From: EA Sports.
For: PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S, PC
★★★★
It’s Madden. It’s very good. It’s basically the same game that has been around for six or seven years with a few tweaks here and there. It is what it says on the tin.
For me — and I appreciate this will sound on the lame side — the likelihood of Madden 24 getting plenty of time in my console this season was going to boil down to two extremely specific game improvements.
Would my players scoop up a fumble like they were reasonably faithful virtual representations of real-life American footballers, or would they stumble around like drunken buffoons in a comic display of inept nonsense?
Similarly, would the very simple kicking mechanic work smoothly or — breathe deeply — would it still have a bug that had been around for perhaps a decade and leaves your kicker applying about as much force as a delicate puff of wind?
Good news!
My experience so far has been promising. The big men in pads do indeed scoop up fumbles with completely normal actions, and kicking penalties and extra points has been seamless. Blessed joy.
Elsewhere, Madden 24 is, broadly speaking, as good as ever.
The designers have promoted the introduction of something called SAPIEN technology that aims to enhance the sense of realistic movement and lifelike player models, and while it does not really seem to have a massive effect on gameplay, it sure looks nice.
You also get to see more movement and emotion off the ball, including players reacting to situations or stirring up some beef, and it’s a nice touch.
There’s a welcome return to Franchise mode of mini-games — come on, who doesn’t love a mini-game? — and a welcome farewell to the ridiculous playground mode known as The Yard.
Face of the Franchise singleplayer mode is also gone, and Superstar mode is back, offering you the chance to create a player in one of five positions and develop him into a 99-rated superstar.
Ultimate Team is where EA makes the big money, and there is again an unholy amount of gameplay on offer.
It’s grindy, yes, but still with a nice mix of risk and reward.
The big news is the introduction of full crossplay — which, when I gave it a go, worked seamlessly — and cross-progression, a boost for friend groups on different platforms.
As always, early review bombs argue Madden 24 is "same old, same old". And technically, that is correct — the game does not change massively year-on-year at this point.
But sameness is not always a bad thing.
