Review: Madden 2002 (PC)

by Backstab

Don't know why, but ever since we started the NFL predictions I became a hardcore football fan.  I used to cheer for New England but I really like how the Rams play offense.

It's true, but EA Sports are known to have bad football games.  The Madden series have always been buggy, unrealistic, too arcadey, even unplayable.  I've always wanted a football game on PC, but after reading the reviews, it seems like the Madden series always get a crappy score.  Anyhow, I decided to go against them and bought the game at Future Shop... first game I bought in like a year? (last one was AC).. anyhow enough rambling, let's get on with the review.

When I loaded up the game on my comp and played an exhibition game, I was surprised at how good the graphics were.  Yeah, the graphics were GOOD.  The player moves and animation were realistic.  One of the things I noticed were the details, like Reebok logos and the Wilson on the football.  Pretty nice.

The sounds were alright.  Didn't find them any spectacular.  Nothing really special about it.  The screams I thought were pretty funny when players get tackled.  The commentary on the other hand... is Pat Summerall and John Madden, which is pretty boring.  If you like that style of commentary, then you can like it.  I really don't mind it that much.

Now to the gameplay.  I think the gameplay is OK, even though I've heard people complain about it.  After downloading the patch, I quickly noticed a few weird things.  Receivers drop the ball VERY OFTEN.  I was quite frustrated about this.   When I throw a perfect pass to a receiver, the defensive back will often come in and make the tackle, then the receiver will drop the ball.  Luckily, the game has these sliders where you can customize gameplay.  I increased the receiver catching ability globally and now they don't drop as much (but still a little more than usual in my opinion).  Oh, and long bombs to Randy Moss are not money plays.  Defensive backs are actually a lot smarter now, and it's a lot harder to throw bombs.  The running plays are pretty realistic.  You can do jukes and spin moves and stuff to evade.  This is still something I need to master, I find running pretty hard actually.

After beating this game on Pro, and now playing for the Rams on All-Pro with some tweaked up sliders, here are some of the balancing issues they need to make.

Running: Extremely hard in my opinion.  AI Opponents tackles too easily, hard to break tackles, even with Marshall Faulk.  On the other hand, the AI breaks tackles very often.

Passing: Passing is one thing I think I have done well on.  Slant and in routes are extremely effective, just watch out for the linebackers, if you don't time your pass right they can sometimes knock it down or even intercept those passes. Out routes are a lot harder if you don't rollout your QB, but are doable.  They should be a bit easier to complete in my opinion.  Screen passes don't work AT ALL.  Your running back often does a ballerina spin type move and runs away from the ball in the process, very stupid.  I often have to motion my running back to get those to work.  Up/fly patterns are pretty hard to do, you need a receiver with high catching ability for that to work. I think the AI needs soem work in the passing game, they really suck when they're passing.

Defensive backs: The AI is really strange, sometimes they will intercept almost impossible passes and do a crazy dive and make an interception, while sometimes they will just knock down a floater that is coming right for them.  I find it pretty funny when Aeneas Williams, pro bowl CB knocks down a floating pass that was coming right for him, and the closest receiver was 5 yards away.  This is sorta annoying because it is so inconsistent.  Other than that, DBs behave fairly well.

Special Teams: Kicking in general are really tough with the keyboard, it doesn't seem to respond to the keystrokes very well for some reason.  Otherwise, everything seems pretty realistic, the average of punt/kickoff returns are pretty realistic.

Well all in all, even though it is not the most realistic football game there is, I still think that Madden 2002 is the best football game available right now on the PC.  I'm still playing this damn game at the moment, it's actually pretty fun.

Grade: B