[Review] Madden NFL 13

[[MC]Ronin[MC]]

 

Madden NFL 13
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 is an excellent football game. You could point to the gameplay improvements, the new physics engine or even the adlibbing commentators as to why the game works so well, but the truth behind the success comes down to the sum of the parts. Madden NFL 13 looks, feels and sounds like what we all watch on Sunday, and I can't stop playing it.

 

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From the moment you hit start, Madden NFL 13 is a different beast. Rather than get dropped into mountains of disconnected menus, you're put directed to one hub screen that shows you how many players are online at that moment, gives you one-click access to your communities, and leaves your careers at your fingertips. There are different modes to Madden, but they all stem from the same place; Madden's identity crisis is over. The pop music and rappers are gone and in their place is an instrumental score driving home that this is the NFL and it's time to play football.
Madden NFL 13 does something the Madden franchise hasn't done in years: it makes me want to keep playing.
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Luckily, playing football in Madden NFL is a blast. Every time I put down the controller, I want to pick it back up and head out on the field. Madden NFL 13 is challenging this year with receiver icons that change depending on if the player is looking for the ball and defenses that aren't afraid to call me on my lack of a running game -- but I'm all about the struggle. I'm fighting for each and every yard I gain or keep from an opponent, and I'm relishing actually having to think on the field.

 

 

 

See, EA tweaked a whole bunch of gameplay mechanics in Madden NFL 13. If you want to be the jaded gamer and say "It looks just like last year," go ahead, but know that you're wrong. Yes, the graphics look as good as last year -- actually they're a bit better when you include the new TV graphics and the lush shade of a good Sunday afternoon game -- but there's plenty of under the hood enhancements that evolve the gameplay we all know.There are 25 new pass trajectories so you can put the ball out in front or just above the receiver. Defensive backs have to see the ball to make a play on it so there are no more psychic swats. You can abort play action after the snap. At a glance, Madden NFL 13 might just look like Madden, but in your hands, it feels polished.

Now, a big part of that feeling is the much-touted Infinity Engine. Basically, this adds physics to Madden for the first time. Whereas a corner and a wideout would bump into each other in the air and then come down in the same spot they leapt from last year, Madden NFL 13 allows for helicopter hits and tumbles out of bounds. Contact matters and changes plays.

It sounds exciting -- and spearing a receiver out of the air so that the trainers come out to check on him definitely is -- but I wasn't impressed at first. In fact, the place I saw the physics the most were when plays were blown dead and linemen stumbled over one another or receivers' legs got tangled with defenders. Expect jankiness to stand out, but don’t let it stop you from playing. The benefit of the Infinity Engine isn't the big plays; it's the fact that the small plays don't all look the same.

In past Maddens, there were only so many tackle animations and ways a player could go down. After a while, it was easy to feel like you had seen it all. The Infinity Engine makes every hit a little bit different. Angles, weight and more matter. Watching a halfback break free of a shoddy tackle or a wideout come down just in bounds before stumbling over really amplifies how the game looks and feels. Sure, there are still wonky tackles and handoff animations, but the good outweighs the bad by a long shot -- especially if EA continues to refine the formula and deliver animations that aren't canned.

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This well-oiled gameplay is then combined with a brand new presentation, and this setup is really what got me going for Madden NFL 13
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. I made a video a few months ago arguing that Madden's robotic announcers and generic tickers were what was holding it back from being a true NFL experience, and it looks like EA agreed.

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No longer are we subjected to a generic broadcast style. Madden NFL 13 packs primetime intros, a CBS-like graphics package, and replays out the wazoo. When a play's dead, there's still chatter from the players on the field, the crowd roars as a touchdown approaches, and the awkward inflections of previous commenters have been replaced with Phil Simms and Jim Nantz. EA let them adlib most of their lines so that there's actually rambling and stumbling similar to what we know and love.

So you have this gameplay that feels challenging and interesting, on-field action that looks more fluid than ever, and then this TV presentation that makes your experiences seem like they're happening on Sunday and being watched by drunkards across the nation. This is what I mean when I say Madden is a unified NFL experience.

EA gives you a lot to do with this package, but most of it should be familiar. There's online matchmaking, the ability to join private fan communities (IGN Podcast Beyond on PS3 and IGN Scrub Nation on Xbox 360), and the weird Ultimate Team mode where you get trading cards and assemble a squad. However, the big time sink in Madden NFL 13 is Connected Careers, and it is awesome.
It all adds up to Madden NFL 13 being something truly special.
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This year, Franchise, Online Franchise, create a player and the rest are all shoved into Connected Career. You choose to play offline or on, and then decide if you want to be coach, a specific player or create a character. From there, it's the same experience regardless of the role (preseason, cuts, draft and so on). Head coaches will play both sides of the ball while a superstar will only play when he should be on the field. If you want to be a coach and I want to just be a halfback, we can both get what we want and play in the same online career. If I get bored of being a halfback, I can retire that player and start a new one or a coaching career in that same universe we've created -- complete with evolving draft classes and storylines to watch. It is 30 seasons of whatever we want.

But what really hooked me when it comes to Connected Careers is practice and experience points in general. Each week, you as your player or coach can choose from a laundry list of practice scrimmage scenarios -- down in the third, up at halftime, etc. -- and hit the field to try and take home the XP. Then, you can apply the reward to your created player or team and build a legacy in the image you want.
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This kept me coming back to Connected Careers week after week. I liked the idea of XP in NCAA Football, but I always thought it was an unbalanced system as completion after completion would earn me my coach's trust but one INT could wipe it all out. Madden NFL 13's system is far more rewarding and actually allows me to build the character I want on a stat by stat basis. The fictional Twitter feed commentating on my NFL's top stories and the NFL Draft packing audio commentary about the fictional players are nice touches, but the way Madden deals with XP is the real story this year.
BETTER WITH KINECT?
If you're playing on Xbox 360 and plug in your Kinect, you'll find Madden NFL 13 is ready to support you. Rather than have you goofily flailing your arms to pass the ball, Kinect voice commands are used to cut out Madden's menus. You can call out an audible, challenge a play and shift your defensive line with a few quick words. My Kinect had some trouble hearing me over the TV, but that might have been a placement issue. Once I turned down the sound, the Kinect had no trouble allowing me to call a time out or modify a hot route. I don't think I'd use it over the controller combinations we all know so well, but it's there in a jam and it works.
Verdict
Madden NFL 13 does something the Madden franchise hasn't done in years: it makes me want to keep playing. Yes, the commentators will repeat themselves and funky animations are going to pop up, but the game as a whole is so good. The TV presentation, the refined gameplay, the more lifelike physics -- it all adds up to Madden NFL 13 being something truly special.