EA Sports Madden NFL 25 review — A shoestring tackle

The hardest part about reviewing past Madden titles on GamingTrend is that I’ve seen the changes that are going to make the game great, while also seeing the little flaws that become more apparent. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: if EA gave this team the time, Franchise Mode and Madden in general could benefit greatly. The turnaround is just not enough to make it graphically different, add new modes, and fix old modes to make them feel new. It seems like every year we get one to four brand new things that makes everyone excited they’re on the right track but because they don’t have the time to fine-tune things, they release broken. So you’ll be hearing a LOT of good, but sadly, quite a bit of bad. Let’s jump back into Madden!

From the get-go, the entire Madden screen-sets have gotten a rebrand. The opening doesn’t have the player awkwardly standing there giving you thumbs up as you pick which mode you’ll play that day. You get cinematic clips of Christian McCaffrey (CMC, the cover athlete) doing cool CMC things. I would love if those clips change out as the year goes by adding new highlight plays from NFL Films. I don’t know if that will happen, I just hope it does. It reminds me a lot more of the older Madden games though, which was a really nice touch for a throwback vibe.

Alongside that, this is the best Madden soundtrack in a while. While we have the main soundtrack, we also have some iconic sounds from the past in-game. While playing some of the games I’ve heard American Idiot by Green Day and some more tracks only instrumental. It’s a nice touch, and keeps my headphones on instead of just muting the game and playing the music I want.

Speaking of keeping the headphones on, the new broadcast teams are a joy. Of course, the ever-popular Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis make a return and are excellent as usual. However, I think all Madden players hit a wall of how much of one broadcast team they can take. This year, we have two new teams that get rotated during your season. For instance, in my Madden Franchise review league, I had Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis during Week 1. Then, the rotation started, with Kate Scott and Brock Huard in Week 2! It was wonderful to hear Kate’s excited voice start the game off, and it was even better hearing some of the lines I got to hear her record during my visit to Orlando where we met her in person. Her and Brock work well together and add something new that is a welcome addition. Lastly is my guy Greg Olsen, former Tight End turned amazing broadcaster, with Mike Tirico during a Thursday Night game Week 3. This duo is great from what I can hear… which leads me to an issue I found early on. The sound mixing.

While Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis sound absolutely great with the crowd and music around them, the other two have not gotten the same level of mixing quite yet. I first heard it during the Superstar Draft Combine with Kate Scott. All of a sudden, her voice went to almost nothing and sounded like she was in a can. It didn’t fix until the end of the drill when I exited out. I had a similar bug where Greg Olsen and Mike Tirico could not be heard over the sounds of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. I never heard more than 3-5 words together while playing that game, which is a shame given how good they are when you can fully hear them.

As always, there seem to be glitches with the gameplay itself. Nothing I’ve seen this year has broken my experience, but it definitely takes me out of the fantasy. In motion, for anyone not named Tyreek Hill (who has some amazing motion sets), the movement can look extremely wonky with players crouching down like they have to use the restroom as they rush past the QB to get set. There are moments that screens don’t pop up correctly or pop up blank. This happens quite often with roster menus for me. There were also several times in which I would do Weekly Training and after continuing through, it would just stay on the screen and not progress me forward. To fix, you need to back all the way out of practice and then it will close and give you rewards. These are all things that the team will get out eventually, but if they had time, could’ve gotten fixed before launch.

Boom Tech is a huge selling point for this edition of Madden. The hit stick really hadn’t been modified all that much for YEARS and this seems like the most logical jump to make forward. Your hits will be based on timing and statistics, leading to some amazing hits and some great moments, but also some confusing moments. Sometimes, no matter how perfect the hit, the other player is just better than you and also hits it perfectly. So if you’re not bigger and stronger than Derrick Henry, you may not take him down even with an ideal hit. This seems like an area that will be modified and grow as the player base continues to give feedback. It is a welcome change and something that separates it from Madden NFL 24 last year.

You can definitely tell the face-lift major areas have gotten graphically. Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, has shadows from the roof during afternoon games. Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, looks great. And as hard as it is for me to say this, Highmark Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills looks fabulous. The textures look newer than Madden NFL 24 and the stadiums look more realistic.

On top of it looking better, the presentation of the pregame is new with players warming up more like Madden circa 09-12. We also have brand new Super Bowl presentations that make winning a Super Bowl feel better than seeing the same one the past few years. These small things matter when it comes to fully justifying paying another $70 for Madden this year.

Now, let’s discuss each of the main modes for Madden NFL 25.

Franchise Mode

I do my damage in Madden in the Franchise Mode. So much so that our friends at EA let me sit down with Josh Looman, the man in charge of Franchise Mode for Madden NFL 25 before the launch of the game for an interview to talk about everything new coming to Franchise Mode. I’m pleased to say that everything Josh and I discussed is fully in the game and changes the way I’ll be playing Franchise Mode from here on!

First things first, make sure you’re playing on Coach Mode for Franchise, as the new items are not as prevalent in the Owner and Player modes. When you jump into the game, you’ll see quite a lot of new items to take a look at; new heads, new clothes to choose from, and something I’ve been arguing for since Sapien Tech was announced, female coach ability. An easy inclusive opportunity for Madden and it’s a lot of fun they finally made it happen. This doesn’t change anything in game, it just allows for those who want to use a female body type to have access to that option! As this was something I’ve talked with the team at Madden about the last two years I’ve had the pleasure of meeting up with them, it feels great to feel they listened in this way to the feedback I provided.

Now, for the meat of Franchise Mode. The new main screen for Franchise has had a major face-lift including many easy options for you as the coach all on one screen.

– The new cell phone messages give you everything with a click of X (on Xbox) including injury updates, Trade Block additions your team might benefit from, information from your OC or DC on a player on the upcoming team who may be a problem, and more. It’s become the first thing I check after I move forward a week and right after I use my Weekly Practice to make sure everyone is healthy.

– The right side of the screen is information catered to your team. It’ll have news from your team, the team you’ve just played, or the team you’re about to play. Makes things seem a lot more like what we saw from Hard Knocks with the New York Giants with Joe Schoen’s office and the way he was getting text after text from different directions.

– The new draft board is extremely helpful for finding the right kind of players you want for your team. You have the ability to sort through everything from physical attributes to the combine scores and so on, as they become available, this has streamlined my draft process, as I can specify, “I need a QB who’s fast and able to throw on the run.” I can then go into the QB section, move to speed or throw on the run, and then move the fastest or most accurate on the run to the top of the screen. This new change has made it easier than going to each player individually and exiting out over and over.

– Draft Night has been revamped! Not only did they get Roger on stage, but each player gets a moment in the spotlight for the first round. I don’t want to spoil anything, but other players will get those moments outside of those invited to night one. One thing I might change is that some players have bandanas instead of a hat, or don’t wear a hat. The bandana just looks a bit off from the look we generally get from the stage on Draft Night with the hats and Roger handing the jersey. Small thing, but it’ll make some players look more realistic than their player gear for their head.

– The breakout scenarios was the thing I was most excited to see how it would impact the Franchise Mode for this year. I generally made up my own scenarios in the past and was glad to hear they would be making actual scenarios for the year/years not just from game to game. The scenarios so far have been a lot of fun, but also put a lot of pressure to make sure you’re committing to playstyles like you would in real life as a coach. I was asked what our identity was on offense. As someone who likes to run the ball with interesting formations, I chose running the ball. It gave me a challenge to make sure I was running an average of 100 yards per game. At the end of the season, I had surpassed that amount, so the media and my team were both happy and I got XP boosts.

— I decided to see what happens if you give a horrendous answer to every question and then not to any of the things you’ve said you would. Well, just with real life, if a coach said a bunch in their first year and did nothing at all and lost a bunch, I got fired. It was great seeing that actions fully have consequences. Sometimes that consequence is a player asking for a trade, sometimes you lose your job. It’s a great new system that I can’t wait to see more scenarios the more I play.

Some of the issues with Franchise Mode stems from small bits. Sometimes in the draft board menu, you’ll click on a player to check something and when you click back out, everything disappears on the board and you have to move to another area and come back. The favorite menu is also very difficult to see as everyone has a heart next to their name, so when you click favorite, the player DOES move to the favorites tab, but it doesn’t look any different (or any different than I can tell on my TV) and makes it difficult to keep track of who you’ve already favorited from an area.

I’m very excited by the strides that Josh Looman and his team have made with Franchise Mode this year. Everything they discussed is in the game, and with just a little bit of QOL tuning, it’ll be just as fabulous as you want it to be. I hope that we can continue to see jumps in Franchise Mode like we did between Madden NFL 24 and here in Madden NFL 25.

Superstar Mode: The League

The big selling point for this year seems to be the ability to take your Road to Glory character from College Football 25 and place them into the draft process in Madden NFL 25. When I booted it up, I decided to try it without the transition of a player from CFB25 to M25. It’s the same lineup as last year with you doing some of the combine mini-games such as the 40 yard dash, weights, and cone drills. Then you’ll choose to take a test or not, which can help or harm your draft stock. I ended up getting drafted 15th overall to the Las Vegas Raiders to take the starting job from Gardner Minshew.

*Video by David Burdette*

I really enjoyed the call my player got from Coach Pierce as my player walked across the stage to meet Roger and get my #1 jersey for being drafted to the Raiders. Playing through just a little bit of this mode, it’s extremely similar to last year. So I believe the draw will be taking your 1-star recruit from CFB 25 and making them into a superstar that gets drafted and continuing their journey into the NFL. Are you the new Peyton Manning, Jerry Rice, Barry Sanders, etc? Only time will tell.

Madden Ultimate Team

MUT is going to MUT. As you enter the game, you’ll be hit with many options to go and start opening packs to start your MUT experience. I’m personally not good enough at PVP to play MUT, so I do solos for the review! It’s the same kind of experience as usual. You’ll start with a low overall, those who got the Deluxe Edition will get some early goodies. Then you’ll either grind hours and hours of solos and H2H to get the coins you need for upgrades, or you’ll pay EA for the bundles. I still believe this is a mode that people need to know going in is extremely pay-to-win depending on skill levels. I’ve seen amazing players with budget teams do some amazing things. But if you’re not great at the game, you can pay to have the appearance of being good at the game. While we do have a new tier structure for this and online multiplayer,. The pay-to-win aspect of MUT has turned me off year after year.

However you play, you’ll still enjoy Madden Ultimate Team the same amount you normally would.

Online Head 2 Head Ranked

A new game mode update is the brand new ranked system for Online Head 2 Head. You’ll be able to climb the leaderboards and see where you stack up against the rest of the world. This will be a great game mode for those competitive Madden players who aren’t a fan of MUT. As I don’t play online very often, it won’t get much use from me, but I’m excited for those I’ve spoken to who plan to jump on there first to try and get that #1 spot.

Overall

With all of the new things added, we still have those small problems I discussed throughout. I believe a lot of those things could easily go away if this team had just a little more time. Connor Dougan, Josh Looman, and this extremely passionate team has plans and ways to grow the game, we’ve seen pieces of that every year, but it’s just not fully happening with the time they have to get it done. Especially with College Football in the conversation, rotating the games every other year would give the team a year and a half cycle of production to do more and make each title worth it for the general consumer. These are all items that are things that will get fixed by the end of this game’s life cycle, but they’re broken upon release, and that’s disappointing.

Madden NFL 25 is available on XBOX Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

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