Every time August comes around, another Madden game is released, almost like clockwork. Like most sports franchises, you expect to see incremental updates, such as new rosters, and evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, feature changes. So, Madden NFL 18 came as a genuine surprise with its first-for-the series campaign mode. We were able to play through the beginning of the story mode, and here are our first impressions.
A New Direction
EA walked us through the very start of the game. The campaign, titled ?The Longshot,? is going for a complete cinematic experience. In fact, the first several minutes (perhaps even as long as 10 minutes) of the game hardly has you playing much of anything. Developer EA Tiburon takes their time to set the stage. You play as Devin Wade, who is reminiscing about various key moments in his life, played through flashbacks. The very first interaction you have when controlling Devin is as a young kid, playing a mock game of football in the yard. The only gameplay prompt involves a few quick-time events, which allow you to throw a perfect spiral at your friend, and control the ball mid-flight using the left stick. We were told that some of these game mechanics are only used once throughout the campaign.
Next, we are tasked with playing through a monumental high school game of Devin?s, where he is substituted in on a game that his team was well behind on. Here, he is not expected to win, but overcomes amazing odds and does so, setting off a chain...