Is Madden 19 Worth Your Time?

The NFL season is firmly underway and Madden 19 has hit store shelves worldwide. Is the 30th installment of the series worth the $60 price tag? It’s time to find out.

What’s New

Last year’s Madden was the first to use the Frostbite engine, so now in year 2, we are supposed to see the full-fledged power of what it can do. If you’ve played Battlefield, you know what Frostbite is capable of when properly implemented. And Madden 19 is a stunningly beautiful game. Graphically, it has taken a major step forward.

That’s great, but Frostbite does much more for Madden 19 than make it look pretty. EA used this engine to completely overhaul gameplay with a feature set called Real Player Motion (RPM). And it more than lives up to the hype. Real Player Motion is a big deal.

Real Player Motion

RPM is broken down into two key areas:

Locomotion and responsiveness
Player authenticity

What you will immediately notice when playing Madden 19 is improved smoothness and fluidity on the field. Players cut, move, pivot, accelerate and decelerate in a much more realistic manner. This impacts every area of gameplay, but the running game is the main beneficiary. And speaking of cutting, EA highlights one improvement to the running game called “One Cut.” In football, this is an abrupt change in direction and burst up field. If you remember Stefon Diggs’s play in the 2018 NFL Divisional playoff game, you’ve seen one cut in action. That’s the kind of excitement EA’s RPM technology brings to Madden. RPM also facilitates improvements to other key areas of Madden 19, such as tackling and pass coverage, which were in dire need of tweaks.

Game Modes

To make sure the game is deeper than just what we see on the field, EA has made some key changes to Madden’s franchise mode. Franchise is my favorite mode in any sports game, so I paid a lot of attention to the changes EA made here. The most notable one is the addition of scheme fits, which should help you construct your roster. It also rewards you for finding players who best fit your scheme by giving boosts to player progression. One of the reasons Bill Belichik has been such a successful head coach is his ability to plug the right players into his scheme. Madden 19 is taking a page out Belichik’s playbook here (pun fully intended). And no, that doesn’t mean Belichik is in this year’s Madden.

Sorry, Patriots fans.

Unfortunately, franchise still hasn’t seen many significant improvements beyond this addition. It isn’t as deep as it could be. It isn’t as deep as it should be. Custom draft classes have been brought back this year, which is worth celebrating. But franchise is essentially the same as it has been for the past few years in every other way. Free agency hasn’t been touched, sim stats are inconsistent and aside from a few presentation tweaks, the mode doesn’t compare to its basketball and baseball counterparts.

Longshot is another mode that returns this year. If you played last year’s version, you may be disappointed by this year’s. The story lacks depth and is a missed opportunity to explore the changing lives of Devin and Colt

.

Ultimate Team is here to stay and represents the growing trend of sports titles taking card collecting online as a revenue generating strategy. Solo challenges and tournaments are new wrinkles to the mode this year. If you’re an e-sports fan, you’ll enjoy this mode.

So, should you buy Madden 19?

Yes.

Madden NFL 19 is a step in the right direction. Gameplay is the main draw and the improvements it received are eye-popping. RPM is a winner and it is a good building block for future iterations. Franchise is still a solid mode, even if it may look familiar. The introduction of scheme fits is another building block for better customization and increased depth going forward.