With every yearly sports release, fans expect the same thing. We get a roster update, new content for the online modes, hopefully some graphical upgrades, and a big feature change that makes the latest release worth it. Last year with NHL 26, the team at EA Sports revamped Be A Pro for the better and tried to improve Hockey Ultimate Team by adding Chase for the Cup and HUT Seasons.
I liked a lot of the changes last year when I published my review and felt it finally played like the hockey I watch on TV and grew up playing. I thought the BE A PRO was an excellent upgrade over the previous iteration. It didn’t feel like a roster-upgrade edition of the game, but a step in the right direction for the game to continue improving.
EA Sports NHL 27 Feels Like A Re-tool
I’ve seen sports titles as a work in progress for about 5 years, and then we get a very good title. In the NHL, they use the term retool; that is where NHL 27 sits. With its yearly release cycle, you almost have to expect it. With NHL 27, the team at EA Sports talked about new modes and changes like Connected Franchise, Team Playbooks, new commentary, and a new arena atmosphere. I was looking forward to trying some of these new features, and I do feel they will make the NHL franchise better in the long run.
The lead-up to the launch of NHL 27 was met with mixed messaging, and when they announced Connected Franchise, it went from good to bad very quickly when the community learned what was included in this game mode. Connected Franchise isn’t GM Connected, which a portion of the community wanted back in the game; it’s a hybrid.
Connected Franchise in NHL 27, according to EA, and I will get to why I’m saying it this way for the review, is an online game mode that will allow a minimum of three human-controlled teams to play a season online against each other, with the remainder of those teams controlled by AI. You can make trades, choose which type of schedule you would like to play and have multiple seasons. Sounds like a great mode for those who want it.
I reached out to EA and spoke with the developers about how much players used GM Connected previously, and they explained it was before their time. Still, the mode struggled with how it came to life and operated, which made engagement with the mode challenging. They used those previous experiences with the old developer team. They considered those learnings when bringing Connected Franchise to life, and they plan to keep this new socially connected mode around for a very long time.
I couldn’t play the mode during my review of NHL 27 and can’t speak to whether it works because I don’t know anyone else reviewing the game who has. I wasn’t someone in the NHL community asking for this mode, though, because I rarely play online and doubt I would have the time in my life to dedicate to it. The reception from the community is all I can go off of here, but those people haven’t played it either and weren’t fans of the messaging before EA launched Connected Franchise.
For a review of a game where the biggest new mode was pretty much unplayable during the review period, I’m sure it isn’t optimal for the team at EA Sports, but I can’t do much about that.
What I can talk about, and something I think is truly amazing, is Authentic Atmospheres. In NHL 27, each NHL rink feels unique and alive. The development team added authentic goal songs for 32 NHL franchises. As a huge fan of the Boston Bruins, hearing the goal horn used at Boston Garden, followed by Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation, was a hockey fan’s dream. Any Bruins fan who hears that song would instantly think of the Boston Bruins and goals.
In NHL 27, each rink looks exactly like it does in the NHL, with authentic-looking scoreboards, seating and even the video animations of goals on the scoreboard. I was skeptical they would pull it off, and they have, because you hear the sounds of the game and feel like you’re part of the action.
Not Up To Snuff
I even checked out cover athlete Macklin Celebrini’s rink in San Jose, so I was able to walk out of the Sharks’ mouth onto the ice. I would show you in an image what that looks like from my gameplay, but for some reason every time I pressed the create button on my PS5 controller, it instantly brought me to the pause screen in NHL 27. It happened during gameplay as well, and even after an update this morning, it still happened while I was writing this review. I could take photos of the menus but nothing in-game, and hopefully it gets patched before launch.
I feel the development team has gotten a hat trick with this one, and it’s something the game has desperately needed for years. It adds so much to the game’s presentation and makes each arena feel alive, with you right in the action.
Along with the arena presentation, they have added new announcers and game storylines in NHL 27. John Buccigross and Darren Pang are the new play-by-play and colour commentators for the game, which plays more to an American audience, but the development team for NHL 27 let me know that a bigger percentage of the players in the game are in the US. As a hockey fan, I will be the first to admit that the only way to grow the game of hockey I love is to grow the audience in the US.
Here in Canada, we watch a lot more hockey than in the US, so I think it’s safe to assume Canadian hockey fans are very familiar with John Buccigross and Darren Pang from watching any National TV broadcast. I do like how they add commentary based on the game you’re playing, and I do wonder how many lines are recorded because it feels endless. As you’re playing, the crowd reacts differently in NHL 27 to what is happening on the ice and looks more lifelike than the automated crowd in previous games; with the new broadcasters, the development team is inching ever so close to replicating a TV broadcast.
The game now looks more like a real NHL game, but how does it feel? In NHL 27, they have added what they’re calling Team Playbooks. Allowing players to use more than the couple of play styles they had in previous games. I have liked the gameplay changes they have made over the past couple of seasons and the improvements to ICE-Q and now ICE-Q 2.0.
Team Playbooks let you use the style you feel best fits you. My favourite team, the Boston Bruins, use a man-on-man system, which can lead to boring hockey and can have your players chasing at times and missing assignments. Especially when dealing with AI-controlled players. I prefer to use a 1-3-1 system by clocking up the neutral zone, sucking the life out of the opposing team, and capitalizing on their mistakes.
I think this change will require a lot of tuning over the year and is more of a work in progress than a fully polished feature. It works at times, but other times it feels like my AI teammate makes moves they shouldn’t or gets lost in their zone for no reason whatsoever. I used the term retool at retoolart of the review, and this new feature is surely a part of that and, once fine-tuned, should be a very welcome addition to the game.
The biggest reason I don’t think it’s polish is I can’t make adjustments in-game. You need to pick a playbook before the start of the game and stick to it. That isn’t how hockey works, and coaches make adjustments all the time. If a team is stretching you out and getting too many opportunities, you make adjustments for that. If you need to protect the lead, you make adjustments for that, but you can’t do that with the team playbook, and hopefully it will evolve to that.
Overall, I feel the gameplay is good and plays more like a real hockey game, but when you add new features that don’t work as they should, it can frustrate hardcore hockey fans.
The list of new features wasn’t very long this year, and according to the development team, the mode that gets the most use is Hockey Ultimate Team, and they didn’t change it. Last year, they added more ways to play it, and I was hoping they would overhaul the economy and not make it about collectibles you can’t collect unless you play the game for a living.
Hockey has become one of the most expensive sports to play in the world, and even the team over at EA Sports is making the NHL 27 Hockey Ultimate Team the most expensive to play. All the good cards are still hidden in packs that aren’t free, and earning collectibles is far too daunting. I hope that next year the focus will be on Hockey Ultimate Team, or they will run into the same issues they always do with the life of the NHL games. The season starts, and fans are excited to play, but halfway through, even their big creators aren’t playing the game and have moved on.
I think NHL 27 is the start of changes to come, and it has a good core game, but far too many things don’t feel complete. The new arena atmospheres could have been a game changer and will keep me playing this year, up to a point. Still, I feel I’m going to suffer from the same thing I do every year: frustration with Hockey Ultimate Team and the fact that they give far too much focus to online play and whales who buy packs.
Verdict
NHL games will always keep me coming back, but if EA Sports want to grow the series, they need to lower the barrier to entry and remove things that frustrate most players. A new player will try out these new modes, become frustrated like I did, and could easily be turned off from the game. I hope that NHL 27 is the start of a new beginning for the franchise, and 5 years from now, as more franchises do, it’ll be singing its praises.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
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