How Madden 18’s new mechanics truly change the game.
The Madden franchise has always been about as comparitively in-depth as your true-to-life football knowledge is. That being said, sometimes playing the game and getting more of a knack of what’s going on, can transfer into your true knowledge of the real game. Whether it be learning routes and how certain receivers move and what their movements are called, or what the defensive formations are called and what you need to set up to stop the offense efficently.
Getting into the new mechanics of this years Madden release, there is a new passing mechanic called Target Passing. Now, for anyone new to the franchise or if you aren’t caught up on the Madden playstyle, the old mechanic had Wide Receivers connected to a button. For instance, if Antonio Brown was connected to the X button, all you had to do was press X, and the pass would go to him. This new Target Passing mechanic changes things up a little bit. Now, Antonio Brown would run his route as usual, and you as the Quarterback can choose where to pass the ball onto the field. So if you want Brown to run harder right with your pass, all you have to do is move the Target to the right, and he will follow suit and follow right to catch the pass.

The new Target Passing mechanic, displayed with an in-game screenshot from EA.
This new mechanic brings a lot more to the table than you would think from the surface. Being able to angle your pass around defensive players and placing the pass to where the field will be clear, completely changes the game from where you would have to depend on the receivers to get open without much say of where they could run. Now, an older release of Madden had a concept to where if the QB ran left, certain receivers would run left with you. This year’s release furthers that concept with the ability to pick exactly where you want your pass to go, acquiring more freedom and creativity into your game.
Although this new mechanic features more freedom and responsiveness to the game, I don’t believe it will be the main mechanic for the years to come. The Madden Franchise has always pegged itself to be a game for any and all ages, so keeping the game primarily simplistic with room for extra challenges and difficulty will most likely always be how the base game will be set.
As for a personal opinion, I love how the Target Passing mechanic feels, and I believe that for competitive games of Madden, and the more expertly tuned players, this will be the go-to setting to play with. Nothing makes the game feel more exciting than having the most amount of control over your choices, and being able to play the game how you want to play it. Try the new feature out for yourself, and see if it fits your playstyle, or if you like a more simplistic, and classic, approach to your game.
