Madden NFL 18 is the first game in the series to use the Frostbite engine.

While the Madden series has typically featured a Superstar career mode, Madden NFL 18 introduces a story mode known as Longshot, the first such mode in the series.[4] Longshot follows Devin Wade, a quarterback from Mathis, Texas, as he tries to reach the NFL, and includes high school and college football games (the first appearance of the latter in an EA Sports game since 2013, when EA ended the NCAA Football series), as well as the NFL Scouting Combine.[5][6][7] The player's decisions and performances in the game determine Devin's career path, as dialog trees are used to help him make decisions.