Madden 20 Review: EA Needs to do Better | MojoPlays
There are essentially just 4 modes in Madden; Ultimate Team, QB1: Face of the Franchise, Franchise Mode and Play now. That’s it. In comparison to other sports games like NBA2K, or even EA’s other franchises like NHL, this barebones offering is simply not enough. Most importantly though, In terms of gameplay, the game did get better. The throwing animations are smoother and they’ve finally incorporated the real throwing mechanics of the quarterbacks, The running and juking is much more fluid and you finally don’t feel like a block of cement trying to move around a pylon. In terms of gameplay, the game feels just much faster. Going from play to play seems much more accelerated and going through an entire game takes markedly less time now. Lastly and most importantly the addition of X-Factors is amazing. One of my gripes in previous Madden Games is that a lot of the players just felt the same. Aaron Rodgers felt like Drew Brees and Tom Brady and Philip Rivers and… you get the point. Madden 20, with the new superstar traits and X-factors really makes superstars, feel like superstars. Basically, if a player meets a certain requirement in game, they activate their X-Factor traits and become much harder to handle. It doesn’t change the game drastically because it’s hard to activate the Xfactor, but when it does happen, it feels great. Other than that, however, in terms of gameplay, there’s not much else that was added. They did take away the referees however for some silly reason but overall, playing madden 20 feels better than playing madden 19. But that’s to be expected.
The new mode QB1: Face of the Franchise gives you the ability to create your own player and participate in a quasi story mode, but this is a step back from Longshot over the past two years. Yes there are customizable options that weren’t available in longshot, but Longshot actually felt like a story whereas this kind of just felt like an introduction to be a pro. Fans have been clamoring for an experience like QB1, but with only the option to be a QB and with it being extremely short, this kind of felt like a trial version. There were some cool elements like the inclusion of a good morning football segment about your fictional player that made it feel more real on top of actually being able to play in college, albeit if it was only two games. I was happy this mode was in the game and it did give me a couple hours of enjoyment, hopefully they can expand on this in the future, but why not now? This game is not just some DLC and costs the full price of admission and we should, as fans, be demanding of EA to give us new experiences that don’t feel half-fleshed out.
Madden Ultimate Team, or MUT, is better than ever. It’s clear that EA has invested the most in this game mode versus everything else because it makes them the most money. Out of all the ultimate team experiences, Madden’s is the best. While there is an emphasis on microtransactions, you can actually build a very good to great team by putting in the hours and doing the missions which replace the solo challenges from year’s past. They're not as tedious as other games (Looking at you 2k and Fifa). Ultimate team is really what a lot of us buy madden for to be fair, and it’s better than ever.
The most popular mode however, in years past has been franchise mode. And let me tell you, with barely any changes, franchise mode in Madden 20 is as stale as its ever been. There are obviously some minor tweaks and improvements, but it’s essentially the same franchise mode as Madden 19 and 18. Reporters asking you questions after big losses or big wins and even including fog of war, which hides players who have played less than 500 snaps full stats, are nice additions. But these have been in the other franchise modes for years and it feels like Madden is simply just playing catch up. Yes, they did add the pro bowl, much to many fans content, but the issue is that the pro bowl was already in the game in previous editions, and they took it out, just to advertise it as an addition to Madden 20? Will they be advertising and hanging their hat onto.
All in all, we should be expecting more out of EA when it comes to Madden. To put it into perspective: with a much smaller dev team, EA’s NHL franchise has outclassed Madden’s in almost every way save Ultimate team. The game is good, it’s really fun to play with or against friends. The gameplay itself is in my opinion the best and fastest it has ever been. If you’re interested in just playing madden and looking to immerse yourself in a fun Ultimate team that doesn’t require you to spend a boatload of cash to be competitive, then this is a game that you will enjoy. However, if you’re looking for a complete overhaul from year’s past with brand new franchise mode and an immersive storytelling experience, then this is not the Madden you’re looking for.
