Madden NFL 25 - Review
Football fans of the American variety are spoiled for choice this year thanks to not only the recent release and triumphant return of EA Sports College Football 25 but also with the yearly release of Madden Football. While I will be the first to admit that Madden hasn’t been in good shape over the past five years and I certainly haven’t held back being critical in my past reviews of the game, I still get excited every year when a new version of the game releases. FieldSense, physics-based tackling, Boom Tech and game day authenticity are just some of the features and buzz words that EA Sports has thrown around this year in the lead up to the game, will Madden NFL 25 live up to its promises or will it be a bigger bust than Ryan Leaf?
One of the things I was most excited about for Madden NFL 25 was the ability to export your Road To Glory player from EA Sports College Football 25 into Madden’s superstar mode and take them through the NFL combine and have them be drafted by an NFL team. I built up a lot of head canon around my quarterback from the Georgia Bulldogs whilst playing through Road To Glory so it was great to be able to bring that player across to Madden NFL 25 and play out his NFL career. Unfortunately while the ability of being able to import your player is a great feature, it is very barebones in nature, importing a player really only imports their likeness, weight, height and the college they were drafted from, none of the abilities or stats that I spent hours building up in EA Sports College Football 25 imported over with them which was a big letdown, hopefully this feature will be expanded upon in future versions of the game. If you don’t have College Football 25 or just wish to create your own player from scratch, you also have the ability to do that and thankfully Madden NFL 25 has an improved player builder this year that provides more aesthetic depth than previous years and player archetypes now allow you to customise your players development caps before you even set foot on an NFL field.
Superstar mode has been one of my favourite modes from Madden games of the past few years so it is good to see that EA Sports are showing the mode some love in Madden NFL 25 and I can honestly say that this is the best version of superstar mode I have had the pleasure of playing. So much so that I can see myself spending a lot of time in this mode this year, especially since I still a have a wide receiver and a running back to import over from EA Sports College Football 25 to see how their careers play out in the NFL. If playing with friends is more your style then you can team up with two of your friends and their created superstar players and take the field in Superstar Showdown for 3 on 3 matchups and also take part in the many events that EA Sports plan to release through the season.
Thankfully Madden NFL 25 has seen a lot of improvement where franchise mode is concerned, especially with the new dynamic storylines and personality management features that have been added. More than 70 new dynamic storylines ensure that your teams players react to your decisions, not just before games but over the course of your entire franchise. Learning your players quirks, preferences and personality traits is essential to making sure your team morale stays high which in turn makes your players want to stay with your team and play for you. The decisions you make have the potential to improve your players and their abilities and skills throughout your coaching career and will hopefully lead you to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy high over your head as the winning coach of a Superbowl team. The excellent Team Builder feature from EA Sports College Football 25 has also been added to Madden NFL 25 which allows you to create a team from scratch and customise it to your liking. This includes creating your own logos and picking a stadium and customising the field surface, end zones, sidelines and even the crowds to your liking, you can also edit uniforms including logo placement, number and name fonts and add several sets of alternate uniforms to your liking.
Team and rookie records have also been added this year and you can break more than 1,400 records in franchise mode including not only career, season or single game records but also team and rookie specific records as well, if you do manage to break a record it will be acknowledged on field via the games presentation which is a very nice touch. One thing I must give major props to is the overhauled menus in franchise mode, whoever created the new menu system should be instantly inducted into the Madden Football hall of fame, the new menus are clean and a pleasure to navigate, you can see practically everything you need from the franchise home screen and navigate through categories with a simple flick of the stick, everything is highly responsive and easy to access which is a great improvement over past years. Franchise mode is the deepest it has been in years in Madden NFL 25 and there is certainly a lot to keep you interested here as you watch your decisions play out not only on the field but throughout the draft and offseason as well.
The draft has also seen major improvements this year, the draft board now updates in real time as picks are selected and the new prospect board is an absolute godsend compared to previous years, it now makes it much easier to find all of your prospects in one place and quickly determine who will be the best fit for your team. Draft presentation has also been overhauled and you will now get to see your pick stroll across the stage to meet commissioner Roger Goodell to receive their jersey. Some of the character models used during these cut scenes are unfortunately laughingly bad, especially when you see your newly picked quarterback stroll across the stage looking like a 300-pound lineman in a cheap $25 suit, and no the crowd does not let out a bellowing ‘BOOOOOOOOOOOOO’ each time Goodell appears on the screen, I guess the NFL wouldn’t take too kindly if this was put in the game in the name of realism, shame.
Madden Ultimate Team is back for all the online players out there and this year will see a new head-to-head ranked mode where only winning will grant you rank points which will be used to move you up and down divisions, with each division offering differing levels of rewards. Weekend Gauntlet will be a reoccurring event during the season where you can take your team and test your stick skills against the best of the best online players and earn high value rewards if you win. If online play isn’t your thing, then don’t let that dissuade you from playing MUT mode as you can play Solo Seasons which allow you to take your team onto the field and test it by playing against the AI in the hopes of making it through a season and winning the Superbowl which will earn you rewards so you can upgrade your line-up. Online head-to-head mode now allows players to climb redesigned leaderboards via competitive seasons in a new, higher stakes ranked structure. Progressing through divisions will now require you to prove your skill and if you are good enough, you can earn a spot in the Elite Top 100 Division. In addition to your success rate, Madden NFL 25 will take your preferred playstyle into account when pairing you with opponents.
The presentation this year has been given a much needed boost, Madden NFL 25 now features 3 different commentary teams, Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis return along with new commentary duos of Mike Tirico and Greg Olsen and Kate Scott and Brock Huard, having a bunch of new voices and commentary styles certainly goes a long way to keep the game from becoming tedious and boring. The score bug has also been moved from the top of the screen to its rightful place at the bottom of the screen, praise the Madden gods for this decision! Players on the field have been given overhauls with the more well-known players given authentic pre snap motions and players like running backs pounding the turf the exact same way you would see on any given Sunday, or Monday or umm Thursday. The audio has also been given an overhaul and the sounds of players smacking into each other and helmet hitting helmet sound much more like what you would hear during a normal game, EA have really put a lot of work into the presentation this year and it shows.
Of course, everything I have previously written here means nothing if the game doesn’t play well and I am happy to say that Madden NFL 25 is one of the best games in the past decade when it comes to the on field action. Running backs, which have been a bone of contention for years in Madden, feel absolutely fantastic to control and they can literally turn on a dime, they also no longer get sucked into a tackle when running through the line like in years past. Cutting and juking your defenders out of their cleats feels great, the revamped ball carrier moves feel great and give you much more choice on how you can try and navigate your players downfield and avoid defenders. EA claims its tackling system is physics-based, I have my doubts on that, but it certainly does feel a lot better than years past where you would get stuck in the same animations over and over again. It feels like a lot of work has been done to address this and even though I feel the tackling system is still animation based there are a lot more branches to how and when these animations play out and that makes the game feel miles better than in the past. The hit stick has been redesigned, it feels like this happens just about every year though, and is now dubbed as ‘BOOM tech’ and it takes muscle strength, velocity, force, momentum and player ratings into account when a tackle takes place, you have to be way more careful when lining up and going for a bit tackle this year using the hit stick because poor timing and angles will result in players skating right by you. If you do manage to pull off a perfect hit though your opponent will have a higher chance of fumbling the ball, this results in a good dose of risk vs reward style gameplay.
You can also now create ‘custom route stems’ pre snap which will allow you to adjust receivers routes exactly the way you want with a couple of button presses, this is a brilliant addition to the game and really helps to diversify teams playbooks on the fly. On the defensive side of the ball you can also disguise the coverage you have selected on the play using ‘coverage shells’ which is a great way to keep your opponent guessing whether they are AI or human. The new defensive ‘switch stick’ which allows you to quickly switch to a new defender with a flick of the right stick before the snap is another great new edition that helps you to quickly take control of key defenders in the event that you recognise what type of offensive play is about to be run. I am really impressed with how much better you can control the action that plays out on the field in Madden NFL 25, gameplay feels so much more satisfying than in years past. It is not all sunshine and rainbows though as there are also a few issues with gameplay, computer controlled teams tend run the ball much less than they do in actual games and quarterbacks seemed to be over tuned to the point where they throw lasers on every single play, it is also very hard to get any pressure through an opponents offensive line and get to the quarterback resulting in your opponents having an unrealistic amount of passing yards per game. Most of these issues can be fixed by playing around with the game’s sliders, except for the biggest one which is the pass to run play ratio, but in all reality all of this should have been tuned much more thoroughly before release, not everyone wants to fiddle about with a bunch of sliders to be able to have a satisfying game of football. EA has also just announced the amazing revamped passing system from EA Sports College Football 25 is being brought to Madden NFL 25 in a future update, I am so excited for this as the revamped passing system feels absolutely fantastic especially with how you can lob balls downfield over defenders and drop them right into your receiver’s hands.
In years past I would always recommend waiting a bit and getting Madden on sale, especially if you owned the previous years version, this year I am happy to say that with the revamped presentation, on field controls and franchise mode that Madden NFL 25 is a day one purchase, especially if you are a major fan of the NFL. The on-field action feels great and more authentic than ever and if EA can fix some of the niggling issues like pass and run ratios and overpowered QBs then this will go down as one of the greatest editions of Madden in the modern era. Both superstar mode and franchise mode are deep enough to keep fans of the sport playing this edition for a long time to come.
The Score
8.5
Review code provided by Electronic Arts
The Pros
New presentation and commentary teams are a great move forward to making the game as authentic as what you see on the TV on game day.
On-field controls feel better than ever and are really satisfying to use, especially the new hit stick and catching options.
Franchise mode has been given some much needed depth with the new draft presentation, personality management, dynamic storylines and team builder.
Best madden soundtrack in years, bafflingly half of the tracks are turned off by default and have to be enabled in the menus before they will play.
The Cons
Run to pass ratio, zone defence are completely busted and need a lot of tuning, O-line is way too powerful when playing against AI making it impossible to pressure the QB.
Some of the dynamic storylines can be a bit cringey and not authentic at all compared to how a real NFL team operates.
