The gameplay of Madden 17 doesn’t dramatically shift one way or another, at least not since the QB cone. Most of what changes with Madden isn’t something you can see, rather it’s under the hood and you can feel it. Like when you drive a fancy car for the first time and realize how incredibly different it is from your Kia Sorento. You can tell something is different and most of the time you really enjoy it. For this year’s Madden NFL, EA Tiburon has decided to concentrate on improving gameplay across the board, while not requiring you to re-learn you skills and moves. In short, their focus was making the experience better, if not the best so far, and they have firmly achieved that intention.
Let’s get this thing started.
First and foremost, the offense has been dramatically improved, though there are some frustrating imbalanced moments during gameplay, which can only be compared to being up 20 points with six seconds left in NBA JAM and firmly believing that the computer will throw in the towel. Spoiler alert, the computer does everything in its power to win, including throwing in some bogus penalties, impossible catches and crippling one’s offense with a defense that hasn’t been stifling the entire game. Granted, there aren’t a lot of those moments, but you really feel them when you experience them. Anyway, let’s shift away from that right now and focus on the positives — offense and defense.
The offense has gotten incredibly easy to use. Not QB cone easy, but easy through a variety of different offensive options to achieve success. Starting with wide receiver, having a ball thrown into traffic isn’t a guaranteed bad issue as it was a guaranteed interception in the past. A WR is given a chance to go up and get the ball by pressing the triangle button. Once you have the ball, you have to hit square to keep ahold of it. Asking the user to catch and secure the ball seems like a no-brainer, though that hasn’t been necessarily the case in past Madden titles. It also seems like a lot of buttons to press in a short span of time, but it’s automatic muscle movement after the second or third game of the season. Throwing a ball into double coverage doesn’t just result in you holding your breath and praying to the football gods. It requires you to hit the right buttons and put the destiny of the play squarely in your hands. That’s not a bad thing at all, in fact that is how it should have been years ago. On the flipside to that equation, the game’s defense has the opportunity to go up and smack the ball out of the receiver’s hands using the same button (triangle). It’s a timing thing, but a complete gamer controlled action, much like WR. In the end, this equals out to a good balance of offense/defense button movement that will make/break your game in Madden. It’s simple and fair.
The running back has the same type of opportunity, though I have to say the RB controls are far more complicated than the receiver’s button scheme, especially when you’re trying to sort out the line of defenders coming at you and where their vulnerability is in that wall. You can juke easier with the right thumbstick, put your head down and bowl into defenders with the square, as well as gain momentum up the field through the left stick and a player path laid out by the game (via a large arrow). There are some other odds and ends, such as the spin move with circle, that make the running back more complicated. Truth be told, I think I ran the ball in this Madden NFL title about two percent of the time in franchise mode, mainly because I play as the Cleveland Browns (I know, you should instantly feel sorry for me — 1) for admitting this to you publicly and 2) for knowing what I have as players going into the game). Overall, I think the running game is improved and while not as easy as it has been in the past, is built in a fair fashion that is very representative of the hardest offensive position on the field. Running back fans will be thrilled with how much control they have in the game.
In the QB position EA Tiburon has done something for me (probably not for me, but I would like to think so) that I haven’t been able to do in years — play action passing. Let me give you a wonderful scenario here. Yours truly goes back (pick a Browns QB in the last five years, any 20 of them), I’m performing a play action pass, I roll around and BAM! Sacked. That’s how the past play action series would go for me. From 2007-2015, always a freakin’ sack. This time around, I have felt the wind in my hair and the defense biting on the fake with my play action scheme, and my ball, while not delivered beautifully (freaking Browns), is sent spiraling towards towards my WR, or who I would like to call ‘oblivion’ (because that shit isn’t going to hit its mark). Now, I have been sacked more than once in this year’s Madden NFL doing this sort of pass, but not nearly as much as in the past. I have another weapon in my arsenal now, one that I won’t soon give up. Humor/sadness aside, the QB gameplay position seems just as smooth as the other parts of the offense. It seems like you have a chance with any play you run, depending on the defensive scheme your’e going up against. Regardless, at the end of the day I made Robert Griffin III into a star again through this simplistic and even gameplay design. RG3 deserves that, right?
Punting, kicking? Same.
On the other side of the ball, things have gotten dramatically better. Calling the right scheme is important on defense. (duh, right?) The consequences of being out of place can be costly, as they should be, but getting the right coverage makes for fun results. It also helps that breaking the offensive line is far more easier and more user driven than in the past. Jumping at the right moment, by hitting R2, and then pressing a certain assigned button to wiggle through the line is amazingly fun. I’m a huge line guy when it comes to defense because I enjoy sacking QBs and RBs. This was the first time in years where I felt like I was in complete control of my own destiny when it came to breaking through the O-line. It was fun, addictive and it felt right. In comparison, past Madden NFL titles usually consisted of preset animation that would break once in awhile when you successfully hit your buttons at the right moment. This year’s Madden NFL presents a type of freedom to move and use your players as they should have been used 10 years ago. This is what it felt like playing Super Mario 64 for the first time — so much freedom! Anyway, the defense in this year’s Madden works enormously well. It feels like a defense should feel when you’re in control of them.
Having said all this, I do have an issue with the computer and its need to make a comeback at my enjoyment’s expense. At certain times, especially when the game is on the line or the computer has fallen behind, the CPU gets several advantageous moments dropped in their loser lap. For example, there was a Patriots game where my defense had pretty much locked them up for three quarters. The score was only 10-3, so the Pats were in range of tying or winning the game, but the flow of the game pretty much said, “Brady, go deflate some balls. That’s all you’re good for tonight.” The game decided that it has enough of my shit, probably waking up and realizing I was playing with the Browns, and decided to change my fate. The game started to call penalties on me on both sides of the ball, especially the offense, where most of the calls were out of my control completely. No calls had been made up to this point, but all of the sudden I had guys jumping the line and/or holding, which killed several drives towards the end of the game. Thankfully, I was able to pull it out, but the calls and difficulty just came out of the blue and made for an angrily frustrated experience that only Call of Duty multiplayer games have experienced in my living room. As the season progressed, there were more of these moments. Granted, I know that EA Sports doesn’t want players to win 120-3, but if the game hasn’t been working in your opponent’s favor the entire time, it should either slowly ramp up a comeback or just let the opponent roll over. Going from nothing to major comeback isn’t right. It did feel a bit NBA JAMmed.
That gripe aside, the game did a superb job of balancing the rest of the season out. The gameplay in Madden NFL 17 makes sense on both sides of the ball. It felt right and not forced, as EA Tiburon seems to have found the right formula for the gameplay. This Madden NFL’s gameplay feels like a football game should feel when you’re playing it. I’m talking NFL 2K5 sort of feelings.
As for the modes of play, you’ve got some usual suspects in the mix. Here’s the breakdown:
Franchise: Business as usual. You get to pick what you want to control, such as if you want to make Hue Jackson successful — a wish from all Browns fans, then you get into a season. You can choose to simulate games, play moments or straight up play a real game. In addition, you gain points through successful goals and seasons, as well as get to negotiate contracts with current players (watch out, salary cap). The game load times are quick, the game mode is good fun and it’s a great prep for online playing.
Ultimate Team: You play to win certain goals/scenarios with a team that is randomly selected through trading cards. Each time you succeed, you’re rewarded. You can win packs of player cards that can substitute players from your current team. It’s a neat game mode, always has been, but still not my cup of tea after all of these years. I will say that it does present some new line-up changes for my Browns team, which makes the game a bit more interesting. I don’t want to manage too much, though. I just want to play football.
Draft Champions: Draft your team, implement your team — succeed or fail! It’s a neat and complicated mode that will satisfy the (insert Sega sports team here) Manager that lives inside of some of us…mostly Europeans.
Skills Trainer: While I wouldn’t openly play this mode in the game, I find it rather fascinating. This isn’t simply a training simulation without purpose. This mode helps you to learn the game. This is a perfect start for those gamers out there that have never experienced Madden NFL before. It teaches you what to look for in the game and how to handle it.
Online: Psssshhhh. Enjoy this, online people. It works well, but I would rather play a good Franchise Mode. You young folks out there love this and you won’t be disappointed with what it has to offer in this year’s Madden.
Gameplay aside, let’s talk about how this puppy looks.
The presentation of Madden NFL 17 is an incredible upgrade. The crowd is amazingly beautiful in regards to their interactiveness with what’s going on down on the field, as well as how different they seem than in previous Madden NFL games. The crowd, while certainly repeating in looks, is randomly moving to keep the stands less than uniform. They play an important role with building intensity in the game and bring their own A game to 2017. In short, they help make the experience closer to football than in the past.
Now, the animation of the field, the players and the environments are taken to a new level. The players are superbly animated and actually have some good life in their models. The biggest plus, and, yes, you can laugh at me for this, is the inclusion of individual moving fingers. Sounds stupid, right? Well, if you look at past Madden titles, the hands were always stiff, the fingers generally bent together and they just seemed off. Go back to my last few Madden reviews and you’ll see me complaining about such things. They looked like wooden puppet fingers that had no life. It was as if the developers said, “We’ll do the fingers next year. No one will notice.” and said this each year. This year, the fingers have a life of their own. You can actually see a defensive player wiggling their digits in anticipation of the snap. Again, I know how this sounds, but it’s an improvement when you’re trying to sell the realness of the animated players. It completes the model package. It makes the players look and move like actual players would look and move.
On the environment side of the ball, Madden NFL 17 does a great job emulating the fields. It does a good job with the wear/tear factor of the fields. It does a good job with weather and night/day. There is a lot of field/environment interaction that helps to breathe more life into the title and the believability factor of the game. Heck, even my wife came into the room last week and asked, “Did football season begin?”, in which I replied, “Yes, it has. The Browns are 6-0.”, which killed the believability of my lie.
The only big minus with this year’s presentation in Madden NFL 17 is the commentators. Sometimes their dialogue is gold, most times than not it’s just flat out annoying. I don’t blame the commentators, but their chit-chat gets old quick.
Okay, let’s wrap this up.
