Madden NFL 15 a step forward, yet still a year behind schedule
Last year's Madden 25 didn't feel like the franchise's true next-generation debut. After the letdown of Madden 25 last year,
Madden NFL 15 feels like a mostly fresh start for the series. The increased emphasis on defensive play, a great new play-calling system, and the return of long-time favorites makes this year’s Madden one of the best in recent memory, even if it could still use work in regards to its stale commentary and longstanding bugs. As a lifelong Madden and football fan, I’m impressed. This year’s game is both exciting and reassuring that EA Sports isn’t wasting opportunities to improve the series.
Inconsistent production values, holes in the passing game, and mechanical stagnation made what many had hoped to be a fresh start seem stuck in the mud. Thankfully, Madden 15 corrects the course by taking two big steps in the right direction. Firstly, revamped defensive play gives you a reason to actively participate as you defend a drive; secondly, precise attention to detail creates a more cohesive aesthetic package. Deficiencies in the passing game along with technical hiccups stemming from the game's often-comical physics still exist, but Madden 15's few missteps do little to detract from an otherwise strong outing.
Longtime Madden veterans definitely have their work cut out for them in the play-calling department, as the new menu system for selecting your personnel and strategy takes some time to process, especially when analytics are served up at the same time. Madden is more intent than ever on making play recommendations, and now that it backs them up with quantitative reasons for its suggestions, it feels like you’re the head coach watching an offensive or defensive coordinator sending in the plays. It’s very easy let Madden pick every play for you, and veterans of the series may resent the need to do more work to drill down into formations and specific calls. Conversely, newcomers are given a much clearer idea of what may be a good idea to run and why. Regardless, the navigation here is a drastic change from a decade-old template. It's easy to read because the visuals are extremely large and in your face, but a more toned-down approach would have made the system feel less busy.
American football (or gridiron, if you prefer) is a marvellous sport of ferocious strength and pace, full of moments of individual brilliance, showboating pomp and strategic nous. But it is a fairly complex game, so explaining its nuances is paramount to expanding its success. Madden NFL 15 - a video game that has possibly the closest partnership to the sport it represents - feels part of the charm-offensive. Its opening menus supply both tutorials on how the Madden works on a mechanical level but, more significantly, some extensive education on the ‘concepts of football’. There are scores of these lessons that do a fine job of tutoring you in the hows and whys of various tactics: explaining the minutiae of the defensive cover position, how and when to run offensive screens or when to switch up at the line of scrimmage when you recognise a defensive blitz coming your way.
Madden NFL 15 brought to you by Crazy, Concussed Joe's Discount Corporate Billionaire Wig Refinery? (We PASS the shavings onto you!) also makes a big deal about putting quarterback accuracy "at a premium," but I ran into the weird happening of QBs, even junk ones, regularly fielding completion percentages in the 90s against me. Maybe all the sacking and run-stopping led to too many short, high completion percentage plays, but I found it odd how I'd dominate games, but the opposing QBs would be 19/20. And I, rarely using top QBs, didn't have accuracy issues (just hawking DB issues). Actually felt a little easier to put certain kinds of touch on the ball.
