Madden NFL 23 Reviews
Madden NFL 23 is the best entry in the franchise in the past 10 years, but with such a low bar to clear and EA effectively having no competition, it can feel too similar to prior games to warrant the hefty $69.99 price tag.
If you are a seasonal fan of Madden, you will feel like Madden NFL 23 is a step in the right direction with new features to experience and updates to preexisting game modes and features. At the end of the day, this game is meant to appeal to football lovers who want to have the most realistic NFL experience.
Madden NFL 23 is the best gridiron game on PS5 to date, but the series is taking toe-taps forward rather than big, confident strides. There's no doubt that both Franchise and Face of the Franchise are better this year, and we like the improvements to the run game and the addition of precision passing. But is this enough for a series that's been accused of stagnation over the past decade? It feels like EA Sports is settling for the easy five-yard gains, rather than the deep ball down the field.
Madden NFL 23 feels a lot like previous entries in the series, although it's a pretty good football game overall.
I believe the problem is that the gameplay, at its core, just isn’t addictive. Can I have fun with Madden? Yes, and I probably will have some solid moments with the game this year, but not enough to make it elite.
Madden 23 is still Madden, but little more. If you've been wanting an NFL game that offers something wholly new, or one that can match the NBA 2K series for production values, then this isn't the place to find it. However, there's some key incremental improvements happening here which make Madden 23 a tighter, more engaging experience for fans, and one which will happily see you through this year's NFL season.
On the field, Madden 23 is the best the series has been in a long time, but several of the surrounding pieces feel like they're on injured reserve.
After playing Madden NFL 23 I finally have a little optimism that the series is on the right path - maybe not an emphatic "Boom!", but clear forward progress for a series that so desperately needs it.
Madden NFL 23 has given me hope in this franchise in moving forward. Although there are some issues that may be fixed with some patches, there are many other changes that led this installment to be the best Madden game in years. And, of course, with the introduction of the new fieldSENSE system that is becoming a revelation to the franchise, it’s no wonder why this is the case. Also, with the new NFL season coming soon, this will surely be an excellent year for the players.
Combined, Madden 23 – especially with Free Form Passing – is certainly different from Madden 22, but not necessarily all that better. It still struggles in being accessible to most, with the bar for control schemes and required knowledge of American football far too high. On-screen help is still minimal, AI generated assistance limited, and fun factor almost non-existent. It's obvious the Madden series made a sharp turn toward competitive gaming and Ultimate Team a few years back, with zero regrets.
After two years to forget, Madden NFL seems to have embarked on the path of redemption, with a playable tribute to the great John Madden.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Madden NFL 22 is like a roller coaster". That's what I wrote last year in my review. 365 days after, I must repeat myself, going from NFL 22 to 23. Madden NFL 23 is a game that can be compared to a roller coaster. You go up with FieldSENSE, you go down with a problematic AI. You go up with new features in almost all game modes, you go down after experiencing bugs and glitches. There are steps forward made since the last videogame, and the direction taken by the developers is the right one, but there is still work to do to reach levels of excellence.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Madden NFL ’23 is one of those years that if you skipped it, you wouldn’t really be missing anything. The additions to the Face of the Franchise mode aren’t significant enough to drop last year’s iteration and start again here, and that goes for any of the modes. The one big feature, FieldSENSE, didn’t live up to the hype, and even if it isn’t a setback, it didn’t improve upon the main things that annoy me.
Madden NFL 23 is not the MVP, but it is a departure from the terrible games of recent years and perhaps this is the future of the franchise; if so, welcome to the promised land Touchdown!
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Madden NFL 23 has good fundamentals and fun gameplay, but the game-as-a-service elements and micropayments end up affecting the final producto.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
While this year’s Madden will always feel somewhat bittersweet due to John’s passing, I think that it was beyond perfect that the best version of Madden football would be the one that was made to honor the legacy of its namesake. From the factoids that I learned about Coach, to the superb presentation and soundtrack throughout the entire game, to the fantastic on field play; this years Madden as far as I am concerned has finally broken free of the 2K series and has gone all the way!
The Madden NFL series has long had a solid gameplay foundation, maintained by small improvements year over year. Madden NFL 23 is the first iteration in a long time that rebuilds that foundation, and that’s where this year's greatest success lies. Some slippery collisions aside, the more physics-based action is a good change, and the control over ball placement from Skill-Based passing is a welcome addition. This comes at the cost of only minor updates to the core gameplay modes, but it was ultimately the right call to make, and Madden is a better game for it.
Madden NFL 23 is not the definitive football experience, but it is a substantial step up from the last edition thanks to the new gameplay features implemented by FieldSENSE. The general improvements are noticeable but not so revolutionary, while the graphical imperfections and the problems with the artificial intelligence continue to represent the Achilles heel of the franchise.
Review in Italian | Read full review
With the introduction of FieldSENSE, Madden NFL 23 represents a turning point for the series, on next-generation consoles. A few technical smears still remain, and we hope they will be promptly fixed, but the homage to the great John Madden and the innovations in gameplay make it definitely recommended to all fans of this sport.
Review in Italian | Read full review
As a result of the wide-ranging FieldSense additions, particularly the enhanced passing, Madden NFL 23 is the most fun American football game in years.