Madden NFL 23 review: The 10 best yards of your life
Of all sports games, Madden is the one that, year after year, labors under the guise of a bulleted feature list. Is this year’s version more approachable? Has it evolved the franchise at all, or merely refined the previous year’s pain points? These are the questions looming over every new entry in sports video games’ long-running staple.
GameFlow (2010). The Ignite engine (2013). This year’s calling card is “FieldSense,” another way of saying that everyone on the field pays attention and gets involved in the play — no small task in a video game re-creating a full-contact sport with 22 players. They could call this new technology anything, but it still wouldn’t capture the feeling that comes from a stumble extending a running play, between the tackles, that you just know would have been dead at the line of scrimmage a year before. And “FieldSense” hardly describes the Why did I do that? regret of subverting your own play, trying to bounce the run outside and getting hauled down in the backfield by an AI defensive end.
Madden NFL23, like its forebears, shines brightest in the running game. Yes, there’s a new passing system allowing for more pinpoint control, whether it’s a five-yard tight-end drag or an all-out flanker streak. It’s what happens when the receiver turns into a ball carrier that really counts, though. Finesse running moves, keyed with the left trigger, are back in the game. But rather than producing a showier animation of a standard juke or spin move on the right thumbstick, the runner simply executes a hard cut to leave a defensive back or linebacker grabbing at the air.
The hard-cut mechanism rewards well-chosen plays, purposeful changes made at the line of scrimmage, and players who commit to their plan.
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