On August 20th, EA Sports released “Madden NFL 22” the latest version of their ongoing football video game series. Because they release a new Madden game annually, video game and sports lovers across the country were highly anticipating the coming of “Madden NFL 22.” This edition in the ever-popular Madden football series was described by EA as an “all new dynamic experience” and was promised to blow all previous Madden games out of the water. However, even with the gameplay improvements, EA Sports failed to truly take the series past the level it’s been at for the past three years.

Every Madden game seems to be created with the same template, but is given new and improved surface details that EA is always eager to advertise. And this stays true for Madden NFL 22. For instance, the creators of “Madden NFL 22” boast about the significant upgrades in the gameplay that they honed in on this year. These upgrades gave players the chance to devastate their opponents by slipping out of tackles, and provided other strategies for catching the ball in traffic. But these improvements are still unable to cover the major faults in the game. Fans always count on the football characters in the game to be operating with increased realism in their animation and detail. Of course, this facet of the game is impressive as usual, but only slightly better than the past year’s. In game, the players fluently move around the field, but are hardly recognisable through the slots in their helmets. And when compared to the “NBA 2K” series, the Madden animation can only compete with 2K games that are at least five years old. The level of attention 2K gives their annual game is insanely impressive. All the way from unique and lifelike animations, to the texture of the player’s jersey. 2K simply puts more effort into their game, and basketball lovers are thankful for it.

Sadly, a lot of people are only loyal to the game of football, and because of this, they continuously purchase the same game every year. For a very long time, Madden and 2K have had a “create a player” option. Right now, the career mode in Madden is called “Face of the Franchise.” It allows the user to create their own player, show off their skills in college, and be taken all the way to the NFL. The main goal at the beginning of “Face of the Franchise” is to be the number one pick in the draft. There are a myriad of well-made cutscenes and plot twists that make the experience at least somewhat realistic. For example, EA did a good job with the first 30 minutes of the game, which led up to the draft. However, after the player’s first NFL season, all of the previous content is repeated, or nonexistent. Naturally, there aren’t as many cutscenes after the beginning of the game. But the few that exist are horribly made, provide absolutely no context, and make no sense for the situation. 99% of the time, the audio for the cutscenes doesn’t come through, and the players look like mannequins. Nobody moves, the user has to turn on and read the subtitles, and the person talking is seen from the back because EA didn’t want to have to animate their mouths. And to top off this mediocre-at-best section of the game, the created player is still referred to as a rookie, even after years of their career have gone by.

The rest of the game is compiled of all the surface details that were good but weren’t able to save “Face of the Franchise.” “Ultimate Team” (the part of the game where users are able to build their own football team by acquiring players through opening packs, trading and auctioning) is a solid place for any football fan to stand. The gameplay is realistic, and the game does a fantastic job of guiding the user through the process of team building. “Ultimate Team” has always been a strong part of Madden, and it didn’t disappoint this year.

EA has the goal of forming Madden into an all new immersive football experience.But the “next-gen” game that players were promised for 2021 has yet to arrive.The overall game still provides a solid, realistic game of football that any football fan would enjoy, but gaping holes and major flaws drag the game back down to the level it was at last year.