Review: Madden 19 stumbles in some places but does enough right

DISCLAIMER: A review copy was provided by the publisher.

Platform: Xbox One (reviewed), PS4, and PC

Developer: EA Tiburon

Publisher: EA Sports

MSRP: $59.99

It’s football season, folks and with that comes a new entry in the long-running sports franchise from EA Sports, Madden 19. Madden 19 comes fresh off the heels of Madden 18 which brought in a critically acclaimed story mode after FIFA saw success with a solo campaign.

Madden 18’s Longshot mode introduced players to a really gripping story of a former high school athlete named Devin Wade seeking a chance to break into the NFL. Alas, a reality TV game show comes his way and offers him the chance to train and compete for a chance to prove himself as an NFL worthy athlete. The issue? Devin Wade hardly knows the inner workings of the sport.

As you progressed through 2018’s Longshot, players grew with Wade and his surrounding characters through a rather unique character-driven story. It had heart, it was competent, and strong. Madden 19’s follow-up to that mode? Well, I can’t say it’s quite the same.

Wade is fighting for his chance to hold a spot in the NFL as a Dallas Cowboy QB, still learning how to remember and call plays on the field… Well, that is at least for the first five minutes of the game then they just totally drop that plot point. While Wade attempts to continue proving himself, we switch focus to his childhood friend Colt Cruise who is waiting on a call from the NFL at any minute.

As he sits by his phone anxiously, his father who left him at an early age reappears and drops Colt’s teenage stepsister off at his feet. On top of that, Colt’s also asked to help coach high school football in the small town of Mathis, Texas which is struggling for survival following Hurricane Harvey. He’s being pulled in every direction and being tested morally as he wants to pursue his dreams as a potential NFL superstar but is unsure if he should abandon the people depending on him.

It’s an interesting story that is the core of Longshot: Homecoming in Madden 19 but it’s one that lacks focus. The pacing and writing is extremely inconsistent and distracting. You’re jumping back and forth between Wade’s story, which feels ultimately inconsequential to everything else until the very end of the game, and Colt’s story which is juggling so many different story threads that it feels a bit rushed together.

It would work a lot better if Devin’s story didn’t intrude so much and EA just doubled down on Colt. You could still have Devin’s story serve the purpose it ends up serving but in a different way, say have Colt following Devin’s life in the NFL through social media, on TV, and so on. They toy with that a bit so clearly, it could’ve been done with some rewrites but ultimately the downfall of Longshot: Homecoming is within its disjointed pacing and character switching.

This is pure speculation on my part but I’m unsure the writing team on Longshot: Homecoming was given adequate time to really create a tight narrative for Madden 19. There are lots of really recent references such as a joke to Tom Brady’s stolen jersey at the 2018 Super Bowl amongst other things that made me feel as if maybe they haven’t been writing a script since last August and started putting one together as of this spring.

Longshot: Homecoming is by no means a terrible story. It’s got some moments with that emotional core of the original game but it’s only moments that shine through an otherwise crowded story and small moments aren’t always something that can allow a story to feel strong. There are great themes in play here such as remembering where you came from, the importance of family, and discovering who you’re really meant to be but it just never hits its full potential.

The actors give it their all with more stars like Rob Schneider and the young up and coming Joey King coming in to give the story extra life but again, it’s not always enough. As I said, it’s not terrible but it’s more disappointing to get a lackluster story than it would’ve been for EA to hold off for another year and develop a really juicy campaign for Madden 20.

When I reviewed Madden 18 last year, I noted that the gameplay in Longshot was both flawed and not frequent enough. The story was top notch and critically acclaimed but the gameplay within it was poorly spliced in. You’d go upwards of 20 – 30 minutes without doing anything besides the occasional quick-time event, Madden 19 makes attempts to avoid this issue and tries to put a bit more meat on the bones of this story.

While you play a LOT more football here, Madden 19 goes to great lengths to make it about more than just passing the ball and running. You’re calling plays, you’re thinking about how to pass the ball rather than just where to throw it, but the issue comes within its presentation. It teaches you its mechanics very early on but does so very quickly with no way to revisit what you learned.

You’re taught all these different techniques but it’s so focused on pushing its story along that it doesn’t allow you to really absorb what you learned. When I went to go check the controls in the pause menu for Longshot… there were none. The only setting in the options menu in Longshot is the toggle for subtitles.

It’s 2018 and this game is made by a world class AAA developer, a control layout or tips menu should be present in the options menu. There’s no reason a player should have to quit all the way out of Longshot to go to the main menu, open the settings there, and then load Longshot back up and watch the last cutscene you had with no option to skip. It’s just super inconvenient.

Not really giving you the time to be able to get a grip on all the things it teaches you in its brief tutorials will probably make some people struggle in sections towards the end of the game. In FIFA’s The Journey and even at times in the original Longshot, you’re sometimes given objectives beyond just scoring. In Longshot: Homecoming you’re forced to do plays over and over again until you can get the ball into the end zone as required and it becomes a bit dry after a while, there’s no sense of escalation or evolution of what you’re doing in the story.

If you’re not too bothered by what Madden 19 has to offer in terms of its story, you may get more out of the game’s other offerings.

At the core of Madden 19, you will notice a much more refined gameplay experience. It’s still the same game you know and love but it controls much better thanks to smoother animations and systems, allowing players to navigate the field with far more elegance. Players feel less stiff, they’re able to respond to those split-second decisions more accurately, and you may find yourself getting over the 1st down line more than previous years due to their enhanced movement.

Maybe I just absolutely suck at the game but to me, it felt like no one could catch and hold on to the ball for the life of them this year. So many incomplete passes caused by players just dropping the ball for no reason, it’s like everyone coated their hands in lube before running on the field or something because there were so many botched plays.

When it comes to new additions to modes, MUT and Franchise mode have both gotten some increased depth. Franchise mode feels more personal than ever with archetypes, offensive/defensive schemes, and much more to suit how you want to play.

On the MUT side of things, people who get intimidated by the competitive Madden scene can build their team and progress in solo changes without losing a competitive edge. You can climb the leaderboards and get more comfortable with the game. If you’ve got pals you want to play with, you can team up and take on challenges together!

You can give individual upgrades to your MUT players now too, allowing you to really focus in on key players and give them the extra oomph they need to get the win. Ultimately, it helps Madden feel more well-rounded and helps it feel like you’re getting the right bang for your buck one year after the last game.

The Verdict

Does Madden 19 feel as significant as Madden 18? No, but it builds on the layers EA Sports has created over the years. While it doesn’t always feel successful, the core Madden 19 experience is more refined than ever and feels like EA is taking the right steps to continue innovating on the long-running sports franchise.