Outside of the creases, players skating around are also subject to physical interactions, whether by glancing blows or full-on body checks. Even in year one of implementation on the new consoles, the physical play of the game is a nice step-up from NHL 16 and last-gen games, with players reacting appropriately to contact and big hits against the boards resulting in injuries as would be expected. The occasional “wonkiness” will still occur where players get tangled together or even in their own limbs as a result of contact, but these moments are largely the exception and not the rule. Fights also have taken on a new level of realism, with blows leaving scratches, cuts and swollen eyes. A fight between Dwight King of the Los Angeles Kings and Dan Boyle of the New York Rangers left visible bruises and swelling on King's right eye marking the skirmish.
EA's NHL series typically totes strong gameplay, and it's as impressive as ever in NHL 16. Better yet, it's highly customizable. Camera angles can be altered, pre-determined difficulty settings can be tinkered with, and you can even set how arcadey or simulation-like you want the overall experience to be. Hate icing? Shut it off. Going offside the bane of your existence? Eliminate it completely. You can even determine how often a fight happens, the likelihood of a player breaking his stick, or whether you want to deal with injuries. And of course, you can pick your control style. It's cool that you can make something as meaningless as an exhibition game with your friend all your own by editing so many different facets, even if many of these options aren't exactly new.
Last year it was hard to crack the special teams units even if you were the team's highest scorer or boasted an excellent plus/minus rating. For NHL 16, EA is tweaking the skill thresholds you need to hit to earn time on the penalty kill and power play. Users have about the same number of skates and sticks to choose from as last year, but EA is adding other customization options to make your player feel more unique. These include skate guards, tape color, and choosing what type of tape job you prefer. If you want to rock the Phil Kessel candy cane look all the way up the stick shaft you can. With NHL 16, though, the differences between this year’s entry and last’s are tremendous. I’m not using tremendous as a positive adjective here. I’m using it to suggest that the gap in features between the versions is enormous. It’s huge. It’s almost mind-boggling.
The core of NHL 16 title is the act of playing the sport itself, and this is where NHL 16 excels. The action is an almost perfect simulation with the correct settings. The pace of the game feels great, the puck moves unbelievably realistically, and the players traverse the ice as expected. If a simulation style isn’t what you are after, you can easily change to a more arcade style, which makes for a much simpler and easier to play option for newcomers. The settings can be extensively customized, so if you want a realistic sim but think icing is a ridiculous rule you can turn it off. The actual hockey plays very well with the puck moving about the ice in a realistic manner and the players feeling as though they have real weight and momentum behind them. The controls can be a bit tricky to get used to at the start but once you get the hang of them it’s possible to play some fast and impressive looking hockey.
It’s indicative of what NHL 16 is, really. For every advancement, there’s a step back. This is most obvious in the sheer amount of content that has been stripped out compared to previous entries in the franchise. Indeed, the game feels positively gutted. The list of loses is staggering: GM Connected, EA Sports Hockey League, Winter Classic, Be A Legend, and even season mode are completely gone, and the modes that have survived the culling have seen reductions in some way. Be A Pro now lacks major league demotions, the ability to influence your draft positioning by playing in a prospect tournament, and even the option to simulate to the next line shift. Instead, you’ll just watch the computer play from the bench, and God help you if you take a penalty. At that point, you may as well go get yourself a sandwich.
Still, these things are still very minor to me, and I very much enjoyed the game as a whole. I think that it's a step in the right direction as far as gameplay goes, and that it definitely could have been worse for a game on a new platform. Though I do sympathize with fans on the missing features and random other odd complaint about the game, I still feel like most casual hockey fans, and almost all hardcore hockey fans will enjoy playing this game, because I sure did. NHL 16 definitely has its bumps and bruises, but is still an addicting and relatively realistic simulation hockey game that will leave you coming back for months and months to satisfy your hockey cravings.
