I love hockey, it is my favorite sport by far and Electronic Arts is the only company that brings it to gaming consoles. In the Sports division of Electronic Arts, you know “EA Sports it’s in the game”, the NHL franchise is definitely the smallest of the major titles Electronic Arts releases. Compared to FIFA, Madden, MLB, and NBA, NHL is the smallest market, and figures have reflected that. NHL 12 was hugely successful, as it posted 1.22 million copies across 2 platforms, NHL 13 posted similar numbers, NHL 14 only sold approximately 890,000 copies across 2 platforms. (All numbers according to VGChartz)
For avid hockey fans and video gamers (like myself), September 9, 2014 was a very exciting and long-awaited day. Why? Because arguably one of the greatest sports video game franchises of all time released NHL 15, the latest installment in EA Sport’s hockey series. This year’s release is even more exciting than in previous years because it is the first game in the franchise to be released for the latest next-generation (next-gen) consoles, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. But before getting into the next-gen consoles, here’s a brief review of the changes from NHL 14 to NHL 15 (or the lack thereof) for the current-gen consoles (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3). NHL 15 was supposed to be a celebration of hockey. A true coming of age that would have us flying banners and cheering EA’s name as they masterfully took the step up to the new generation and showed us their skills on previously untouched ice. When the puck dropped, it would provide the graphical and gameplay benefits that the more powerful consoles would allow. In the back office, it was supposed to provide improvements to a game that had been slowly improving, year after year, so we’d brought even further into the world of professional hockey with leagues, deep career modes, and a million ways to play against our friends.
The recently revamped Live the Life mode has seemingly reverted back to a basic Be a Pro mode, with all off-ice interaction with teammates, public, and press removed. You create a player (using an existing pro is no longer possible) and get either randomly assigned into an NHL team or select one manually. The Memorial Cup tryout period is gone, along with pre-season. No longer do you spend any time in the CHL or AHL either, slotting straight into the NHL roster. On the ice, the option to call your own shifts is back, and it turns out to be a savior because you can no longer simulate time when on the bench. Not a big deal if you were the type of fan who played with authentic Be a Pro settings, but the rest will be bored to tears watching the AI skate around. You get season objectives as before, but there are no longer any in-game tasks or coach feedback. Overall, Be a Pro is a shell of its former self and only the most hardcore of fans will have the patience for it.
NHL 15 does nothing to explain how the game works to you. The main menu is divided into three tabs. The Home screen offers you a “quick play” of your most played mode, a list of alerts and news about the game, a provocation to play new game modes, and a button where you can watch a trailer for the game you are playing. Other tabs include Play and Customize. The former is a container to play the various modes - quick play, online play, the ultimate hockey mode, playoffs, general manager simulation, pro player simulation, practice mode, and a replay editor. The latter allows you to edit rosters, choose your favorite team (which seems arbitrary as far as I can tell), enter product codes, and change your game settings. The feeling of being a part of a team is fleeting however. There’s simply not enough content to keep gamers intrigued. One large complaint is a lack of education. Even though the game has a practice mode, implementing practice into the “Be a Pro” mode would go a long way toward educating gamers and providing depth to the experience. As it stands, the only education the mode offers is a shallow grading system during games, where players are given one-liners about their performance (i.e. Watch the turnovers, nice shot, keep shooting etc).
Other aspects feel ham-fisted. The Practice mode gives you a single option: one player versus a goaltender. Can’t say that is useful for much, save the shootout. Previous iterations of the game have featured full team practices where you can script plays for use in games, or skill games that would help improve your play in different areas. It’s not too hard to see what happened here. EA was so focused on making the gameplay a superlative experience that the company forgot to include a lot of the things that make the series so special. If you’re buying your next-gen console just to play NHL, maybe wait a year. If you already have the console, well, hockey’s hockey, right?
