Story

The story begins with a TV-style 'previously on' section that recaps the key events of the first journey. Then the game cuts to Alex Hunter and his friend Danny Williams, enjoying their last day on holiday in Brazil, before they are approached by some young kids who challenge them to a football game. After returning home to England, Alex and his team are informed about a pre-season tournament in the US, before which Alex is invited to an interview with Rio Ferdinand, but later runs into his old friend and rival Gareth Walker, who says he can't believe that Alex is still with his agent Michael Taylor. Then at the tour in LA, Alex's team faces off against Real Madrid and at the end of the match, regardless of the result, Alex swaps numbers with Cristiano Ronaldo, who suggests that Alex comes and plays for Madrid, having been impressed by his play. If the player beats Real Madrid, they play against LA Galaxy, where Hunter encounters Gyasi Zardes in the tunnel before the match starts. Alex also meets his father during the tour, and begrudgingly accepts an invitation to have dinner with him. After the tour, Alex Hunter and his teammates go to Chicago where they participate in the MLS All-Star Game.

Following the first game of the new Premier League season, Michael tells Alex that none other than Real Madrid are keen on signing him. Despite it being a risky move with Alex who is still in his youth, he decides to follow his dreams, and put forward a transfer request. This causes both Alex's teammates and the fans to lose faith in his commitment to the team – even to the point of the fans booing him when he is subbed on during a game. Unfortunately, just one day before the transfer window closes, Michael reveals that he found out that the Real Madrid deal was a scam, and that they were never interested in him joining their team. While the club executive appreciates that neither Michael or Alex had any reason to believe the deal was fake, it doesn't counter the fact that Alex put a transfer request in – meaning that he wanted to leave. Alex is subsequently pulled from the senior squad and put on the youth squad. With just hours until the deadline, Michael admits that he really wanted to sign Alex with Madrid because he was falling behind in his reputation as an agent, and so he went with the deal without really thinking too much. Alex is enraged at Michael for gambling his football career for his personal gain, and the player is then given the option to forgive Michael and stay with him, or fire him due to his almost career ending mistake.

Regardless of the player's decision, Alex then gets a call from his Dad, who is now working for LA Galaxy. The team offer him a contract to play for LA, due to some injuries their strikers have suffered from. With no other option to go for, aside from training with the youth squad, Alex accepts the deal, helping the team to reach the playoffs. Shortly after he arrives in the US, a young girl recognizes him in the changing rooms. While dining out with his father, Alex learns that she is Kim Hunter – his half sister. Less than impressed with his father for not telling him about Kim, Alex storms off, but later comes to support Kim during her international debut for the US ladies against Germany. With Christmas coming around, Alex returns home to England after the season with LA ends, but gives Kim their grandfather's football for luck in her future games.

After reuniting with Danny, who signed up with Alex's former club when he left, Alex learns that Atlético Madrid, PSG, and Bayern Munich are interested in signing him (if the player kept Michael, he signs him or if the player fired him, Alex is signed by his dad). Alex signs to one of them and when he arrives finds out that Dino, the manager of Alex's former loan club, is at his new club as well. Dino pairs Alex up with either Thomas Muller, Antoine Griezmann, or Dele Alli, the player serving as Alex's strike partner. Just three games in however, Alex suffers a knee injury that sidelines him from the pitch for most of the season. At this point the game switches to Danny Williams' perspective, whose career at Alex's former club is at risk. After playing a game, the player is given the option to either play as Williams and try and save his career, or simply give it up and take control of Hunter in the next chapter.

Having recovered from his injury in rehab, Alex meets up with Kim for a kick around before going back to his European team, where he finds out that Dino's job is at risk, and he may be fired if the club doesn't win any silverware by the season's end. If Hunter plays well and wins the league or cup final, Dino keeps his job. If not, Dino will indeed be fired and Alex helps him clean out his desk.

After the season ends, Alex takes Jim over to the US to meet Kim for the first time and they dine at the restaurant. After he eats, Alex receives a call from an agent who claims to have been keeping her eye on him. She offers to make him an icon and tells him to meet up with her, leading into his appearance in FIFA 19.

Downloadable content

On 30 April 2018, EA announced a free expansion based on the 2018 FIFA World Cup, featuring all 32 teams that qualified, all 12 stadiums used at the 2018 FIFA World Cup as well as the ability for players to create their own customized World Cup tournaments and 17 other national teams that did not qualify: Austria, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Scotland, Turkey, United States and Wales. It was released on 29 May 2018 for the PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game, with FIFA Mobile getting the mode for a limited time only on 6 June 2018.^[28]

Accolades

Eurogamer ranked the game 30th on their list of the "Top 50 Games of 2017".^[39] The game won the award for "Best Sports Game" at the 2017 Game Critics Awards,^[40] and was nominated for "Best Console Game (Nintendo Switch)" and "Best Sports Game" at the Gamescom 2017 Awards.^[41] It was also nominated for "Best Multiplayer Game" at the Golden Joystick Awards,^[42] for "Best Sports/Racing Game" at The Game Awards 2017,^[43] and for "Best Sports/Driving Game" at the Titanium Awards.^[44] It won the award for "Best Story" at Game Informer's 2017 Sports Game of the Year Awards,^[45] while it took the lead for "Best Sports Game" in their Reader's Choice Best of 2017 Awards.^[46] It won the awards for "Best Music Supervision in a Video Game" at the Guild of Music Supervisors Awards,^[47] and for "Sports Game of the Year" at the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards,^[48][49] and was nominated for "Game, Franchise Sports" at the 17th Annual National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards,^[50][51] and for "eSports Game of the Year" at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards.^[52][53] It won the award for "Best Selling Game" at the Italian Video Game Awards, whereas its other nomination was for "People's Choice".^[54] It was also nominated for "Best Game" at BBC Radio 1's Teen Awards.^[55]

Sales

In September 2018, EA Sports announced that the game sold more than 24 million with all of its versions.^[56]

Controversy

FIFA 18 faced a backlash from fans due to its bugs and microtransactions system in Ultimate Team mode which makes it pay-to-win resulting in a Black Friday boycott by fans in November 2017 and a petition being launched by fans with the hashtag #FixFifa. Players criticized EA of changing the game through patches which resulted in large amounts of glitches and bugs in the game, players not getting what they paid for, and the need to spend a large amount of real currency to obtain a decent Ultimate Team. FIFA Ultimate Team packs have been called loot boxes in another name and the similarity to addictive gambling due to their use of variable-ratio scheduling used in gambling. Players also accused Ultimate Team packs of having mediocre drop rates. FIFA 18, alongside several other EA games such as Star Wars: Battlefront II, are also under investigation by countries such as Belgium for their loot box systems.^[57][58][59]