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Ranking the single-player modes of the 2017 sports games
EA Sports

Ranking the single-player modes of the 2017 sports games

There's a certain stereotype about gaming that I've never quite understood -- a way of thinking that separates people who love sports games from people with a more general love for computer-based entertainment. Sports gamers, in many gaming communities, are looked at as the "other". They're not ostracized, but people end up assuming that sports games are all they're interested in. It's nonsensical on its face, of course we're all complicated beings with multiple likes and dislikes, but it becomes even more ridiculous when you think about what sports games are.

Every major sports game this year features a career mode that stars a player controlled character, or group of characters, that must level up their skills in order to achieve a ultimate goal (or goals). With the exceptions of turn-based combat and nonsensical fetch quests, there's not that much that separates, say, a Madden game from a standard role-playing or strategy game. They have much more in common from a game theory perspective than might be immediately obvious.

I only bring this up because this way of thinking -- this dichotomy between sports games and non-sports games -- has informed the way that major studios design their sports video games. There's a focus on balance, on competition, on multiplayer functionality. There's a focus on making the game look exactly like the sport it is simulating, down to the advertisements and graphical overlays. There's incredible attention to detail from a presentation perspective. This makes it odd, however, when studios like 2K Games and EA Sports release trailers for their new sports games. Nestled in among the boasts of engine improvement and realism come promises of an epic single-player campaign, one that will truly show the player what it's like to be an athlete.

Personally, this is what I play sports games for -- these career and story modes. And this year, finally, FIFA 17 seems to have gotten it right. In comparison, the single player modes offered by the other sports games of 2017 don't seem to measure up.

#1: FIFA 17

Moving forward, The Journey should be viewed as the gold standard for story modes in sports games. Though FIFA 17 does have a more vanilla career-style mode where you can create a player and live out your wildest sports dreams through them, The Journey excels because it takes away player control in service of a greater story. You're not Alex Hunter, grandson of the famous soccer player Jim Hunter, and that disconnect allowed the scenario designers to craft a tight, engaging story. The designers were allowed more freedom, since the story mode isn't about the player.

In addition, despite the inanity of the Mass Effect style dialogue trees in post-game interviews, the characters in the mode are voiced well, and genuinely endearing and complex -- they grow with Alex as the story progresses. It really encourages you to play through the mode to see what happens to these characters next.

#2: NBA 2K17

For the past 2 years, the NBA 2K games have done a lot of things right in terms of creating an engaging story mode for players. Like FIFA, NBA 2K17 has more vanilla options for manager modes, but the main draw this year is Michael B. Jordan's MyCareer mode. Like in FIFA's The Journey, the characters are engaging and genuinely likable, but the fact that the main character is a stand-in for the player creates some cognitive dissonance.

You're never really able to lose yourself in the story since it's necessarily vague, trying to allow the player to insert themselves into a more skeletal narrative, but you're not really able to do that either since the player character is voiced, and has all of these pre-existing relationships with other characters. It ends up breaking the illusion by trying to have things both ways.

#3: NHL 17

This game has been generally glossed over, and it's not that fair. Though there isn't a story mode, like in the previous two games, the single-player career mode here does a great job of allowing the player to insert themselves into the action, from allowing players to pick their gender, to a progression path that includes a wide variety of NHL development leagues. It's simple, but it works, and in the absence of a bonafide story mode, it's impressive that NHL 17's single player campaigns can instill such a sense of progression.

#4: Madden 17

Where Madden 17 excels is in variety. They, too, lack a distinct story mode, with single player modes limited essentially to franchise modes and career modes. Each of these modes plays incredibly similarly to previous installments of the game, which is to say they work, but there's an inherent lack of excitement. That said, modes like Draft Champions and the arcade-style Skills Gauntlet do a great job of adding in that excitement to a game that needed it. It's more of a toybox than FIFA 17's single-minded experience, but there's nothing wrong with that.

#5: WWE 2K17

After last year's amazing showcase mode that allowed the player to relive the best moments from Stone Cold Steve Austin's career, I could not be more disappointed that this year's WWE offering does not come with a similar mode. The most prominent single player mode in the game is a career mode that starts out very promising, but quickly devolves into playing the same matches and rivalries over and over until you end up suplexing your console into a table because you're so bored. There is, however, another ode that allows you to create your own WWE roster, create shows and rivalries, and see how matches shake out. It's fun, sure, but it's like a sandbox with no toys. There's never any payoff, really -- you're not working towards an ultimate goal.

And that's a lesson it could learn from FIFA's The Journey. The Journey has a clear story arc -- you know why you're playing it, and you know what your goals are. At the end of the day, that's the most important thing to define when you're creating any single player experience -- the player's motivation. Hopefully, developers will look to The Journey as an inspiration for single-player modes moving forward. If they do, next year's slate of games should be something to look forward to.

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