Madden NFL 12: The Kotaku Review

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I began this review period in Superstar, the singleplayer career mode, and was astonished at how well I ran the football. Not only could I follow blocks, I could hold back and seemingly manipulate them, waiting for the tackle to seal off the end and then sprint around him. This was with the San Francisco 49ers, and life was good.

Then I went to Franchise, with an even better runner on the Oakland Raiders, and wondered what in God’s name happened. My fullback would run into the only available gap and stop. My pulling guard wouldn’t go fully to the end of the offensive line and if he did, made little effort to engage his man.

In both modes, you will see frustrating barriers to breakout performances. Most notably is the primacy of throwing to the middle of the field. Against a team with strong pass blocking you can expect to get shelled there in any multiplayer game. Throwing a streak to the edges of the field is a waste of time unless you have either Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees. Against any of these, especially controlled by a live human, you can expect to have your hands full. Tight ends and slot receivers will have cartoonlike numbers. No. 1 flankers will have a big catch here and there but will earn their meal money on slants and quick outs.

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The broadcast presentation is by far the most disappointing aspect of Madden NFL 12. There are many audio clips that sound like they should transition into some other piece of commentary and instead just hang there in silence. Pre-game commentary (also a weak spot last year) is unforgivably lifeless, repetitive and rarely differentiates between pre-season, regular-season or a playoff setting.

It’s hard for me to pinpoint where this went wrong because I thought the decision to bring Gus Johnson to the booth last year was inspired and tuned to Madden‘s core demographic. This year, he and Cris Collinsworth—for my money the best analyst in the NFL—are constantly behind plays, and that’s when they have something interesting to say. This game does not showcase either of their strengths—Johnson’s instantaneous enthusiasm or Collinsworth’s unvarnished, informed opinions. Madden desperately needs to interrupt itself, as NBA 2K is capable of doing, when something more important on the field is taking or has taken place.

Pre-game ceremonies are visually interesting but need to be unified with the game’s broadcast motifs.

The pre-game runouts are interesting to watch, but only the first two times. Again, this game and NCAA Football don’t know what they want to do with their pregame, whether they want to put you in the perspective of a fan or a player at the game, or as someone watching it on TV, or both. This hybridization means you get an opening blimp shot and anthem and then broadcast silence, which encourages you to button through the sequence, not watch it. It’s not to say the runouts are a bad idea or should be thrown out. But the game can still show all of this pre-game stuff in a broadcast format, narrated by commentary, because it’s how millions of us recognize it to begin with. About the only thing I enjoyed from the broadcast presentation is the inclusion of the league’s postgame advisory that any rebroadcast without express written consent is prohibited. Then it felt like Sunday.

All this is disappointing because the player modeling, the progressive lighting, the uniform and ground textures are impressive and lifelike. Aaron Rodgers improved from the raccoon-face of the Madden to a more recognizable player. Legends acquired through Madden Ultimate Team, for example Barry Sanders, are instantly identifiable. I have a quibble with the amount of flashbulbs going off in the crowd, particularly during the playoffs, but on the whole Madden NFL 12 is the best looking game ever, as it should be.

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It says a lot that the saving virtue of Madden NFL 12 is its suite of multiplayer offerings. Online multiplayer is the heart of this game’s robust replay value—the best in years—with design choices that speed matchmaking and allow users to find like-minded players, band together, and have an unspoiled good time.

It’s both a good and bad thing. Good, in that you can pick up the game and find legitimate competition in prime time every night. The decision to hide a player’s won-loss record at the matchmaking screen is commendable—I know I’d back out in years past if someone had just a huge number of results.

That’s not the only way in which Madden‘s multiplayer masks the differences in experience, In multiplayer, the refinements to GameFlow—and fuck you, I still like this feature and think it is a transformative, commendably inclusive addition to Madden—help keep many contests in play down to the wire. In matchmaking where my host had turned off GameFlow playcalling and I was working in an unfamiliar playbook, I was at a considerable disadvantage. This year, GameFlow rides as an onscreen graphic offering you a choice of three plays-the GamePlan (dictated by the team’s situational plays, or whatever you set in your custom playbook), a run or a pass on offense, or an aggressive or conservative call on defensive. You may always open the full playbook.

My only quibble is that when you cycle off of an option and then back to it, the play sometimes changes, which presents a pointless take-it-or-leave it decision that is hard to make if you don’t recognize the play or if you want to explore other options before coming back to it. Also, on defense there was occasionally little or even no difference between aggressive and conservative play suggestions in obvious passing situations. On the whole, though, GameFlow’s new incorporation made me a better and less predictable player when it was available online.

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Critiques of Madden always trend harshly, even in good years. It’s a difficult game to defend because so much of the criticism, from consumer and press alike, is tendentiously agenda-driven by a festering seven-year anger over the NFL awarding Electronic Arts the exclusive right to make its video game. Consumer idealism and distrust of a private business deal reads well on comment boards. Critics play to it in reviews, dismissing the actual improvements made every year. Praising these improvements risks looking like a shill.

Bottom line, this situation will not change. The NFL wants and gets—by virtue of its primacy among all professional sports leagues, worldwide—one licensee per product, whether it’s beer, ballcaps or video games. Those who think a string of lackluster releases will make the league reconsider its licensee or its licensing policy are utterly naive. It’s a money deal. The NFL expects as much risk-taking in Madden‘s design as it does in Budweiser’s formula.

Nor does it make it “best Madden ever,” which is the honor this title seeks every year and is necessarily reserved for the game that truly delights. Madden NFL 12 doesn’t. It does lay a very strong foundation for a development team that will be operating with more cohesion next year. For now, unless you are an enthusiastic multiplayer Madden gamer, or have always wanted to become one, you can sit out this series and await better field position.

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