Franchise Mode for Maximum Football has only been out for a week at this point, but the community has already given its verdict. As with any new game or feature release, the first week is crucial in determining whether it has met its mark or missed the mark completely. And it’s time to break down how well Franchise Mode did amongst the players.
I recently did a piece on new and improved features added in Maximum Football’s Franchise Mode, but did Maximum Entertainment deliver everything as promised? While some features weren’t perceived as the devs wanted, others surpassed expectations. Let’s take a look at what the community liked and disliked in this brand new game mode.
Franchise Mode Is A Breath Of Fresh Air
I think everyone’s thinking the same thing here, and that is that Franchise Mode is a breath of fresh air in Maximum Football. Maximum Football was initially released in 2019 and hasn’t received many major updates since then, leading to a declining player base. Many players were tired of replaying Dynasty Mode with limited customisation options.
With Franchise Mode now in the game, players have something else to look forward to. More customisation options, professional-level gameplay, and we can’t forget the ability to sync your Dynasty Mode progress with your new Franchise. This allows players to transfer data from their college-level seasons to the pro-level. It helps the game feel synchronised rather than different game modes.
Difficulty Scaling For A Harder Challenge
One of the biggest pluses we saw with Franchise Mode is the increased difficulty in-game. Several players reported feeling challenged, even on Novice difficulty. This is a major upgrade from Dynasty Mode gameplay, where players felt they were dominating in every game. Matches without challenging AI remove the motivation to put in effort and improve.
A higher difficulty AI allows players to try out new strategies to see what works, without expecting every play and formation to work out. It goes without saying that this doesn’t apply to online play, but it makes playing against the CPU a lot more challenging. As one Redditor said, “In Franchise, every team feels like it has a good chance of beating me and most wins are definitely earned”.
An added benefit in Franchise Mode is the pre-league settings. Adjust the settings accordingly to give yourself a harder (or easier) time during the season.
Customization Updates & Stadium Upgrades
Adding customization options was one of the main selling points for Franchise Mode, and as far as I see, Maximum Entertainment kept its promise. There’s an option to customize almost every aspect of a player, be it his physique, attire, or even tattoos. While this takes away from the realism aspect of the game, it allows players to run free with crazy ideas and play with different types of players.
As for the Stadium Upgrades, there are mixed reactions on that front. A part of the community loves having new stadiums and the way they look, but the drawback is that there’s no customization option, even when upgrading. Players on Reddit mentioned that you can only change stadiums or upgrade them. But upgrading them simply increases fan capacity and spending. Whether Maximum Football will receive a Stadium Customization option is yet to be seen.
Bug Crashes & Glitches
I said I’d relay the voice of the people, and the people have spoken. While Franchise Mode brought numerous improvements to the game, it also introduced some game-crashing bugs. Players complained of frequent crashes without any justifiable cause. No matter how good a game is, frequent crashes can make it unplayable and deter new players from trying it out.
Now, we haven’t received official word on whether Maximum Entertainment are actively working to fix this, but hopefully they have taken note of the issue. We should see some hot fixes coming in near patches very soon.
Inconsistent Depth Chart
If you’re new to Maximum Football, the word might not make sense to you yet. The depth chart shows your starters and backups for each position. This is crucial for obvious reasons, and you usually set it up manually to check each position. The problem arose when players were simulating their matches, where the CPU would completely jumble up their depth charts.
Several players playing off-position, varying strategies, and no proper backups for each role. This caused issues with simulating matches and led to a lack of trust in the CPU’s depth chart capabilities.
An Unbalanced XP System & Stat Creep
The biggest issue I saw online so far was definitely the stat creep players were facing. Yes, the CPU was harder in Franchise Mode, but apparently, the players in this game mode aren’t properly balanced yet. The community feedback is that there are too many overpowered players in the game, which has led to a broken draft system.
The entire point of drafting players is to see what you can afford in your budget and upgrade them. With an abundance of high-stat players, it’s not difficult to create a 95+ OVR team at a lower budget. This will, in turn, reduce the competition and demotivate players from going for more expensive players.
