In an era of fantasy football and exploding statistical obsessiveness, it's surprising to think EA has only just now settled on bringing Madden Social into the world. Though it may have tarried, the interconnected Facebook and iOS app due out this fall offers a pretty smart balance of fantasy player trading and actual Madden gameplay.
Like most Facebook-based games, Madden Social is a simple turn-based game for two players that don't have to be online at the same time to play together. The game is heavily focused on offense, so players will take turns trying to guide a drive into their opponent's endzone.
When you're on defense the stats and arrangement of your players will matter, but everything else is automated. Played over Facebook, the game is shown as a top-down view of the entire playing field. You'll choose what players you want on the field and which plays you want to run, and then the computer does all the math simulating the outcome. You can also keep multiple games running while you wait for player 2 to log back on to Facebook.
When played on iPhone of iPad, you'll be able to control actual plays. There's a virtual analog stick if you want total control of movement, though you can ignore it and focus on simple swipes for jukes or stiff-arms. You can also choose which receiver to throw to by either tapping them on screen or hitting one of five virtual buttons in the bottom right corner of the screen.
It's a simpler version of the action-oriented version of Madden that's been available on iOS for a couple of years as a purchaseable App, but Madden Social is free to download and connects you to those that have a statistical obsession with football but may not be interested in actually playing the second-by-second simulation.
Facebook developers have larded the media with talk of asynchronous gameplay for years, meaning both players don't have to be connected to the game at the same time to play with one another. Madden Social pushes asynchronicity in another direction, allowing players to compete strategically while potentially playing very different games. I may prefer the chessboard presentation of Facebook and you may prefer the adrenal improvisations of the iOS version, and Madden Social translates one style of play to the other. It's not just playing at different times, but actually playing in different ways to best accommodate the platform.
The game economy is driven by buying or unlocking new plays and new packs of player cards to improve your team over time. You'll start with 25 random players, which you'll have to assemble into a team, and by winning games or pulling off big plays you'll earn coins that can be used to buy new player card packs. You'll be able to buy one-star, two-star, or three-star packs, each coming with five player cards of increasing skill, depending on how much you want to splurge. There's also an Auction House where you can sell your player cards you don't use anymore.
The playbook is also fairly limited at the outset, but you'll be able to buy new plays, or just earn enough coins to unlock them over time. There'll be another kind of consumable -- energy units -- that limits just how much you can play without taking a break, though if you become insatiable Facebook will gladly sell you more units. Playing one entire drive will cost you one energy unit, and though the game is still being balanced, at present you're scheduled to get roughly one energy unit every 15 minutes.
Madden Social doesn't connect to the console versions of the game, which might have been another way of entreating long-time fans to noodle with the Ultimate Teams or Online Leagues from the office or on the bus. Yet, what it does do is offer a simple and surprisingly unique experience to bridge people's common interest in football through a medium flexible enough to support different preferences of play.
For years, game fans have said things like "it's just not your type of game" to answer complaints from those interested in a game but thrown off by a particular kind of gameplay. We all like playing games in our own way, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't play together.
Madden Social seems like a small but worthwhile step toward making that approach commonplace. With Smart Glass, Wii U, Vita/PS3 connectivity, and a plethora of Android and iOS devices out in the world I think there could be real advancements made breaking out of the single-platform, singular-gameplay model that has so far dominated our understanding of what a videogame can be.
Madden Social doesn't have a specific launch date yet, but it will be released sometime this fall.
Michael Thomsen is a freelancer writer based in New York City.
Source : ign[dot]com
