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NHL 27 from developer EA Vancouver continues to layer atop the push for broadcast-like authenticity for the hockey series.
A few years removed from a slower, realistic feel to the on-ice action, NHL 27 takes some cues from other modern sports titles in terms of presentation and overall immersion.
The attempted love letter to the sport is fitting. But the usual annual upgrades to things like specific gameplay features and modes, too, helps the series present what might be the most well-rounded entry in quite a long time.
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This series has enjoyed years of stellar gameplay that continues to evolve, though there have been some blemishes, too.
At times, the push for realism has clashed with arcade-like things, such as spammable moves and big hits. But out of the gates this year, some blatant overarching tweaks to how the AI performs and specific tunings for inputs and systems brings it all together in a balanced way.
In terms of new developments on the ice, it’s abundantly clear that goalie fatigue plays a bigger role this year. Tracking a netminder’s energy on either end of the ice is an important part of finding success
It feels like defense got a nice boost too, with more accurate and timed pokes resulting in fewer accidental penalties and more instances of knocking the puck free.
Ditto for increased penalties to speed when pivoting or spamming the input more than once. This exposes a player to great risk of losing a puck and, in theory, should mean less spam in competitive online matches.
These don’t sound major, but they work in concert to remove some of the video game-like feel to the proceedings and, generally, strike a nice balance between offense and defense.
And they certainly align very well with the next bit.
One of the bigger pre-release talking points was the implementation of team-specific playbooks. While it’s been a staple of other sports games for a while now, it should go without saying that this greatly benefits the experience.
Alongside the constantly improving animations and on-ice gameplay, these playbooks move the needle even more on the realism scale, driving up the authenticity.
This is a theme that bleeds over into other teams, too, with team-wide behavior more notably changing to match a game’s current situation. Different, proper pacing depending on the situation, like playing tighter to protect a lead late, is notable and a big win.
All of this, of course, gets a major assist from some robust attempted upgrades to the presentation side of things.
With the college football side of things really ramping up the competition, NHL has responded in kind by paying some obvious care and attention to specific pre-game activities
This extends to during games, too, with team-specific goal songs and even jumbotron videos.
In fact, the push for presentation authenticity is blatant. On-screen graphics have seen a solid overhaul, some of the new camera angles really freshen up the experience and a new approach to when replays happen has this feeling like flicking on the television for the real thing.
In the commentary booth, ESPN’s John Buccigross and former goaltender Darren Pang add some fresh flair to the presentation alongside the usual strong audio presented by the series.
These are little “cherry on top” things for a series that is only a few years into its next-generation console leap and was still nailing down things like proper net physics even a year ago. It’s a strong overall package and one of those areas where returning players will really feel a difference.
Be A Pro largely went neglected in favor of other stuff during the annual-release cycles for a while…until last year.
Last year’s major upgrade brought many familiar-feeling sports game trappings: A career-long journey from developmental to the pros, non-game things to manage like responses during press conferences and other great stuff.
This year, players pick one of three traits as they get going and that makes for some distinct playstyles. From there, players can tackle storylines and complete challenges to influence things franchises do across lengthy seasons. Pretty standard, but welcome stuff for a player-insert mode.
Franchise mode gets a modern-feeling leap to match some of its contemporaries with a connected franchise evolution. Players can now boot up the mode in a league with friends, with one the commissioner.
This is pretty by-the-books stuff too, but it’s nice to see other real people immersed in the same league and interacting with the same systems, like trades.
A year ago, much of World of CHEL tweaks were about respecting a player’s time with tweaks season passes and ability point costs on x-factors.
This year, the free season pass returns for CHEL, along with more quality-of-life items like smoother character progression and the ability to make quick loadout changes. There are also tweaks to the created character chaos, with taller characters getting better things like durability, but reduced speed, while heavier characters get a bonus to strength, but lose acceleration, for example.
Hockey Ultimate Team seems to be the mode getting the least love this time out, which is fine.
The big caveat to the mode isn’t just the playbooks coming over, but coaches, too. The game uses this as a chance to deepen the experience in a good way by letting them influence different sorts of line combinations.
As usual, NHL 27 runs well, boasts loads of options and sliders and those other little side modes worth a look, too.
NHL 27 feels like one of the more meaningful upgrades for the series in a while.
The flashy stuff is the presentation side, which is, admittedly, nice and deepens immersion.
On the ice changes are the real highlight, though, as the simple tweak of how the AI performs overall and situationally makes things feel so much better. Ditto for balancing changes around things like spammable moves and defensive skills, never mind the solid height/weight tweaks in CHEL.
Overall, NHL 27 is a very solid effort that couldn’t hit big upgrades to every mode, as expected, but does enough with the important things on the ice and around it to be a surefire recommendation for new and returning players alike.
