Perhaps you want a coach to be focused on maximising Quarterback experience, or perhaps you have a star cornerback but want to pay a little less for his upcoming mega-contract. Staff members also have an experience currency now which can be spent on upgrades. It’s an important addition adding a bit of character to the overall experience. Now, each opponent has a story, a personality that morphs over time. You’re forced to confront who the team you’re going up against are. This is a subtle change but it helps fill out the experience in an important way – giving the rest of the league an identity. You can then choose a plan for your opposition. If, when they do pass, they tend towards short, middle, or deep passes. Instead, you’re faced with where that team ranks in the season, whether they’re stronger on the run or the pass. Now, you don’t just go into a match as if it was the same team you played before or the team you will play next. This adds an important layer of preparation that has often been missing. Importantly, there is now a pop-up before a match that helps you plan for your next opponents. While the overall structure is the same, some important details have been added to proceedings to get you more involved in the day-to-day. Thankfully, in Madden 22, the Franchise mode has seen a bit of love. Or perhaps from a cynical view, the sneaking feeling of being left behind due to it being less monetizable. The Madden franchise has become so spread across its focus, that many modes, like Franchise, once the entire pillar of the games, are often left behind for being ‘good enough’. An amalgamation of Ultimate Team that has made FIFA the juggernaut it is, a scripted story mode focused on your player avatar and even ‘backyard’ 6v6 modes with star players have all littered the start screen. However, in recent years, Franchise has been left behind a little as Madden has pursued flashier and more gimmicky modes. It’s a strangely compelling narrative structure that encourages continued engagement as you discover these stories as they play out. As time goes on, maybe the Chief’s dominance collapses, maybe the Detroit Lions get it together, maybe Trevor Lawrence becomes the best QB of all time, all in one save game. It meets the NFL at a point in history and then hundreds of stories emerge randomly. Madden’s Franchise mode is a great example that harnesses that. There’s emergent storytelling that often goes underappreciated in sports games. They relocate to San Antonio and then win the Superbowl two years later with one of the youngest teams ever to do it. A swap for the problem Watson for Kyler Murray, Byron Murphy Jr, and Andy Isabella starts a whole new era for the Texans. Trading away good but ageing players on expensive contracts for young talent to make something new. No franchise has ever screamed ‘rebuild’ quite like the Houston Texans, a prospect Madden 22 makes reality.
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