually a decent enough guy -probably suffering from a bit of an inferiority complex - who helps you settle in. It's back to the grindstone for you though, as you'll be doing more training before you earn your first professional start (depending on training and match performance, and how happy you make your manager with 'cool' options in interviews with the press).
Grinding it out in the Championship
For now, this is your home. It was still early on in the season when we were loaned out, and you'll be there until at least January when transfer rumours start to fire up again. Do your best to train well - using all three attempts at a drill if possible, and avoiding simulation at all costs - and play well in games. Not only will these improve your manager's opinion of you to help you start games, it'll also earn you more followers without the need for fiery interviews, increase your attributes, and earn you Skill Points to spend as your Overall rating increases over time too.
Gareth also seems to be weirdly smug about all of this, taking the occassional pop at you on social media with some backhanded compliments like 'maybe the Championship's more his level'. Ignore him for now...
Recalled to the big leagues
We're not sure at this point if it depends on your performances or not, but we generally played well, getting 'A' rating in all training sessions and 7-10 ratings in matches, until we were recalled.
The call-up can only happen in January either way, as it's spurred on by good old Gareth making a shock transfer request and move to - wait for it - your Biggest Rival. When you head back to your main club's training ground all happy to see your estranged friend, he blows up in your face, informing you that you'll never be able to fill the hole he's left. Charming. And a bit irrational.
Grinding it out again, this time in the Premier League
Now you're back, it's simply time to get your head down and play well for the team. You've got half a season to climb to the top of the Premier League table, and make it through to the FA Cup final. Ignore Gareth's increasingly manic snipes at you on social media, and focus on keeping a regular starting spot through strong performances and training results.
After a mid-season game against your rivals, Gareth pops outside to the car park to make amends for his bizarre attitude, putting it down to pressure. Just as he's apologising though, the ever-flummoxed Danny Williams turns up to give you a lift, and Gareth flips (again, seriously he needs some therapy), interpreting your new friendship as some kind of slight on his character and storming off.
Aside from that, you'll hear mentiones of you making it into the FIFA Ultimate Team Team of the Week - from match commentators not less, if you play well, and also get a pretty nice gaff now you're back in the big leagues, which ol' grandpa Jim finds a little unsettling - but he quickly comes around.
Sponsorship deals start flooding in
Once you hit 200,000 social media followers - which should happen naturally through good performances, but can be sped up with fiesty press interviews - you'll get your first sponsorship deal.
It's Addidas who decide to get you on their books, first of all with a choice of swanky new football boots, which feature lots of trademarked pseudo-science and no discernable difference to your actual play in game - which is realistic!
After that, you'll receive new deals at 275,000 followers and 300,000. We didn't actually notice anything happen at 300,000, as it popped whilst we were on the photoshoot that you get on hitting 275,000 first. Angel Di María pops up there, who says hello to you in his native language before being ushered off by the brand bloke who's there on set. You'll earn plenty of money from these deals, but it's not clear what difference that actually makes to your playthrough - it seems as though it doesn't make any, other than unlocking the ncie cutscenes with big players.
The final push for the Premier League trophy
If you've been playing well, your team's probably in with a chance of winning the Premier League. As Manchester United, we were a few points clear at the top going into the last five games of the season, where we were granted a cutscene with the coach again who gave us a nice rousing speech.
Showdown - the FA Cup final against Gareth and your Biggest Rival
Finally, it's time to tell Gareth where to shove it - by letting your football do the talking, of course. He gives you all kinds of nonsense on social media in the build up to the cup final at Wembley, where you'll be taking on him and your rival team, in our case Liverpool.
In the tunnel beforehand, Gareth gets even nastier. Depending on your response - we went with fiery because the lad deserved it, and we were pumped up with game-face on - he may get extra personal, insulting your grandad and your vacant dad, who's career was cut short by injury. Go and smash him on the pitch - metaphorically, we mean. We know it's tempting but try not to get sent off.
If you win, the post-game cutscene will see you walk over to Gareth and silently pick him up from his melodramatic position of disappointment, where he's lying on the pitch. If you lose, he'll do the same to you, but still celebrate more than a little excessively right in front of you. Bit unnecessary.
Your dad also shows up outside the stadium after the game. Regardless of how you played (we scored nine own goals in one game to test out what happens with the lowest possible score...) he'll say you look strong and played well, which Alex will somewhat harshly ignore.
End of the season, and a big phone call
Finally, you'll see a cutscene where you and Danny wind down in your pad, playing... FIFA! Your agent rocks up, grandad Jim siezing the opportunity to make up with him after their frosty relationship over the year, and your mum's just chuffed all round.
Before it all wraps up though, you get a call. Not from the England manager with a call-up, but from your coach, who then tells you to turn on the TV, where you see you have actually been called up to the England squad. We're pretty sure players get a phone call before it's all over 'EA Sports News' in real life, but it's a nice touch.
There, in a typical 'it's only just beginning' way, Alex's Journey wraps up, and you're awarded a FIFA Ultimate Team card for Alex Hunter, which is tailored loosly according to his attributes in your playthrough. Congratulations!
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