Review: Madden NFL 21 lacks any long-term value

Despite a global pandemic and some questions about the immediate future of sports, we still have sports video games! While there’s no football until September, Madden NFL 21 aims to tide you over until the season begins. Whether it succeeds at its aspirations or not is a different story.

For this review, we’re going to assume you probably know the basics of Madden. So, we’ll go over some gameplay enhancements and then dive into some of the new modes such as The Yard, Face of the Franchise, and more.

The Gameplay

Madden NFL 21 strives in its gameplay. As always, it’s slick and smooth but also incredibly simple to control without feeling like it’s dumbed down. It’s easy to grasp and EA has a way of making full use of the controller. Many buttons are multi-purpose but rarely does that get in the way of the split-second decisions you have to make.

With the right stick, you can control a lot of key things such as jukes, rushes, and more. It’s something that’s crucial to offense and defense but is simple and satisfying to use, often presenting those jaw-dropping moments that result in big plays.

AI is also smarter, adapting to your playstyle and constantly trying to counter your plays with audibles and other tactics. You can’t pass the ball the same way every single time, you’re going to have to use all your tricks to win. Players, both AI and player-controlled, have more awareness as well.

The characters have greater awareness of where they are on the field meaning defense will do everything to prevent knocking someone over the field goal line or allow first downs. They will attempt to tackle players without giving them that extra yardage and offense will do everything they can to get across whatever lines for touchdowns or first downs.

Face of the Franchise

Face of the Franchise is an evolution of the story modes that have been added to Madden in the last few years. Madden NFL 21 places you in the shoes of a custom character that you shape as you play. While I actually enjoyed these stories in the past, the actual writing, acting, and many other things this time around are… pretty bad.

When you start out, you’re given three different voices to choose from. None of them came close to remotely matching my character’s look, which was created using some of the pre-made options. From there, the acting from both the protagonist and the supporting cast fell so incredibly flat. The biggest actor in the cast is Tye Sheridan from X-Men and Ready Player One. Sheridan plays Tommy Matthews, the star quarterback of the high school football team.

You meet him in a locker room very early on and he hits you with this comically abrupt and jarring revelation: He has a crippling heart condition. He asks you to hide it from the team so he can keep playing and you have a choice to whether you can do that or not. Regardless of whatever choice you make, he gets benched and you end up playing.

This is another one of the big issues, this illusion of choice that it wants to offer that doesn’t do much but add some different dialogue. Outcomes are the same, even in gameplay. It doesn’t matter how horrible you play because they’ll just say you are the next Mahomes or Brady because of things you did off-screen. In previous story modes, it felt like your performance mattered and the choices you made impacted the game. That’s not the case in Madden NFL 21.

It seems that even someone as talented as Sheridan couldn’t salvage the script into anything particularly good. Not only are facial captures and animations stiff, meaning a lot of their performances rely on their voice, but no one really offers anything of value at any point. It seemed like no one cared and it’s an egregious step down from past entries.

From forced drama to bad dialogue, it’s just a soap opera cringe-fest. It’s something only worth playing if you want to play a bit of college football. Even then, that gameplay isn’t  much different than the standard gameplay you see in the rest of Madden NFL 21.

The Yard and Superstar KO

The Yard is the down and dirty arcade mode the series needed to shake things up a bit more. While there’s not enough here to sell a whole game on it, it’s classic 6 v 6 backyard football. The kind that you go and play with your friends, leaving grass stains on your knees and bruises all over your body. It’s raw and it’s great.

It’s a much more lawless version of football with multiple passes and more, creating a sense of a much more high-octane level of football. You get three drives and the goal is to do more than just score typical touchdowns to rack up the points. While you can win by doing that, there’s other ways to nab points. Interceptions, more complex plays such as multiple passes leading to a touchdown, and more all reward you substantially.

After you score a touchdown, instead of a standard field goal punt or play from around the endzone, you’re given three options. These three options start you further and further away from the endzone, with the furthest option giving you more points if you manage to make the touchdown. It’s high risk, high reward.

There’s another arcade-y mode known as Superstar KO. This was added after Madden NFL 20 launched but this was my first time playing it. You select from various fake teams with key coaches from NFL history such as John Madden. Then you can comprise your ultimate 3-man squad, all of whom have special perks to help you dominate.

From there, you get one drive each and if you get tied, it goes into a form of overtime. You each get three drives and the person who scores first or has the most yardage wins. It’s fast, simple, fun and rewards bombastic moments.

Both The Yard and Superstar KO allow for types of rapid and over the top gameplay Madden NFL 21 otherwise actively seems to resent While I get the rest of the game is a simulation, the appeal is starting to waver and the arcade-y nature is where it shines. These modes still lack in depth to make them worth playing longterm. After a day of playing The Yard, I had seen most of what it had to offer.. Many of the other modes in the game are nearly or completely identical to last year’s making these the only real highlights.

The Verdict

For Madden NFL 21, the only one that’s going to be affected by any sort of Madden Curse is EA themselves. While it can initially get by with some fun gameplay, there’s little here to justify playing this for an entire year until Madden NFL 22. For a game that’s supposed to be the start of a new-generation of Madden, it lacks severely.

EA needs to figure out a plan quickly. 2K Games is developing new football games and could quickly become worthwhile competition.