Madden NFL 17 Review

"The Ground Game Enhanced"

Campaign

Madden NFL 17 is the latest in the ever long running football simulation that aims to bring the sport alive. While last year was a grand improvement in terms of visuals, presentation and gameplay this year's somewhat just cruises on that. It's largely the same game with the number of available modes and general look. Then again, it's getting continuously harder for them to improve on things in a visual sense as it already captures the sport beautifully. Before diving into the game modes I wanted to highlight the improvements on tackling which felt much more active actually giving you a bit more control on the outcome. This was a great addition and made each hit feel personal whereas in the past it was just another tackle. The new tackling is also quickly opposed by the improved running game that allows much more creative movement, jukes and better combat when fighting for the extra yard.

For those new to the game the skill trainer has been brought back to help you get started once more and it's thoroughly in-depth. Other modes include the typical play now which is always a favorite of mine and online head to head for battling against others or friends. Franchise mode has been definitely streamlined this time around focusing only on key points in the game for you to play which makes it run faster while still offering the same depth. It just might be a bit different from the past which may disappoint some veterans of the series. When it comes to Ultimate Team things really haven't changed as you're still building a team from cards and if that's your thing then it'll feel the same. It's not particularly a bad thing as the mode runs fine offering good depth, it's personally just not something I care for in any of the sports games. Draft Champions also returns being about the same as you attempt to build a team from the draft and work from there.

Gameplay

Madden 17 looks beautiful being very realistic in design and capturing the presentation spirit of a regular football broadcast. There are many angles constantly being shown in a broadcast setting that aim to not only show off how far the game has come, but the beauty of the world they've created. The fans look alive in the background all cheering wildly and even smaller details such as camera men are also present fully on the sidelines. When it comes to the fields each stadium has been captured to emulate their real world counterparts and you can also literally see each blade of grass making the field have an extra element of softness to it. As far as controls go it's the same as before with slight improvements in how you react to events in the world. These aspects were mentioned previously with the button tapping battle for the yard and the greatly improved tackling. It's also very accessible for new players while veterans won't have any issues getting caught up with what's new so there's a good balance available.

The Conclusion

Madden NFL 17 doesn't aim to take the series anywhere crazy being mostly an entry that improves on the last year. That's fine for most players as there are few things that they can do to expand on the sport. It might be nice to see some additional modes being integrated, but the selection available basically covers all aspects of the sport. When it comes to immersion the game looks incredibly realistic which was taken from the huge overhaul last year and I can't see many improvements there aside from animation smoothing. Even that is a small bit of the action as regular play is smooth whether you're viewing a cinematic or running any of the plays. Madden NFL 17 is a solid sports simulation capturing football perfectly fine and it's a solid entry into this Madden series.

Madden NFL 17 Review on Xbox One

Rating Overall: 8.2