Built on a solid foundation of EA's football games, but there aren't any revolutionary improvements hidden in this game.
User Rating: 6 | Madden NFL 2005 PS2
Right about this time every year, you start to hear about the next generation of football games that will soon appear on store shelves. The NCAA games, using last year’s NFL engines, point to the success they were built on, and try to incorporate all the pageantry and fanfare that’s present in the college game. The NFL games bring new and exciting features to the table every year. And yet it all ends up being rather underwhelming. At this time last year, I was smitten with the next release in EA Sports’ Madden NFL series. The game promised a big increase in the play of the defensive players, as well as a better artificial intelligence and an improved online experience. After the previous year’s offense-friendly game, it seemed like a welcome change. You would think that by now, I would have learned better. But since I haven’t, Madden 2005 ends up being more of the same from the previous years, with more features tacked on the top. And those new features, while good, aren’t enough to save it. The hallmark improvement to this year’s game is the defensive “Hit Stick.” By using the right analog stick on the controller, you can initiate a power tackle against an opposing player. By timing the hit stick right, you can deliver a vicious hit, jarring the ball loose or breaking up a pass play. But a poorly-timed hit stick can lead to missed tackles and big runs by the defender. The game has also made improvements on the offensive side of the ball, allowing for a greater number of options before the snap and during the play. Here, the right stick can direct a receiver or blockers. And the play can be changed up through the familiar audible and hot route system. It’s all executed with the same effectiveness seen in previous iterations of the game. Additionally, the graphics in the game have once again undergone their normal incremental improvements. Player models are well conceived, with varying sizes and statures. Stadiums are still filled with mostly 2D characters, but the game occasionally cuts to a 3D shot of a few rowdy fans, which you can customize using the fairly inane Create-A-Fan feature. The game’s career mode has also been enhanced with the highly-touted Storyline Central. Here, you can read newspapers about your team’s results, players, and upcoming opponents. It also introduces the concept of player morale, which will affect the trading of players. A veteran quarterback will no longer happily ride the bench behind a rookie; instead, they will become disgruntled, suffer a drop in ratings, and start demanding a trade. Their attitude can also affect other members of the team. If there’s one big flaw to Storyline Central, it’s that there is far too little content to fill it with. After a while, you’ll be able to tell exactly what is happening from the often-repeated newspaper headlines. And solving the morale problems on your team is often as easy as winning a few games. It promises the depth and complexity of running a team of personalities. It delivers little more than an additional column of information in the player roster screen. Outside of the career mode, however, is the biggest flaw of the game: The gameplay simply has not evolved from last year’s game, nor does it yet model the actual NFL well. The playcalling system is the same system that has been used in football games for nearly 10 years, with no way to call multiple plays to switch between at the line. Attempting to run, for example, the Indianapolis Colts’ audible/multiple call offense in this game will result in your running the same few plays over and over again. Not that running the same few plays over and over again is a bad thing, since there are a ton of money plays in the game. Have a speedy wide receiver run a flag route, for example, and he’ll eventually get open. Run a tight end on a 5-yard curl route, and you’ll be able to hit him in the numbers every time. Part of the problem is that the game still has not developed the concept of “receiver awareness.” When the quarterback throws the ball to a receiver, that receiver will almost always turn to catch the ball as it arrives. Only badly-thrown balls won’t have the receiver make some sort of attempt to catch the ball. The running game is similarly hindered by the gameplay. It’s far too easy to tackle a ball carrier, since backs are rated only on a Break Tackle statistic rather than their actual elusiveness. Finesse runners are typically not successful in the game, leaving the actual ball carrying duties to a power runner who can break a few tackles. This continues the trend of football games highlighting the pass, leading to high-scoring, high-yardage games. The gameplay problems are exacerbated in the online play, with players using the glitches endlessly to win. The player who can execute the 2-yard TE crossing route more often in a game is typically the one who wins. There is little to no football strategy involved. Run the Nickel defense, run tight coverage, and hope you can stop enough of the 2-yard crossing route. It’s a terrible online experience for something that bills itself as a premiere football game. We were also promised an online experience complete with leagues and tournaments, and yet EA dropped the ball on that, as well. Signing up for the Dodge-sponsored Premium Pass allowed access to those features, except the Pass wasn’t available until months after the game’s release. The league and tournament entry programs were buggy and uneven, and the scheduling features weren’t fully implemented. All-in-all, the online play turned out to be more of a mess than any sort of revolution. In closing, it’s hard to be anything but disappointed with Madden NFL 2005. While the game provides the same brand of football from previous years, it does little to significantly advance the formula. Players who enjoyed EA’s previous football games will enjoy this entry. Newcomers, and those migrating to the series because of the impending demise of Sega Sports, however, might find themselves wondering what the fuss is about. 
