Madden NFL 24 Review – Unnecessary Roughness

EA Tiburon’s Madden NFL 24 expands upon the fundamentals that were rebuilt last year to create a football game which takes an important step forward in authenticity. The interface and poorly-implemented features are enough to drag down this iteration, which is a step in the wrong direction for a franchise that desperately needs forward movement.

On-the-field play is now more realistic. Players are interacting more realistically, with aggressive football fights, ball-carriers pushing up against piles of dirt to get extra yards and a wide variety in tackles. It was impressive to see how defenders would grab runners by the ankle and force them down onto the grass.

Players are now more realistic, with a variety of shapes and sizes. The CPU-controlled defense backs are less likely to blindly intercept passes and do more swatting. This is a major improvement over last year’s game. However, runners bounce too much off the defenders, despite improvements in blocking logic.

Some of the most significant changes have been made to franchise mode, especially in terms of player management. It’s great to be able to trade more than 3 players in one team, and it is also good that you can add draft picks for more than 1 year into the future. It is possible to add a real and valuable tool when you restructure contracts.

Implementation of minigames is less successful. Each offseason or weekly training includes a set of drills that players can play to earn extra XP points. Most of these games are mediocre and some, like DB battles are very painful. You can skip them, but you’ll leave a lot of potential XP on the field.  There’s also a glaring absence of a drill for offensive linemen.  If you are looking for a way to help your young offensive tackle develop, this is not an option.

There is a slight change in the mix of modes. Face of the Franchise is replaced by Superstar, which removes the thin storyline and focuses on gameplay. Superstar KO is the new name for The Yard, a three-on-3 football game with neon accents. It’s a good diversion, but quickly gets old.

Madden Ultimate Team remains largely unchanged, but it also highlights one of Madden’s biggest issues. The load time to end a MUT game and open a pack in order to unlock players is a page long. Madden is sleek and looks modern, but it has the performance of an old laptop that’s got too many tabs opened. This can be a big problem, given the fact that most of the gameplay takes place within menus.

Madden 24 adds crossplay and cross-progression for the first time, and it’s well implemented. There’s a simple toggle to enable it for players on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Crossplay isn’t available in Franchise mode, but playing head-to-head online was seamless, and the increased player pool should make for faster matchmaking. With a quick search for their EA user name, I found a friend and we were able to play some games.

Madden 24’s improvements in fundamental gameplay continue to yield the most authentic soccer the series has seen. Like a poorly-timed foul, however, the slow menus, and the funneling towards tedious minigames, wipes out all progress, and moves the series in the wrong direction.