Madden NFL 20 Gameplay Changes: Encouraging, But We've Been Here Before

With all of the cool new stuff we appear to be getting this year in Madden NFL 20, Like QB1, a re-commitment to franchise mode, and kinda-sorta, college football coming back, will it even be worth it with Madden’s current state of gameplay? Most people would admit the gameplay in Madden 19 leaves a lot to be desired. It’s not terrible, but it just isn’t all there. It’s just simply average at best in most people’s opinions.

Well not to worry, says Creative Director Mike Young. He says that instead of squashing bugs at the end of the cycle, they have been doing it the whole year. He said the game has been playable much earlier than it ever has been before. He even teased a new gameplay feature that is under wraps that they are trying to get into the final build. As to what it could be, Young told Matthew Kato of Game Informer it “actually became a new way to maybe play.” That sounds pretty exciting. Anything making the game feel new and fresh is always welcome.

As far as how much improvement we will see in gameplay this year, Mike Young had this to say: “There is probably going to be a laundry list of things the community would get excited about…I think we did a lot with animations. It’s a cleaner and a more bug-free game.” I think if this is true, and we get a game that is much less buggy, we could be in for the best gameplay we’ve ever seen in a Madden game. But extraordinary claims call for extraordinary results. So we will have to wait until we see it for ourselves.

Superstar-X

There is also the new Superstar X-Factor feature. This sounds like it could be a huge deal when it comes to realism. Individual elite skills never really seem to matter. It pretty much feels no different when facing Tom Brady or Mike Glennon. If this actually makes superstar players feel like superstar players, it might be hard to put the controller down this year.

Welcome to the RPO

One of the best new additions to this year’s iteration of the game that we have heard about so far is the debut of the run-pass option. This should add a whole new dynamic to offensive gameplay. But let’s hope they were able to make the AI defense be able to stop it and the plays don’t become money.

Final Analysis

These are all some big words that we should all take with just the smallest pinch of salt for now. We all know it comes down to seeing the game itself in action. Even with that said, it’s hard not to be a little excited at this point. It feels like the team at EA Tiburon is pretty confident this year. They are making it sound like Madden NFL 20 will be a totally new experience from past Madden games. As always, we should be cautiously optimistic, but my interest is certainly piqued.

Let us know what new feature excites you the most. And are you jumping on the hype train, or waiting at the station for now?