GOALS markets itself as an "Esports ready, no Excuses" type of game, when in in reality it's no different than any other football game currently on the market, and tries to market itself as the "skilled" game, when it's the least skilled football game you'll ever play.
1. The Best Stats Win - Whoever has the team with the best stats wins 99% of the time. If I have a team full of 80 overalls, and my opponent has a team of 60 overalls, it's a guarantee that I'll score atleast 5 goals on them, and there's nothing my opponent can do about it. I've lost games because my opponent was less skilled, but because they had a team of 85+ overalls, he would basically win byproxy, which shows this game isn't about actual skill.
2. Poor Passing Mechanics - This has to have the worst passing mechanics in any football game. Passes half the time barely go where you want them to, and sometimes pass to a farther player when you chose a close player, and vice versa. Through balls are actually the worst passes in the game, and basically turn over the ball. For a game that likes to talk about "manual gameplay", where the player needs to control everything, you barely have much control over passes, and even PES has more pass settings in the menu compared to GOALS. Still having some automation for passes, simply allows the games algorithms to modify your passes in a way that can cause turnovers and counter-attack goals, which means you're never really in full control of where your passes land.
3. Rat-Style/Arcade Gameplay - GOALS basically caters to rat-style arcade gameplay, just abuse the left analog stick and spam through balls with high pace stat players. You can't even shoot a proper cross into the penalty box, or score a header, unless the algorithm determines otherwise. Header balls go to the defender 99% of the time, and trying to pass a cross from the wide lines is basically a turnover that gives your opponent a free counter-attack. Not being able to have 50/50 header balls, or even be able to use a simple real football tactic like crosses into the penalty box, is actually a slap in the face to real football fans, and shows this game can't be taken seriously. Also, battle royale mechanics, such as a line that follows you to your opponents corner like a storm mechanic in a BR mode, stop players from having a possession-style of gamplay, and force you to push the pace artificially, which in turn manufactures fake fast-paced gameplay.
4. Unbalanced Gamplay - Offense and defense mechanics in GOALS consist of nothing but "Spin-2-Win" tactics, people just spinning around with the analog stick while they have the ball in circles, and being able to turn on a dime doing so, until they have a clear path to score. Shot fake is the best skill move in the game, better than the actual skill moves available on the right stick. Developers continue to buff offense, but also don't give defense the proper mechanics it needs, which shows the developers are looking to make a Fortnite, Mickey-Mouse, high scoring-style of gameplay.
5. Algorithm-Based Gameplay - Everything in GOALS is dependant on algorithms, such as tackling, shooting, dribbling, and especially passing and header goals. There's times where your opponent is actually benefitting from these algorithms, and times when you're benefitting from it. You're basically winning or losing games based on the algorithm, which GOALS claims it's supposed to be about skill, when in reality, algorithms determines who wins games.
6. Rubberbanding gameplay - This game probably has the most egregious rubberbanding-style of gameplay you'd basically see only in EA games. There are games where your opponent will score with every shot, go on breaks past your defenders, and their goalkeepers save all your shots, or your shots basically get blocked by their defenders on basic tap-in goals. This happens especially when you're on a win streak, and the game decides to screw you over. You basically need to work a hundred times as hard as your opponent to get the same results. Scoring two goals, but then letting four goals in a row for no reason at all when I was dominating the game, or randomly turning over the ball for no reason, such as a standing tackle where my player will just stop running, allowing my opponent to get a clear run at the net, and putting in the game-winning goal, especially in the final minutes. Having high scoring games is incredibly common because of this, and is sign of rubberbanding/momentum mechanics in the game, and the developers can't convince me otherwise.
The developers don't take you seriously, and you shouldn't take them seriously either.
