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With Madden 23 officially out for everyone to purchase, the reviews have slowly begun to surface as critics and fans alike start to get a feel for what this new edition is made of.
The hope every year for a franchise as popular as Madden, is that it releases a better version than its previous editions that provides a fresh, new take on the game, gameplay, and more. Fans of Madden know what to look for and are very detail oriented about the improvements that EA Sports adds into their game every year.
That said, EA Sports did attempt to go above and beyond to add new features and enhance the player experience in Madden 23, introducing FieldSENSE and more.
But per the critics so far, how did Madden fare? Let’s dive right in and take a look.
User Reviews
As of right now, the Xbox Series X user score for Madden 23 on Metacritic is a low 2.9. And for a new game that just came out, that isn’t the best of signs to see.
For Xbox Series X users, five of the 21 gave Madden 23 a positive rating of 8 or higher while 14 gave it a negative rating anywhere from a 0 to a 3.
As for PS5 players, the user score on Metacritic is even lower, sitting at a 2.0. Of their 54 reviews, 40 of them were negative while only six of them were positive and eight were mixed.
A major sentiment amongst the gamers that didn’t approve of Madden so far, was that it continues to struggle to set itself apart from previous editions, lacking originality and creativity fans have been looking for over these last few years.
Critic Reviews
From two Madden reviews that have been submitted so far in Metacritic, one from Windows Central and the other from Gaming Trend, each critic gave the game an 80 score, which is encouraging to see.
The key positives each took away was first, how the game chose to honor the legend and icon John Madden truly was as a head coach and broadcaster, something you really get to enjoy through the Madden Legacy game. The second was the mutual agreement on the feel, smoothness, and flow of the new game, seen in the updated animations and new passing mechanics.
The core negatives from each consisted of not only the glitchy moments you can still encounter with the game as a whole, but also the lack of creativity and constant inconsistencies from what users can expect from the ‘Face of the Franchise’ mode. The constant variations in ‘Face of the Franchise’ over the years have made it seem that Madden is still undecided on what it wants from this mode. And to add to it, Madden could have offered other ways fans can make it to the NFL with their created player, as the critics highlight in their reviews.
