Another year and another season of College Football from EA has arrived. While not much has changed with the College Football series during the offseason, the same fantastic gameplay from last year’s game is still intact, while also sporting some spreadsheet management for the detail-oriented fanatics out there. Whether that is good or bad is up to players and their expectations, but regardless, the game still delivers a more refined and perfectly finished version of how a football game should work.
College Football 27 is a game that delights in its precise controls and a good user experience. It takes everything that made the Madden series once great, eons ago, and polishes up how the game of football feels and acts in video game form. Whatever EA Tiburon is doing with its gameplay at its basic level, this needs to be replicated with the Madden series. Like, ASAP.
Starting with the obvious, College Football 27 still brings some accurate and natural-feeling controls to both sides of the ball. The offensive side feels good with passing, timing, and knowing what play to call when. That’s one of the most delightful parts of the experience, as calling up a play, watching it develop, and just getting the ball to the receiver without much fuss or mess feels good. Having been raised a Kentucky Football fan, hitting my football stride during the Tim Couch era, having an accurate and fun feel to the passing game is essential for my entertainment when it comes to balling on a video game. Moving the quarterback around in the pocket and setting up for a deep throw or a short pass feels seamless. It harkens back to those air raid years of Hal Mumme.
Equally as impressive is the running game. Here, the controls allow the player to cut when they need to, stiff-arm or juke defensive players when called for, and find seams without much fuss. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed the smoothness of a good running game, but College Football 27 delivers what it set up last year and does so with the greatest of ease. I found myself breaking all sorts of touchdown records with my running back in Dynasty mode, as finding the holes to hit was obvious and enticing in its execution, and this helped to balance out with a proper passing attack.
Offensively, I have zero complaints about how this game brought controls and ease-of-use. It felt good and natural, and did what I expected it would do after last year’s game. The expectations were met, if not exceeded a bit. The Madden series always had a problem finding that balance between the running and passing game, but College Football 27 excels in it and delivers what it promises by maintaining its status quo since emerging on the football video game scene. Both gameplay sides have been perfected.
On the defensive side of the tracks, the game follows the offense closely in terms of accuracy, ease, and fun. Getting a defensive player to break through a tough offensive line or bat down a pass, or occasionally intercept a ball that was just mistimed, is as simple as passing a good ball down the field in the game. Breaking the O-line and taking down quarterbacks wasn’t a difficult task thanks to easy controls and the ability to naturally move them in the direction a player would think they should go onscreen. There’s no magic to the process, just smooth HCI control scheming that works as well as it flows.
My point with all the above ramble is that the controls feel good. They don’t feel loose or tight, rather accurate and work as one should expect. I don’t know what magic EA Tiburon used to make this game so good with controls, but they need to keep it going. It’s a leading point of enjoyment for College Football 27. Truly, it makes the experience a treat.
Of course, good controls mixed with a plethora of plays don’t really push the series beyond what it has delivered in the past. And there lies the problem with this year’s game.
Outside of improved graphics and wonderful controls to make the gameplay fun, the modes delivered aren’t a giant leap forward in the franchise. The game’s big modes are Road to Glory and Ultimate Team, with a side of CFP online play. These aren’t terrible modes by any stretch of the imagination, but they do lack in a few areas.
Starting with Ultimate Team, EA Sports seems hellbent on getting Ultimate Team in the player’s face and at the forefront of the game. There are fun challenges and the usual team building, but mostly driven by pack purchasing and rating increases. While I respect the hell out of the Ultimate Team mode, even in Madden NFL, it just doesn’t change enough to warrant this much attention. It’s the same old experience, although there are a few side-quests, including a Bo Jackson-led Retro challenge. That was interesting to play, especially as Jackson was mixed with new blood on the Auburn side of the tracks. It was also neat to see classic matchups with Auburn, which starts with a very tough Florida game. Overall, UT fell a bit short in separating itself from previous years. It needs something else injected into it to make it more than just a card-purchasing humdrum. Gimmicks like Bo Jackson’s Retro Challenge just aren’t enough to get excited.
Shifting gears, with Road to Glory, it’s mostly driven by small challenges, branching narratives, and keeping up with player stats. This year, College Football 27 did go into detail on how to create a character, how to raise their stats, and how to best flirt with potential colleges that want to recruit said character. I found this to be more entertaining than Ultimate Team, but it relied way too much on stats and narrative shifts rather than actual gameplay. I spent more time on those elements, as well as loading screens, than I did on the field. It was still fun, as my QB just got into a game and was challenged with goals, but it could have been less lopsided with stats and number crunching. The folks at EA Tiburon should take a look at MLB The Show and how San Diego Studio has treated this portion of their game over the years. MLB The Show always seemed balanced, yet meaningful with stat building and player journey. It does enough to feel like player growth was a significant part of the process, but not too much that it took away from gameplay. Road to Glory has to find that balance. It’s fun, but, again, lopsided with elements that are great for backend number crunching but not as sexy and fun for front-end gameplay.
As for the Dynasty mode, I spent the most time in it. Taking Will Stein’s Wildcats to the playoffs will probably only happen in this mode, so it was fun playing real teams and dealing with few management requests. That’s not to say that at the end of the season the game doesn’t present NIL problems to keep players, as that is brought into the overall equation of Dynasty, but there’s more on-field gameplay than not. The management was kept to a minimum, mainly focusing on coaching, upgrading, and goals, and more focus was placed on the actual team’s season on the field. It’s a good way to see a buffet of College Football 27 offerings in terms of gameplay and such.
Overall, I think College Football 27 stalls a bit this year with its release, with a slowdown of meaningful content. No doubt it is still the best-looking, feeling, and fun video game version of football on the market, but it needs to keep its momentum with unique and fun player offerings. Right now, it has slowed that innovation, but, again, it’s still a blast to play if you’re just purely looking for a good football game to wipe off the dust for the impending college football season.
On that note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
College Football 27 from EA Tiburon and EA Sports feels good in gameplay and execution, as expected, and still delivers a fantastic football experience. It stalls a bit in its additional mode innovation, despite its variety of modes, by focusing more on number-crunching than button-mashing.
