Stadiums are true-to-life, character models are extremely detailed, animations look smooth and responsive, and overall it’s got a sharp design that feels cutting-edge and primed to make the free upgrade to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X later this year. As usual, when you’re playing a game from the typical zoomed-out camera perspective, Madden 21 looks fantastic. Changes have been noticeable but minor ever since the series moved to the Frostbite engine in 2017, so everything has stayed relatively consistent, for better and for worse. It’s easy to be dismissive of annual sports games by saying they look and play the same every year because, to some degree, that’s true.
