Think of this like a round of backyard football, featuring athletes with far better physiques than your average Thanksgiving pick-up game. In addition to the standard evolution of mechanics that are to be expected, there was one marque new mode added in Madden 21: The Yard. Combining these improvements with the nerfing of the obscenely buffed linebacker play from last year, also helps make this feel like one of the better-balanced installments in recent memory. Simply put, these enhancements feel more like tweaks than true revamps, that make the moment-to-moment gameplay feel more organic and, quite frankly, fairer. Jukes, spin moves, and side steps all feel far more organic and responsive, while also avoiding the series’ biggest pitfall of gameplay modification resulting in the impacted positions being overpowered as hell for the following twelve months.

For one, the “skill stick” controls that are utilized for the both the running game and newly-introduced linemen special moves have improved the experience dramatically. We are well into the “dog days of mediocrity,” where innovation has stagnated in favor of ramping up for the launch of the PS5 version.īefore we start bagging on the areas that are still in need of serious attention, it’s worth mentioning that there have been a collection of advancements to the core “on the field” mechanics, that made significant strides in the right direction. Unfortunately, these advancements tend to hit a plateau after a handful of installments, then grind to a screeching halt once they’ve reached feature parity with the last generation. Things tend to start off with a bang each generation, as the development teams excitedly try to make the best use of new technology. It’s no small secret that the Madden franchise has been struggling to find its way for the past several years.

Madden NFL 21 is back again with vengeance after last year’s middling performance, but can they manage to finish off the console generation in style or are we looking at another season of increasingly diminishing returns? Madden NFL 21 Review – Punting on Innovation Thankfully, the folks over at EA Sports aren’t going to let a little thing like a global health crisis get in the way of raking in those sweet, sweet, Ultimate Team bucks. If you like Madden, you'll have fun, even if you get annoyed from time to time, but the franchise still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up with the other sports games on the market.With the continual mess that is the current health pandemic in the United States, it’s hard to predict if we will even end up having a complete NFL season this year. The real saving grace that makes the game a solid experience is the upgraded gameplay and graphics for next-gen. There is always an option to skip the cinematic moments, but there are just so many of them that you feel like you're wasting time whenever you're not actually playing in a game.įor every enjoyable new thing in Madden NFL 22, there's something else that's equally as frustrating. That's especially frustrating when some conversations happen over text messages, and you wonder how the story team chose what was necessary to leave the menu for. Most options you choose involve you going to talk to someone whose mouths hardly line up with their dialogue. Face of the Franchise has a bland story that consistently takes you out of any fun you're having to listen to your agent or 'brand manager' tell you about your life. The focus on those improvements, however, left other areas seriously lacking.

Madden nfl 21 ps5 review