Madden 20 Beta Experience: A positive experience from a game not quite done yet.

After spending the weekend scouring the ins and outs of Madden 20 via the closed beta, I found

myself asking one question…Is it August 2^nd yet? While the game is still being worked on you couldn’t help but feel as if the game play finally fulfilled many of the promises we had been given over the past couple releases. That is not to say the game doesn’t still have its flaws, some of which should be fixed before launch others that sadly will probably wait until next year, however overall Madden 20 is set to feel like a refreshing experience for a title that has been somewhat stagnant the last couple years.

Locomotion upgrades are noticeable

From the second you start the game in the pro bowl the game play jumps off the screen. Every year people who play the game early will say that it “feels better”, however this year, thanks to continued locomotion upgrades, that feeling is real and it’s spectacular. Running the ball offensively is where you notice this the most, both with a HB after the hand off as well as in the open field with a WR. Nothing is quite like getting in and out of cuts with the one cut mechanic as it is a lot more fluid than Madden 19.

Defensively that locomotion is felt in change of direction in coverage. It was said last year that changing directions would be harder, think sprinting one way then back the other, however it never materialized. This year it exists, albeit subtly, you’ll see guys just miss getting over to a ball after getting caught running down hill the other way. This could also be due to less “warping” of players to the ball on defense, something else that seems noticeable this year.

In a hurry to play

Over the last couple weeks players have panicked a bit regarding the new mechanic putting QB’s at the line out of the huddle versus the old format of breaking the huddle and walking up. Offensively it is hardly noticeable, and after playing a few games I didn’t notice at all until I got to hurry up situations. With this new mechanic there is an automatic run off of time if you go hurry up, that time can range anywhere from 6 seconds to 11 seconds, from what I saw it appears to be based on how far your players are from the line of scrimmage after the previous play.

This can however be frustrating in situations where the offense has caught the defense in a bad formation and wants to force the defense to call a timeout. Historically, you could hurry up and a defense would call a timeout in a couple seconds. Now you must take the run off before the opponent can call their timeout burning what could be valuable time off the clock.

Defensively the situation is somewhat similar. On normal plays, getting setup and ready for the snap isn’t too big of an issue. Where the problem begins defensively is out of the no huddle. Because the offense can snap quicker out of a no huddle the defense has little to no time to adjust, which can be especially concerning in situations where you got caught in a bad formation or play in the previous play. If a user is calling hot routes you may have a chance to get set but when playing a CPU it really seems like you are stuck in your previous play until an incompletion occurs.

Plays for days

In Madden 20 a host of new plays and formations have been added into the game on the offensive side, and it has added a lot more depth to the game. From the Raven’s new option-based playbook, to the Air Raid out in Arizona, the playbooks feel more authentic to the teams whose names grace their covers. The star of the new Madden 20 plays are the RPO’s. There are three types (peak, alert, read) and each have their own fun attached with running them. 

Personally, I found the alert RPO’s to be the most rewarding to use because I am a fan of scanning a field pre snap and putting myself in the best position to succeed. Throwing a bubble screen off an intended run because you had a single zone defender off the ball to the weak side is a thing of beauty, and something the game has needed for a long time. I anxiously am looking forward to seeing what gets added in this area as the year goes on.

In case people didn’t get in the situation of needing any late game heroics, there have been a couple new Hail Mary plays added in this year. I didn’t get to use them all but there was one play that replicated the end of half jump ball situations common to NFL Sundays. In the play all of your receivers on both sides of the field run in a straight line towards a central point in the middle of the end zone. It’ll be imperative to use the swat mechanic in those situations or risk the chance of a tipped ball and a lot of heartache.

Lurking like you mean it

Madden 20 did what I never thought would be possible in Madden, they toned the ability to user lurk to a point that feels both realistic to an opposing offense but still usable as a user defender. By removing the ability for linebackers, and defensive linemen, to trigger crazy jumping interception animations it created a whole new world in terms of what is and isn’t possible passing wise in Madden. I have found a great appreciation now for throwing a seam against cover three right over a linebacker and just outside the reach of the single high safety, something that at times seemed impossible in past years.

Defensively, it’s almost a proud moment now when you can get a user interception. I found myself a couple times angry that I couldn’t pick a ball off that would have been possible in the past, but quickly appreciated the fact that it just missed my guys finger tips. One thing to note though, zones play a little softer in Madden 20 so clicking on will be required to get interceptions in the intermediate to deep passing game more so than ever.

An upward trajectory

Improved passing trajectory is part of the symphony of improvements in Madden 20 that work together to create a really enjoyable experience. As mentioned above part of the fix to the lurking was tuning the linebacker’s ability to jump, but the other piece of that fix was getting a bit more loft on the balls to get them over those linebackers. Not only is that seen in the middle of the field, but out on the perimeter it is noticeable when putting the ball over the corner but just under the safety on a smash concept and other out breaking routes against zone, again something you couldn’t pull off in the past.

With the new trajectories you not only get the ball up and over the linebackers on mid-level throws, it has improved the wide receiver and corner back interactions downfield as well. With the new trajectories, the ball falls in more of an arching motion that let’s you put the ball out in front of your receiver. This has led to more animations that I have never seen before in Madden, as well as some cool knock out situations. I had one incident where it appeared a guy was pulling in a one-handed pass that was to his back shoulder and at the last second my corner knocked it out of his hand by slapping his wrist, a very smooth and organic interaction.

One note here, I have seen people complain about the new “wind up” QB’s take to get the ball off. This is a mechanic I really would like to see little to no tweaking on. Guys with stronger arms wind up less than those with weaker ones. Playing with Patrick Mahomes then going to someone like Andy Dalton there is a significant difference in the time to get the ball off, which is a good thing. We as a player base have been spoiled for so long in being able to throw the ball at the last second and that simply isn’t possible anymore with the wind up. Now it’s imperative you make your reads step into the pocket and deliver. It is worth noting the wind up doesn’t seem to exist when using the throw ball away mechanic, which I believe does offer a nice balance to this new feature.

The rush is on

If you played the pro bowl after downloading the game, which the game puts you into immediately, you noticed right off the bat that the pass rush this year is a real thing. Gone is aggressive pass rush from the coaching adjustments and that is probably a good thing because it really isn’t needed anymore. In the NFL time from snap to throwing is between 2.5-3 seconds. In Madden that feels like roughly the amount of time you now have to throw as well.

What this new tuning does is force people to manage down and distance better than before. In previous games 3^rd and 15+ was not a scary situation as there tended to be enough time in the pocket to let your receivers get open. With this new tuning it’ll be important to stay on schedule otherwise you may have to settle for a screen or draw play like real NFL teams because you just won’t have the time to get the ball off with the defense pinning their ears back and coming.

Players will need to adjust to the increased pressure with more blocking adjustments and a quicker passing game. For so long the check down seemed like a pointless throw, but now it feels like it will be a life saver, especially against elite pass rushers.

A nice little thing in terms of the pass rush, there are now better sack interactions with the QB. Multi player sack interactions make for some realistic looking take downs of the QB, not pre-canned but rather organic looking. In general, some cool sacks where a guy wraps the QB up and almost roles/swings the QB to the ground make the whole experience of sacking the QB feel a little bit more rewarding.

A balance of power (ups)

There was a lot of concern coming into the weekend in terms of the balance and functionality of the new superstar and x factor abilities. After getting quite a few hours with them I can say they are truly a fantastic addition to the game. The stated goal was to make star players feel like stars and I think they hit the nail on the head with this feature.

X-factor abilities are game changing abilities but EA has done a solid job in ensuring getting in the zone isn’t too easy and getting an opposing player out of the zone is attainable. My one complaint would be on the defensive side the x factor players can be taken out of the zone without really having any say in the process.

For instance, Richard Sherman become “lock down” after breaking up a certain number of passes, however he gets knocked out by completions by the other team. Those completions can be to anyone, even guys Sherman is not covering. While I can appreciate the attempt to balance out the abilities, I get the feeling there may be something better that can be done to make you “earn it” to get Sherman out of his zone. This is universal to most the defensive abilities, it would be nice if there was a way to force that interaction to occur to that players side, direction, etc.

Superstar abilities are less noticeable because they lack the objectives to activate, but they are there and they are noticeable. These are little things that you don’t always know they are occurring until you realize some guys do things better or differently than other similarly rated guys, think of it like the badge system from 2k. While it’s not perfect yet, I am excited to see what abilities get added down the road and where this whole feature goes.

Franchise is still franchise

The one disappointment I had in playing the beta was franchise, as I am a franchise guy at my core. To be fair QB1 wasn’t available for the beta and I feel like that will be a pretty special experience itself, however the regular franchise experience was underwhelming. While there were some minor tweaks made, and some still to be made, I found it to be a similar experience to Madden 19.

One of the features mentioned were spread out ratings utilizing more of the ratings spectrum. Unfortunately, with ratings not yet set, this was hard to really understand and appreciate during the beta. While we were told ratings weren’t real, I’d imagine they will be somewhat similar to what we saw in game, but in the spirit of fairness I’ll wait to comment on this until a later date. There was work done match contracts to real life contracts, as well as tuning done to make players ask for more realistic contracts. This was a nice addition for those who really enjoy the team management side of franchise, Shout out to @Moonlightswami and @Equipment_Guru

The one new real feature for franchise was the scenario engine. It has potential to be great, but there is still work to be done here. I did a play through on owner mode, week 6 I was approached by a backup WR who had gotten some playing time due to injury but wanted a shot to show he could be a #1 WR. The next game he had a goal of 100 yards or two TD’s. I got him to hit those marks and the next week he was awarded with 20k XP as well as a development upgrade.

While that may sound like a lot it translated into four skill points for a 70 OVR WR, but it took him from back of the roster to being in contention for playing time, which was a pleasant experience. Now here is the problem, there just aren’t many scenarios triggering. I ended up simulating three seasons in owner mode and only received two scenarios both the same breakout WR scenario (for different guys) in those three seasons. While it’s a little better on coach mode due to the weekly opponent super star scenarios, it is still pretty limited. In one case I attempted to trigger a disgruntled player by leaving all the Browns stars on the trade block for two seasons but never was met with any sort of push back from the players.

In theory the scenario engine is a great idea, however I am worried execution wise it may have missed the mark. I am hopeful that this was simply a bug causing them not to trigger as it was sold as having a large number of scenarios. In any case, I hope owner mode wasn’t forgotten in this and at the very least you get all of the scenarios available to the coach mode players as it would be disappointing to have to abandon owner mode to use the feature.

Madden 20: let a sleeping dog lie

There has been much debate about patching and its impact on a game. We have seen past versions play very differently from there beta form, sometimes for the good but often times for the bad. When new features and mechanics get added to a game it is easy to recoil and think they are broke or over powered, however it’s important to understand your brain is conditioned for one response in game and it’ll take a while to get used to another.

Madden 20 as it stands has a ton of promise. They set out to make stars matter, to make pass rush matter, and to make throwing feel more authentic and in each case they have achieved those goals. Now it’s about cleaning up some of the outlying issues around those core tenets to really deliver a spectacular game. Over the next month heading into release, and beyond into the cycle, it’s important the developers remember those core tenets and push back against a knee jerk reaction from the community to revert from them.

If Madden 20 can stay grounded in what it set out to do, there is no doubt in my mind this will be the best Madden we have seen in a very long time.

What do you think? Let me know on twitter @T4VERTS