Madden NFL 22 Review-In-Progress – Game Informer

Madden NFL 22 officially launches this Friday, but you may now see reviews of the latest EA Sports soccer game as those who pre-ordered the MVP or Dynasty editions gain access to the game. We’re not quite ready to deliver our final verdict on EA Tiburon’s latest effort, but I’ve spent several hours on the game and can offer some initial ideas.

This year, Madden is focused on making the atmosphere of the game feel more true to life. In that sense, the title is a great success. New animations for spectators bring a greater sense of realism and presence, and the remastered crowd sound makes those great moments in games feel more impactful. Not only that, but modifiers added by the new boost meter and home field advantage deliver the right boosts most of the time. The improved blocking makes the running game more effective, and I like the greater catch responsiveness for the passing game.

The franchise mode also introduces some notable improvements, including new skill trees for four of its staff trainers. I also like the weekly game planning that gives raises based on the strategies and approaches you choose for offense and defense, as well as the ability to decide how intense you want the practice to be before the game. It’s still not the full step fans wanted for Madden NFL 21, but with all the changes from last year’s post-launch updates added, plus a promised scouting update tentatively scheduled for next month, the mode is slowly coming in.

The single-player story mode, Face of the Franchise is, frankly, an unfinished disaster at the moment. Already awkward story scenes get even worse, as the characters’ voice lines don’t fire properly, sometimes leaving the two people in the conversation staring at each other. Other times, voice lines repeat or continue playing from previous scenes to the next.

However, failures are not isolated from off-field action. In one training sequence, the players didn’t fully appear, causing the ball to fall harmlessly onto the field, ending the drill (plus side: I was playing linebacker and my goal was to avoid the first try so at least it got credit for being successful). On another occasion, I was participating in a 6v6 tournament in New York at the beginning of the mode, but each player’s feet were ruined, resulting in hideous contortions and a sometimes abysmal frame rate.

The biggest problem occurred in my player’s first game in the NFL. After a bit of preparation, my character was excited to take the field for his new team, the Los Angeles Chargers, against the Washington Football Team. After watching the Chargers go out onto the field with my character in tow, the camera clumsily sliced ​​into an empty tunnel. After sitting on the throw for too long, Madden NFL 22 put me in the game, which suddenly turned into a Chargers-vs-Chargers mirror game at Washington Football Team Stadium. I guess the Washington soccer team was busy that day. That particular bug never happened again, but is still indicative of the current overall state of the mode.

When Face of the Franchise works, it’s a lot of fun. Taking my character from college football standout to NFL star is rewarding, and I like being able to choose which side activities to participate in to gain specific boosts, but I’m not a fan of how everything is driven by menus. Most of the choices are made via text messages, and the narrative rhythms are often delivered in the form of voice messages from your agent or brand manager that are played back in cut-scenes of your player sitting on your couch. Whether you’re talking about Road to the Show from MLB The Shows or My Career from NBA 2K, the single-player career modes are right up there with Franchise as my destination mode, so I’ll always find the fun in these situations and scenarios. but Madden NFL 22’s Face of the Franchise is missing.

While I’ve spent most of my time on Face of the Franchise and the standard franchise mode, I plan to take more snapshots on The Yard and the myriad of other modes before I get to my final verdict. Stay tuned for the full review later this week.

Madden NFL 22 launches this Friday, August 20 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X / S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia and PC. For more information on what’s new in this year’s entry, check out our final preview of last week’s game.