American Football has always been the one sport that both intrigues and confuses me. As someone who spent the majority of their young adult life playing Rugby, American Football was always something I understood as a sport but struggled with the TV presentation with all the stops with ad breaks and game stoppages making it what should be a sensible thing to watch into a two to three hour event just for the match itself. This is a sport that really comes to life in video games more than real life so after watching the New Orleans Saints take on the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium last year, the MADDEN series jumped back onto my radar. But can a person relatively new to the series pick up the latest instalment and not feel completely lost?
Thankfully I had two really good mates who were familiar with MADDEN enough to guide me through the newest edition from EA Sports in MADDEN 19 and on the surface, it certainly felt like what I know about the FIFA series with how the game is presented and the modes it offers. In fact it was almost disorientating to see just how much the FIFA menu system and style fits into MADDEN 19. It was a very daunting thing to see all the teams and modes and to know where to start.
But a start I must make and I will jump in and that visually MADDEN 19 is one of the best-looking sports video games I have seen and it really has made tremendous use of the FROST Engine to deliver an amazing looking game. In FIFA you only really go close up on the players in celebrations or ceremonial cut scenes but the action in American Football puts the camera right up close and behind the action and it is impressive to say the least. Looking at the build up to this game and there was a heavy focus on the new ‘Real Player Motion’ mechanic to the gameplay in an attempt to give the action a more realistic animation style which also allows more control oh how a player acts on the field from running with the ball and avoiding tackles to playing as defence and stopping pass attempts and stopping running plays. From previous games I remember trying to make a running play and hitting a defence player and that was it, hit and stopped. With Real Player Motion I genuinely felt I had more options especially in offence to change direction and even to escape tackle situations.
The fluidity in movement really surprised me, and it just works so well in this probably more so than FIFA because of how great this game looks up close thanks to the camera angle which makes every play and down you work for just jump off the screen and makes you feel each one. It is the type of system I would love to see adapted for Rugby, a sport which has never really been able to transfer to a video game well, could really benefit from. The level of detail and putting the player into the match is fantastic and probably as life life as a sports video game can get and even my mates who are more familiar with the series were impressed with this new evolution in gameplay.
MADDEN also has its own version of Ultimate Team, were players can create and manage their very own Team to take on those of other by collecting player cards to build your own squad just as you can in FIFA and was a mode I now always enjoy dabbling in so to find it here in MADDEN feels logical and comfortable. Ultimate Team mode has been refined since its introduction in last year’s game with a focus on making it less convoluted and complicated reducing the amount of time micro managing the small stuff such as player contracts, something that drove me nuts in the FIFA 18 version of UT.
Team chemistry is still a factor of a good team and by putting together compatible players you can strengthen your team and again thanks to the overhaul has made far simpler now that the pre-existing chemistry which cards had originally have now been removed making it easier to put a squad together that you what want. Players can be upgraded by using training to enhance their skills ratings with training points being acquired when selling unwanted player cards. Ultimate Team is still the greatest ‘Fantasy Football’ a fan of a sport can enjoy and with American Football expanding this to include draft season and Franchise ownership, this is the truest experience die hard fans can enjoy.
So, MADDEN 19 already has more than enough content and modes for any fan of the sport to dig their teeth into and enjoy which is why the continuation of the story mode is as baffling to me in this game just as ‘The Journey’ is in FIFA. In MADDEN this comes in the form of ‘Longshot: Homecoming’. This is now the second chapter of this mode after being introduced last year and even as a casual fan of American Football, this had me eye rolling at the cringing way in how the story of Devin Wade still chasing his dream of being an NFL Superstar as he is battling to earn a place on the Dallas Cowboy’s roster. Another character in Colt Cruise also returns and is now working as a musician as he is also waiting to hear about an opportunity to play for an NFL team. As a story this is very much more soap opera then becoming a sporting hero and living your dream. I mean why the story writers felt the need to introduce a surprise sibling to Colt in the form of a sister he never knew about just felt so non-sport related and pointless to me. It has a four hour length as well, so unless you are a fan of this story mode from last year, it just comes across as a distraction which has zero impact on your own UT team for example and has issues with cut scenes not reflecting your performance in the gameplay portions as in one instance I deliberately played as badly as I could, and still had a “you’re looking promising” scene afterwards. I never understood why EA felt the need to inject a cinematic story mode into their sports titles, and this here just failed to grabbed me at all or left me wanting to see what happens to the characters in the future.
MADDEN 19 is a solid sporting game and considering it has no rivals, provides the only and best NFL experience you can have right now. Visually impressive with gameplay mechanics in ‘Real Player Motion’ that really add something to the physicality of each match. I will say that going into this relatively blind but with some experience of the sport, it did not do enough to help me really learn the ropes, it is a series that now expects you to have played previous games and simply react to the improvements made rather then welcoming in new players to the series. I enjoyed playing against friends and even when taking this online and getting my butt handed to me repeatedly by more experience players was fun. I was able to learn the different plays and come up with my own strategy which admittedly still needs plenty of work, but I am enjoying it a great deal as a casual fan of the sport.
This may not offer any ground-breaking changes for those who are long term players of the series but the tweaks and refinements have made some of the modes like Ultimate Team far more user friendly. Now if I can just make that last minute Superbowl style long pass into a touchdown moment, I would be a very happy fan!
