Compared to messy launch of Maximum Football 2020, the release of Axis Football 2020 went pretty smoothly. Maximum launched with some signs of regression from its 2019 iteration. Canuck Play has since patched out most of those bugs and issues, but those weeks spent fixing bugs that shouldn't have been in the game to begin with, are weeks that weren't spent improving the game in other areas. Axis 2020, on the other hand, is a small, but noticeable, upgrade to its 2019 counterpart.
This tweet may have oversold 2020 a bit.
Not the overhaul I expected
I may have set my expectations a little high with Axis 2020. Axis Games had posted to Twitter that they planned to completely redesign their locomotion and tackling system. I got my hopes up for something more robust and realistic. The end result still shows some steady progress, but it isn't the complete overhaul that I was expecting and hoping for.
I don't want to discourage Axis from tweeting promises of gameplay improvements. I really like having the transparency of knowing what the developers are working on, and I also understand that it can be easy to over-promise sometimes. I work as a software engineer. I know how it goes. That being said, I really don't feel like 2020 constitutes a "complete rebuild from the ground up", and the tweet in question definitely oversold 2020 by a lot, in my opinion. I don't know what was done under the hood. Maybe they did make extensive changes. It just doesn't feel all that different.
Movement hasn't been completely overhauled,
but there are some new animations.
There was some noticeable work done to animations and player movement. Tackles do look a lot cleaner most of the time. There are also a few new animations, such as animations of players bending over to pick the ball up off the ground on fumbles or un-fielded kicks. But that's about it. I would have liked to see more animations of players falling on a lose ball, especially the less athletic linemen. Other than that, most of the player movement, ball-carrier evasive moves, catching animations, blocking animations, and so forth look pretty much identical to last year (and the year before).
Bend but don't break
One of the biggest problems with both the 2018 and 2019 releases was deep pass coverage. Defensive backs did an awful job of keeping the play in front of them, and frequently let streaking receivers run right by them for uncontested touchdowns. Safeties seem to be doing a better job in their deep zone assignments in 2020, but coverage is still an issue. Speed disparities between offensive receivers and defensive cover men still leads to too many deep passes being completed behind the defense. I think the game would benefit a lot from more overthrown deep passes (especially if the coverage is there), and not to mention more deflected jump balls.
Speed disparities between defenders and route-runners leads to
a lot of easy completions in deep passes and to the flats.
The greater focus on deep pass coverage has left underneath passes feeling a bit overpowered this time around. Defenses don't seem to bother covering the flats or outside the numbers at all. Even when I call flat zone plays, my defenders seem to play the zone very soft, or they stay inside the numbers, or they simply don't get to the flats in time to stop the pass. In man coverage, the speed disparity between linebackers and tight ends or running backs makes it far too easy to get tight ends or running backs wide open in the flats.
To be fair, I'd much prefer that my defense gives up those underneath plays, as opposed to consistently getting burnt deep. The abundance of passes caught in the flats is a problem that should be addressed, but it's not the near-game-breaking problem that poor deep pass coverage was in the last two years. I'll call this one a net positive -- maybe 3 steps forward, with 2 steps back. Either way, my defense is still dead last in yards allowed, even though I'm first in sacks.
I'm more comfortable calling zone defenses this year.
More generally, the coverage A.I. is fairly solid this year -- at least, for routes run inside the numbers. Defenders in coverage largely do their jobs. Defenders in zone will go with receivers running through their zone, and they'll hand off receivers to each other as the receiver's route takes him through different zones. I still sometimes catch a defender in zone just standing around, but it happens much less frequently than in past years. In general, I feel much more comfortable calling zone defenses than I did last year.
The remaining weaknesses in pass coverage basically come down to balance issues, and could probably be easily fixed in patches. I already suggested that Axis could make QBs less accurate on deep throws. Rosters and draft classes could also include more linebackers with better speed ratings so that those linebackers could more effectively stay with their assignments. I'm not expecting every linebacker in the game to have an A- speed rating, but more B-'s and fewer D+'s would likely go a long way towards improving defensive play.
Other than that, I think a big focus of next year's game should be on defensive coverage animations, collisions, and interactions. Catches still largely feel like a crap shoot, and receivers still catch far too many passes in coverage. Defenders need to have more animations for playing the ball in the air, and there needs to be more disputed catches in coverage. Adding additional animations of defenders pressing receivers at the line or otherwise disrupting pass routes with small amounts of contact would also help disrupt the timing of many route concepts, potentially closing up some of the bigger pass windows, and forcing QBs to check down, throw the ball away, scramble, or take sacks. This would help with shutting down both the short, outside routes and also hopefully lead to more tips and drops on deep passes.
Defenders in coverage need to play the ball better, and need more animations for disrupting routes and catches.
Such animations and collision logic should also come with new logic for detecting pass interference. Right now, pass interference feels very random and arbitrary (as do most penalties). Receivers and defenders often seem to stand inside of each other waiting for the ball to arrive, with no PI called. Other times, receivers running screens or drags can get caught up in the offensive or defensive line, dragging linemen along with them as they run their routes. Again, no PI call. But then there'll be a flag for pass interference on a play when the receiver and defender aren't even close to each other. I don't know what's going on under the hood here, but it definitely doesn't look believable.
Stalemate in the trenches
With defensive A.I. and safety play partially improved, perhaps the biggest weakness of Axis Football 2020's on-field play is now the blocking animations and interactions. Blocking is very binary. A blocker runs into a defender, and they just kind of stick together and don't move. They might lock arms, but there's nothing in the way of hand jostling or pushing each other around. They basically just stand there until the defender releases, and the defender then has an un-obstructed path to the ball-carrier. This makes it very difficult (pretty much impossible) to read your blocks, since they can completely dissolve at any instant with absolutely no warning or transition. The controls say there are block-breaking moves, but pressing those buttons in-game doesn't do anything that I ever see, as there are no animations of blocked defenders performing rips, swims, spins, bull rushes, or any other such moves.
The unconvincing blocking animations are static and completely binary.
The static, binary blocking animations make running up the middle very un-reliable because it's a total crap shoot if you'll squeeze past, or if a defender will instantly release and tackle you in the gap for no gain. Receivers and tight ends aren't as ridiculously good at holding their blocks on the outside as they were last year, but outside runs still dominate offensive play. I'm not breaking uncontested, 70-yard runs nearly as often as I did last year (despite playing on the same offensive difficulty), and I do get stuffed at the line of scrimmage much more frequently than last year. That being said, it's still far too easy to get gains of 10 or more on outside runs, and I still lead the league in rushing yards thanks almost exclusively to my outside running game.
The poor blocking mechanics also hurt the passing game. Axis Football does not create very convincing passing pockets, and the instant release of defenders into free-runners leads to too many unpredictable sacks. There's just no way for the QB to really read where pressure is coming from, unless the rushers are completely unblocked. The lack of movement at the line also makes mobile quarterbacks a bit exploitative, as you can easily flee the pocket and throw downfield or make a run for it.
QBs are much better at throwing before taking a sack.
It's also still possible to user-control a defensive end and simply run around the offensive tackle for a free path to the quarterback. However, I don't get home for the sacks nearly as often because the CPU QBs seem to be better at moving away from the pressure and getting a pass off just in time. I'd like to see some "throw out of sack" animations added (similar to what got added in this year's Madden game), so that a good pass rush can disrupt and slow down an opponent's passing game without necessarily racking up 5 or more sacks every game.
I still lead the league in sacks (despite having the worst pass defense in terms of yards allowed), but running around the offensive tackle is less exploitative than it was last year. With the deep pass coverage shored up a bit, controlling a pass rusher is much less risky than it was last year, but those underneath routes are always open, and the CPU QB is almost always able to hit them, even with a rabid defensive end in his face.
2019 showed the offense's personnel
package in the defensive play-calling screen.
This is gone in Axis Football 2020.
Time-consuming strategies
There are a couple strange omissions to gameplay this year. The more significant of the two is that the defensive play-calling screen no longer shows the user what the opponent's personnel package is. This makes calling defensive plays much harder than it should be, since I don't know whether I should be fielding a base 4-3 or 3-4 package, or if I should be sending in a nickel or dime back. The game used to show this information last year, so I don't know why it would have been removed. With the lack of pass defense animations and the overpowered nature of outside runs, it's already hard enough to stop opponent offenses even with the best defensive match-ups. Not knowing what defensive package to put on the field only creates more mis-matches that can be exploited by the offense.
The only possible justification that I can see for removing this feature would be if the CPU A.I. isn't able to pick its defensive play based on the offense's personnel package. In this case, not letting the human defensive play-caller see the CPU offense's personnel may be a "balance" concession. But that is the absolute wrong way to handle things. If the CPU play-calling isn't aware of the human player's personnel package, then the solution shouldn't be to knee-cap the human's ability to call good defensive plays; the solution should be to change CPU's defensive play-calling to take the offense's personnel into account.
The other missing feature from 2019 is that 2020 no longer includes a modest clock run-off when making offensive depth chart substitutions. In Axis 2019, going into the depth chart and subbing in a new running back (for example) would run about 10 seconds off the play clock (and game clock if the game clock was running). This doesn't happen in Axis 2020, and I think it's a shame. To be fair, the run-off is kind of moot with an aggressive accelerated clock option (I set my accel clock to 13 or 14 seconds), so the missing run-off is not a big deal.
I'm not sure if these mechanics disappeared as a result of redesigns to the game's U.I., or if they were explicitly and deliberately removed by the developers. If the former, then I hope that Axis restores the functionality soon via a patch. If the later, then I disagree with the decision and think it's a bad change to design. I would much prefer that each stays as an option in the game settings, rather than be removed completely.
There's still no hurry-up offense or a proper overtime.
I'd also still like an option to keep the accelerated clock going inside of the two-minute warning, and for a proper no-huddle, hurry-up mechanic to be introduced.
And if you do manage to complete your two-minute drill to tie up the game, you'll go into an overtime that is still completely broken. Just like last year, and the year before that, overtime simply adds 1 minute to the game clock whenever it reaches 00:00. This repeats until the clock strikes zero and one team or the other is winning. There's no coin flip, no kickoff, no sudden-death, no hybrid sudden-death, no college "each team gets the ball on the 25 yard line" rule, nothing. As I've said before, I would prefer that the game just end in a tie instead of going into these non-sensical overtime periods.
Better than Madden yet?
People aren't really playing the indie football games for their on-field gameplay. The real selling point of both Maximum Football and Axis Football has been (for the past year or so) their respective career modes. Last year, Axis Football 19 got a lot of praise around the internet for supposedly having a "better Franchise mode than Madden". While I agree wholeheartedly that Madden's Franchise Mode is lackluster, I still felt that saying Axis 19 is better was an over-statement. Even so, the fact that there was even an argument to be has is both a testament to the quality of Axis's Franchise Mode, and also an indictment of the lack of effor that EA has put into Madden over the past 10 years.
Maximum Football 2020 added a Play Designer.
Your move, Axis...
Despite another year of improvements to its Franchise Mode, I'm still not willing to say that Axis Football 2020 has a better Franchise Mode than Madden. Axis is still missing many Franchise features that Madden has, and many other features are still under-developed.
Axis 20 does not have a training camp or a preseason. It doesn't give its teams even a single bye week to rest and heal up. There is no injured reserve. Players don't hold out for better contracts or become locker-room distractions that lower team morale or chemistry. There's no weekly scouting reports of opponents, no playable practice mode, and no tweaking your playbooks or strategies for an upcoming opponent. There's also no "League News" tab that shows recent transactions, injuries, or so forth in order to help sell the idea that the other teams are active agents in the game as well.
Despite the lack of the above features, Axis does have some areas where it surpasses Madden. The coaching staff that was introduced in Axis 19 is still there, and still includes all the coordinators and assistant coaches. Still no cheerleading choreographer though...
I would have liked to have seen some extra depth to the coaches, but it looks like this feature is pretty much identical to last year. There's even still a bug with recording the coaches' win / loss records after Franchise games. Last year, the game was simply giving my coach the record of the worst team in the league; this year, however, the game has been incorrectly tallying losses as wins. But only some losses. My team went 12-4 in my first season, but my coach's record shows 15-1. Only one loss was properly recorded as such, for some reason. It's a similar bug to last year's game, but apparently not the exact same bug.
There's still no ratings for special teams, so I have no idea what makes a good Special Teams Coordinator in this game. But there's also still no special teams depth charts at all. If I can't even set who my kick returners are (let alone longsnapper, holder, and coverage gunners), and the game doesn't even bother to track special teams stats such as return yards, I guess it doesn't really matter what my my Special Teams Coordinator does, if he even does anything at all.
What is the point of a special teams coordinator if the game doesn't have
special teams depth charts, and doesn't track special teams stats?
In fact, most of the changes to this year's Franchise Mode appear to be on the back-end, where most users might not notice a change. The game tracks more historic stats, and makes league stats more easily accessible to the user. There's improvements to CPU team-building logic. And the entire Franchise U.I. has been updated.
Draft Party
The U.I. upgrade that will be most noticeably different will be the new live draft. You can now sit and watch each CPU team make it's pick while eagerly awaiting your own pick to come up. Personally, I'm not really sure how much value this adds to the game. I've never been particularly fond of waiting around for live drafts in football games. It often feels like a waste of time with no meaningful decisions for the user to make, and I usually just skip to my next pick. Nevertheless, I sat through an entire live draft. It took about an hour (on the "very fast" speed) and nothing much interesting happened.
You can watch the other teams make their draft picks, but I'm not sure why you'd want to.
Examining your own draft board or team needs during the draft doesn't consume any of time on the timer, so there's no time pressure for you to be efficient or make spontaneous decisions when your turn comes up. The game will show you which team is picking next and what their predicted position needs might be, but there's no mock draft or anything that might tell you which player that team is likely to pick. This means that you're unlikely to run into a situation in which you have a reasonable expectation that an upcoming team might draft a player you are wanting to draft, and that you might decide to trade up to take that player instead.
Even if the game did give you a better idea of who the upcoming teams are looking to draft, it wouldn't matter much. There's no option to trade up in the live draft's U.I. anyway. In one instance, I was looking to draft a B+ defensive lineman with the 12th pick in the first round. Another team was on the clock with the 4th pick, and that team had one of the worst pass defenses in the league and was dead last in sacks. I feared they might take the defensive lineman I was looking to draft, so I exited the draft to try to trade up. The game let me do this, but doing so seemed to have reset the draft. I had the 4th pick, but the team that drafted 3rd took my B+ D-linemen in this mulligan draft.
You can't trade up during the draft. Leaving the draft to do so seems to reset the whole draft.
So attempting to trade up to pick a preferred, well-scouted prospect simply doesn't work. The only thing you can do during the live draft is sit back and watch. These sorts of live drafts seem to be a popular request from users. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm missing something about what supposedly makes these so exciting.
Despite not being impressed by the live draft itself, I will admit that my favorite change to the Franchise mode is a subtle change that ties into the draft. Last year, Axis 19 introduced talent scouts to your team's coaching staff. Each scout covered a different region of the country, but only had three points to spend for the entire year on scouting players. And each point didn't even fully 100% scout a given player! That meant you only got to [partially] scout at most 12 players the entire year -- in a draft class of hundreds of incoming rookies. It didn't feel very rewarding at all.
This year, however, the team at Axis Games took my advice. Each scout now gains a scouting point each week (up to the max of 3 points). I specifically recommended this change in last year's review, in my critique videos, and on Axis' Discord discussion board, so I am, of course, very pleased to see it in-game. The extra points means that you can scout a lot more players (64 in total). I think it's unfortunate that they start the year without any points. I would have preferred if they start with 3 and recharge 1 each week (for a potential total of 76 points each year), but whatever. The bottom line is that the scouting mechanic gives you a lot more information to make informed decisions in the draft. You can either scout more players, or have more leeway to spend an extra point to more fully scout a smaller number of your preferred picks. It's much more possible that every player you draft will be a player that you scouted!
Scouts recharge points each week, giving you more information about draftees,
and giving the player more activities to do between games throughout the year.
Just as importantly, the fact that the scouts recharge a point each week means that you have the option to do scouting each and every week. You always have something to do between games. Or you can save the points up and spend all three every third week. Just make sure you don't forget to spend them, as any unspent points in excess of 3 will be lost. It would have been nice if the front page of the dashboard included a notification that your scouting points are maxed out.
It's nowhere near as involved or engaging as the in-season recruiting of EA's NCAA Football series, and still feels a step or two behind Canuck's Maximum Football 2020's recruiting. But it's a least a solid step in the right direction. The lackluster feeling of the scouting is due largely to the fact that it's still a roll of the dice whether you're able to draft any of the players you scouted. At the very least, having more information about more prospects means I feel like my draft decisions are less of a crap shoot this time around.
A relatively clean launch
Once again, I feel like Axis Football is the far better game when compared to its direct competitor, Maximum Football. This year, neither game has any real ground-breaking new features; just smaller, iterative improvements. But my perception of Axis benefits greatly from the fact that its launch was not marred by crippling bugs that made the game feel like it had taken two steps back (as was the case with Maximum).
Both games play largely the same as last year. In that sense, it's kind of hard for me to give a recommendation to either game if you already own or played last year's respective games -- especially at the higher $30 pricetag that both moved to last year. To be fair though, if you can afford to buy Madden, you can still afford to buy both Maximum 20 and Axis 20. If you bought Maximum 19 last year for the new Dynasty mode and skipped Axis 19, then Axis 20 is the way to go. If you're strapped for cash (and many people are given the realities of 2020), then I wouldn't blame you for just holding out till next year. You're not missing a whole lot.
The Franchise mode is nice, but I'm still waiting to see a major upgrade in on-field gameplay and animation.