After taking a year off from its annual releases,WWE 2K22has come back stronger than ever, with a new formula and game engine that has essentially revitalized the franchise. The changes made in the game have proven thatWWEtitles have a lot more to offer, and that moving forward, meaningful changes to the games could make future games serious contenders for game of the year. FollowingWWE 2K22’ssuccess, the ball has now fallen in the court of other annual sports games such as theMadden NFLfranchise that, likeWWE 2K, have grown stale with few changes, and a lot of issues with each iteration.
Madden NFLgames have often been blamedfor not taking any risks in terms of changing the gameplay or the game modes that have ruled the franchise for many years now. While fans will continue to flock to the series, many are usually left disappointed, as they play what amounts to the same game, year in and year out. The only real changes with each entry come in the form of graphics overhauls, or updates to the roster and player ratings. So, how could taking a year off help theMadden NFLseries release games that could change the face of the franchise going forward?
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Madden: Updating the Game Engine
Visual Concepts, the developers behindWWE 2K22used the year offto improve the in-game mechanics by creating a new game engine to maintain a balance between simulation and arcade elements. This ensured that the game was fun to play for fans, while still staying true to theWWEformula and giving players a sense of realism. For futureMadden NFLtitles to become fan favorites, the franchise is in serious need of redevelopment.
Madden NFL 22suffered from a lack ofmeaningful changes, along with multiple bugs and glitchesthat took away from the core gameplay. The in-game mechanics and the animations used made the movement and decision-making almost robot-like and gave the entire game a sense of incompletion. This has been a theme for recent installments in the series, and for it to be rectified, EA will need to reimagine the way fans will play futureMadden NFLtitles. For that to work, there will need to be a redesigned game engine that will elevate features of the gameplay that work, while reworking those that do not.
Improving Madden NFL’s Face of the Franchise Mode
One of the mostlackluster game modes inMadden NFL 22was the story mode, Face of the Franchise, which was short and provided little excitement in terms of gameplay. The story mode has a lack of meaningful options that can impact the progression of the story and falters the efforts made by previous games, such asMadden NFL 20which initially introduced a compelling story mode. The simple fact is that the story mode suffers from many of the same problems as the other game modes; poor gameplay mechanics and repetitive features that were not entertaining the first time around, let alone the second or the third.
WWE 2K20had many of these same issues for its story mode, which were eventually cleaned up forWWE 2K22’sMyRise game mode. The year off allowed Visual Concepts to understand the changes that needed to be made and gave them the time to develop a more compelling and exciting story mode. The fact that there are multiple classes players can pick, and different decisions that will dictate the progression of the story, means that replayability for the game was handled well. This is something that futureMadden NFLtitles would need to address to give fans more playtime that they can enjoy even after multiple playthroughs.
WhileMadden NFLis one of the many games in the sports world that requires a thorough revamp, EA needs to look at the approachVisual Concepts took while creatingWWE 2K22. A year off will give the developers more time to understand the areas that need to be fixed and give them a chance to avoid rushing through certain areas of the game, like design and animations.
For many game franchises, an annual release is often a stepping stone towards real progression, however,EA’s line of games, especiallyMadden NFLandFIFA, have focused too much of their attention on the money-making online modes and have dismissed making significant changes to the overall game. Taking a year off would be in the best interest of EA if they want the futureMadden NFLtitles to return to the glory of older releases likeMadden NFL 09.
WWE 2K22is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
