When EA Sports announced they were launching the Longshot Story Mode, fans had a wide range of feelings including intrigue, excitement and skepticism. After making it through the entire mode I am here to provide my thoughts on the story and gameplay.
No need to worry if you have not made it through the game, I’m going to provide an overview that will not spoil any of the modes within the game.
What is Longshot? The best way to describe it is a playable movie where you become the lead character, Devin Wade. The story track’s Wade’s journey as he tries to make it as an NFL quarterback. Through a variety of different ways, the user will follow Wade through both his high school and college career on the way to Wade’s attempt to become a professional football player.
What you likely expect in the mode is football gameplay, which you will get. What may be surprising is the level of character development and cinematographic experience within the game. At times, you feel like you are part of a movie, which makes sense given EA Sports invested heavily in real-life actors, like Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, to give the game a legitimate feel.
Throughout the story, you will have the opportunity to make decisions. From how you respond to coaching to answering a media question, you will choose from two or three options. Your decisions impact your scouting report which shows a consensus of how NFL teams view you throughout the pre-draft process.
As you are playing Wade, you will interact with the people close to him like his best friend Colt Cruise, his father and various coaches. Visually Madden 18 shines in this mode with the realistic quality of the graphics throughout Longshot.
Fans of the defunct NCAA franchise could be disappointed. Unlike other games like NBA 2K, you will not have the option of choosing a college football program to play for. Wade’s high school and college have already been pre-determined. While the NCAA portion of the game was a big part of the teaser trailer, the actual game doesn’t give the user anywhere close to a feel of playing a college football video game again.
Certain characters lines can come across cheesy at times. There is room for improvement when it comes to the dialogue of the game script. There is also questions about how much your decisions impact the final outcome. While there are multiple endings to the game, there is a limited spectrum of what can happen.
There are shortcomings with Longshot, but the pros vastly outweigh the cons. It is important to remember this is EA’s first iteration of the Story Mode. You will notice a few areas that need to be improved, but you will end up happy you played Longshot.
The new addition of Longshot is worth the price of the game itself, and makes me excited about what EA Sports can do with the mode in the future.
Heavy’s Longshot Review: We give the Longshot mode an 8 out of 10 as a very solid first edition of the Madden Story Mode.