Madden NFL 25 Review
Love it or hate it, after 25 years, Madden fans know exactly what they are going to get
American football has seen exponential growth in the last two decades. High flying offense, easy television translation, and heavy fan integration has made this complex and physical game the most popular sport in the continental United States. Mirroring the growth of professional football has been the John Madden Football franchise, simply known as Madden (insert year here).
Fans of the football franchise are often lifers, people who have been with the franchise for at least a decade. The series has seen iterations from the Sega Genesis to its current cross platform state and has been a priority launch game since the PlayStation 2. Being the 25th anniversary of the annual franchise, EA Sports took the occasion to name this year’s football simulation not for its year, but rather after its place in the deep roster of Madden titles. This self-proclaimed celebration gives Madden 25 a chance to pay respect to its many previous entries over the last quarter of a century, with loading screens that recall features added to each iteration. It gives Madden 25 a somewhat nostalgic feeling, reminiscing about the first time the games featured instant replay, motion capture, or when it got rid of passing windows. It also gives a nod to some of the past failures like QB vision and auto-adjusted difficulty. However, the most depressing thing about these little nods to the past is the realization about how little has dynamically changed in the last decade of the franchise.
There are many camps of Madden fans, but it is safe to presume that each year we all fall into one of two; you’re either excited for this year’s game, or you’re not. Since 2004, the Madden franchise has failed to make any revolutionary changes to their game and this year remains the same in a lot of ways. Much like years where the truck/hit stick was introduced, or when the animations were overhauled, this year’s Madden continues to shave off degrees of imperfections, getting a product that is ever-so-slightly improved but still feels far from the product we really want. The new Infinity engine looks nice, especially during replays and cut-scenes, but the animations are still repetitive and quickly becomes old.
This is where Madden has always failed and continues to fail. Football, like any form of entertainment, is all about the storylines and their unexpected twists. We watch football to see Tom Brady fight with his offensive coordinator, to see Jim Harbaugh hug a teary eyed Vernon Davis, or to see Adrian Peterson get carried off the field while his own team chants “M-V-P”. Madden offers none of that. The emotions are canned and the adrenaline is fleeting, leaving you feeling unimpressed when playing the game in a one-off scenario. There is no way to watch a game of Madden 25 and respond with anything but “Been there, done that.”
Madden’s failure at immersion continues through its on-field gameplay. Constantly attempting to tow a line between compressing the three-hour real NFL game time and still simulating real NFL stats, Madden has always come close to achieving this without really hitting home. This year’s iteration is no exception. Defenses still feel slightly overpowered and stopping top rated quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning feels a little bit too easy. Running conservative coverage schemes causes these elite passers to constantly check down, making them slowly chip away at your defense. While it is a decent take on actual strategy, it also means that these elite quarterbacks are easily contained to 200 yards passing and--at most--a couple touchdowns.
Meanwhile, on the offensive side of the ball, the quarterback position is largely dependent on player skill. Rodgers and Brady might be more accurate and powerful with their arm, but in the NFL the real divide between the elite and pedestrian is awareness and intelligence. In Madden it’s as easy to find the open receiver with Peyton Manning as it is with Ryan Tannehill. It allows players to compromise at what is often thought to be the most important position in football. The biggest head-scratcher in Madden’s simulation mistakes is the frequency of injuries. In one game both me and my opponent lost our starting quarterback; I also lost my starting running back and a linebacker, all for multi-week injuries. This added to two defensive linemen and a tight end injured for multiple weeks, all after the first game of the season. It is strange enough that the simulation AI doesn’t protect your starters in the preseason, but losing so many players before the second week of the season seemed bizarre. Even after turning the injury slider down from 50 to 25 I still saw approximately two guys go down on my team each week, one with a serious injury. After adjusting the slider to 10, I was able to stop the slaughter.
It is unfair to harp on these shortcomings without pointing out what Madden does really well. The running game remains tons of fun as shaking linebackers with Doug Martin and running over them with Adrian Peterson is exhilarating. Madden is able to capture the feeling, whether at your own 20 yard line or in the red zone, you are just one play away from pay dirt. Those real life feelings where your defense is crumbling against a last second drive, or when your offense is desperately running a two-minute drill is still alive and well in this football simulator. Madden fails and succeeds in very much the same way it always has, one minute it has your heart in your throat and you’re wiping your sweaty palms on your pant leg, then a couple minutes later you’re slouched on your couch trudging through another uninteresting game in your season. The hot/cold fun streaks in Madden are also represented in the game’s difficulty. While on the preset Pro difficulty I dominated the competition, running up scores on offense like the Greatest Show on Turf, then dominated on defense like the Steel Curtain. After bumping the difficulty up to All-Pro, every game became a desperate struggle, squeaking out points while praying my defense would bend but not break. Finding an appropriate difficulty in Madden feels like rocket science, as you constantly adjust the game’s sliders up and down then flip between difficulties to find something that feels challenging while not making you feel like the AI is out to screw you.
While immersion has never been Madden’s biggest strength, emergent narrative always has. This is where Madden really shines and is even better if you have someone to share it with. Whether it is you and a friend wrecking shop online or against the AI, passing the controller between offense and defense, or going head-to-head, Madden is at its finest when you have someone to share it with. The game is clearly aware of this as it returns Connected Careers, and offers full support to share your highlights and milestones via social media. The stories that you share about last second comebacks, or championship drives, the fueling of old rivalries between you and your buddies, Madden 25 offers these experiences and more.
While Connected Careers returns to Madden 25, it now offers Owner Mode, which was criminally discarded from 2013’s version of the game. Again, this mode offers the most emergent stories as you take the reins of an NFL franchise. You can play as a player-turned-owner, a lifelong fan finally buying their favorite team, or a super-powered business mogul who is hungry for a NFL franchise to call their own. The mode gives you the ability to set prices for tickets, merchandise, and concessions. You will have the responsibility of putting together a successful roster, securing a top-notch coaching staff, and providing your city with a decent product, but your biggest responsibility is to make money. This gives access to the cold, hard world of the billionaire owner. Players become numbers and fan happiness is secondary to the income they provide. You can run your team as the highly involved Jerry Jones, or be laid back and fan friendly. The game also offers media question which allows you to set expectations for your fan base. While all of this customization is nice to have, it all ends up feeling a bit superfluous. Unless you’re looking to make trouble, you will set prices in accordance with league averages and be a fan favorite. The game rarely asks you to make any really difficult decisions as owner and the few decisions you do make won’t make or break your legacy.
The best part of the Owner Mode experience is the ability to move teams. The process isn’t as open-ended as it previously was, options for city, mascot, jersey and stadium are all limited to a few options, giving you fan feedback for each choice. For instance, the city to which you move can greatly affect your market. In London you have a massive market, but their interest in your team is going to be fair weather at best. Meanwhile, Oklahoma is ready to be loyal to your team, even if they don’t have a ton of money or people to bring in revenue. These decisions lead to you forming your own stories like the firings and hiring, breaking the heart of a long established fan base to move to greener pastures, or relationships with your team’s superstars.
Coach Mode is relatively the same from last year, similar to Owner Mode except shifting focus to on-field management and dealing with the danger of being fired. It offers the control of a team, while not having to worry about the price of nachos. The worst of the Connected Career modes is Player Mode, which feels like an empty shell compared to the superstar modes of other established sports franchises. Tacking on Player Mode to Connected Careers does little to give the mode any personality or benefit. Instead, you are simply stripped of most customization options expect for controlling the development of your player, something the other two modes offer as well. The simple removing of options from owner to coach and coach to player, leave Connected Careers feeling like it is still an unimaginative way to streamline the process of Madden’s different options, robbing them of feeling unique from each other.
Other issues include Madden 25’s menus, which suffer from a painfully annoying lag. This would not be worth discussing except that the game requires you to spend countless hours in its menus, drafting players, upgrading players, setting prices. The latency in these menus can be horribly annoying as you press the “X” button two or three times before your commands are executed. While the menus are more intuitive than previous franchise entries, all goodwill is derailed by a flaw you shouldn’t find in what will be one of the highest grossing games this year.
Madden 25 offers the same amount of fun as any Madden game in the past. Running a franchise with a friend, or building an online Ultimate team through the acquisition of player cards is still a ton of fun and offers dozens of hours for those who are looking to really dig in to what is offered. While Madden is celebrating its 25th entry into one of the longest running franchises in video game history, it gave me a wonderful chance to remember why I have always loved the franchise. Madden is for the football fans who simply can’t get enough, the fans who play the game to pass the days in between Sundays, who have gone back to the well year after year for better graphics, better commentary, and better mechanics. The fans who suffered through QB vision and remember how you could dominate with Michael Vick. It’s no coincidence that Madden’s popularity has mimicked that of the NFL. However, if you are hoping that this Madden will rekindle your interest, there’s little here to distinguish it from the years prior. If you have always wondered what all the fuss is about, then stay clear. People who are going to buy Madden will enjoy this year’s version over last year thanks to slight improvements and the return of owner mode. Madden 25 is not a great game for everyone, but it is a good game for those who are excited for it.