The leaves are falling, which means it’s hockey season. Hockey isn’t just a game to me; it’s a passion. I spent most of my childhood in the rink, playing and watching. The EA NHL games mean a lot to me, and I have a lot of great childhood memories as I have been playing the series since its inception. I’ve watched this series evolve over the years and try so many different things, but in the end, the one constant is the basics and how you play the game. The developers add new ways to score or new features each year, but it always boils down to hockey.
I remember when I first played NHL 98 on the PS1, and I thought it was the most realistic-looking hockey game I had ever seen. At the time, it was, but back then, the gameplay never really changed. NHL 25 is the first next-gen only release for the team over at EA Sports this console lifecycle. I spoke with Mike Inglehart and Chris Haluke from the development team at EA about how only having to make it for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles affected development, and they said it allowed them to add more to the game. It takes them three years to make significant changes to the NHL games, but having only to make it for one console generation allows them to create a better game.
NHL 25 Boasts Some Smart Changes To The Experience
Last year, the development team made more updates and tunings to the game during the year than ever before, and I expect this year will be no different. They have added many new features to the game, making it feel more alive and like a hockey game than ever before. I know there are players in the community who like specific versions of the game and push back on change. I would compare that to NHL hockey fans who want a particular style of play in the league. I’m a Boston Bruins fan, and most fanbase fans love the game’s hard-hitting and fighting style, yet things have changed to focus more on speed and skill, and fans have a hard time accepting change. This trickles down to NHL video games because there isn’t a year when complaints don’t stink up the changing room.
In this review, I will cover all of the changes EA announced, the ones they didn’t, and the ones I noticed. I will speak to the gameplay, but a game of this magnitude would be challenging to review based on the 19-plus hours I have already put into it. NHL 25 is set to evolve all season long and have content drops that reinvent how things occur, so I will review it based on the changes and how I feel they impacted the overall experience.
ICE-Q Is A Massive Building Block For The Future of the NHL Series
The evolution of the NHL series now has a building block: ICE-Q. You could call it a fancy marketing term, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but the sum of its parts is what I feel has changed the NHL series for the better. NHL 25 is the first step to allowing hockey fans to replay the action we see live or on TV.
ICE-Q comprises Next-Gen Vision Control, Empowered AI, Reactive Actions, and Skill-Based One-Timers. Next-Gen Vision Controls allows players to move on the ice and have total control of their actions. You can set up plays and quarterback the powerplay while still looking forward on the ice. The player’s actions on the ice emulate someone skating on the ice while looking and feeling like hockey. Gone are the days of skating backward along the blue line, and now you can do cross-overs and control the play without losing possession. Next-Gen Vision controls are something that I have been wanting in an NHL video game for years. I can finally set up plays in the game like I was on the ice — game-changer, right?
Empowered AI makes your opponents and your teammates emulate actual gameplay from hockey. In the past, if you were on a two-on-one, your AI teammate would continue to skate towards the net and never stop, but now they will try and get to the open seam and even stop in front of the net anticipating a pass. Defensively, you will see the closing of gaps and even learn your play style to prevent you from completing the same play repeatedly. It has made the game harder regardless of your skill level, as the days of walking through your AI opponent or always going end to end are a thing of the past. Players on the ice move more naturally now and play against you based on the situation. I wouldn’t say this is perfect, but I consider it a significant first step. I have seen some opponents make unnatural decisions in the defensive zone, and my teammates have gotten tied up in front of the net when I haven’t driven it yet. I can’t say this is perfect, but I feel it’s in a better place than ever. I have been able to enter the offensive zone by crossing the blue line before entering and, for once, not automatically going offside because my AI teammate would always enter the zone. So, for me, Empowered AI does more good than bad, and if the dev teams continue to listen to the community and make the game better throughout the season.
Reactive Actions is one of those new features in NHL 25 that I don’t feel I have noticed as much as I thought I would. I have been trying to see if my AI opponents or teammates make last-second moves to evade a hit or make a play to stop an offensive entry. Maybe I’m not seeing it because these actions happen so fast, or I’m not noticing it when it happens. This could be why finding open seams is a lot harder this year, as I cannot break the plane and enter the zone as quickly as I have.
Finally, we get to skill-based one-timers, which bring more excitement to the game. It has a very arcade feel, but it brings those monumental moments to a game when you launch that biscuit off your stick into the top corner of the net. So many times you watch highlights of the NHL, you see a player like Pastrnak or Ovechkin sitting above the dot looking for that one-timer. Well, now you can do those one-timers in NHL 25. When you have the puck, you will see your teammates light up with circles, letting you know they have an open lane or set up for a one-timer. If you time it correctly, you can have a more exciting higher chance of scoring. If you’re playing on a PS5, you will feel your shot with the haptics in the DualSense controller. Using this action with your defence along the blueline worked too well, and I scored too often. I would guess the developers will fix this after the launch.
Graphics So Good You Can See If A Player Is Missing Their Teeth
I feel that the overhaul in the presentation is just the starting point because the developers told me that we could have over 300 character models for the players in the game. Hence, most of your favourite players’ likenesses are in the game. One day, hockey fans will get goalie masks. We’re still unable to add our likeness, but baby steps here, people. You will still see generic player A or genetic player B, but they will look even better because of Next-gen characters. EA uses SAPIEN Technology and the power of the Frostbite Engine coupled with the PS5 and Xbox Series of consoles to bring the players to life. I was shocked at how real some of the players looked. I’m still blown away by how good beards look in the game and how good the jerseys look on the players. The jersey even moves with a flow as your player skates on the ice, and you can see that in action if you choose to do an instant replay.
The infinite camera system makes NHL 25 feel alive, like a hockey broadcast. It brings more variety into the replay system and gives us different angles. Gone are the same looking angles and replays we have seen because they’re using the next-gen consoles to their full potential with the presentation. I was on my fourth game before I saw the same angle used for a replay, which was nice to see.
The arenas have been upgraded, but they are not shared in the marketing material, and you have to see them to believe them. The ice looks as accurate as I have seen it in an NHL video game. Mike Inglehart explained that they worked hard to make the ice realistic, down to the skate cuts. You will see your hard stops and the edge marks more clearly in the ice, and they upgraded the lighting in the rinks.
Along with upgrading the arenas, they have harnessed the haptics from the controllers, and you can feel the music and hard hits in your controller. I asked the dev team which controller you would feel more; yes, the DualSense on the PS5 will have a more holistic feel than the Xbox controller. When the crowd gets loud in intense situations, you can feel that, making for a fantastic gaming experience. You get to feel the crowd as if you’re at a live NHL game. Before the game’s release, I attended a preview event for NHL 25 earlier this year and asked the devs if they would use some of the controller haptics used in College Football 25 in NHL 25. They didn’t give me an answer then, but we joked about it when I interviewed them afterward. Chris Haluke wanted to keep it a surprise — a welcome surprise at that. EA Sports harnesses the excitement of an NHL game with NHL 25 using sound and haptics, bringing you into action. It is one of my favourite new additions.
The menu system has also been revamped and is going for a more minimal approach, but the load times have all disappeared. The menus felt clumsy in the past and took a long time to load or even allow you to navigate them. The information that appears is what you need for whatever game mode you’re in, and they have added stats for players and teams and more info in the menus for Franchise mode. Every menu feels snappier and more responsive, making navigating menus much more manageable.
HUT Returns Reimagined
My favourite mode is Hockey Ultimate Team, so no review would be complete without me discussing it. During early access, I saw changes to HUT in NHL 25. One of the most significant changes is a progression system that rewards players for playing any mode in HUT, and everyone is working towards the same reward path.
The card art has also changed this year, and they have added seasons to some of the significant cards they usually drop, like their X Factor cards. The card art looks much more like some of the premium hockey cards you see on the market. I play almost all of the EA Ultimate Team modes in their franchises, and I have to say the card art for the NHL series always looks so much better. I did ask if they have ever thought of reaching out to Upper Deck to use their actual card art, but they have not. Unfortunately, we can only hope they will in the future. It would be awesome to see a Gretzky rookie card in the game.
This year, EA Sports added a new game mode to HUT in NHL 25: Wild Card, which replaces HUT Rush. Wild Card mode so far, I have found it very interesting as you have to create a team to play a series of games either online or offline and earn rewards for another progression path. You still earn points towards your overall progression in HUT, but this is extra. I learned quickly that you should always choose online mode because you get 100 points for a win and 50 for a loss. You get 50 for a win in Superstar mode offline, so playing online will earn you rewards faster to finish the progression and earn rewards like some sweet cards. Wild Card mode: you draft a team using the established salary cap but have three wild card slots to use. Be careful; you don’t want to exceed the salary cap because your team won’t qualify. It has been a fun mode to use, and I feel it puts all players on an equal playing field because no one would be able to have a monster team because of a salary cap. It doesn’t hurt that you’re getting double rewards and can still use some of your favourite players from your HUT team.
The card values have drastically changed this year, and even high cards like Connor McDavid have only low 80s values. I will never understand messing with the progression system like that because fewer people are playing the game by the time the season ends, and you get the 99 cards. I wish EA would use the system they use in MLB The Show, where you have live series cards, and the player’s card value changes based on their play in real life. It adds more to the marketplace, and players will buy and sell cards more often and be more engaged. They are still running the system where cards are currency, leading away from collecting the cards. As a real card collector, I wish we could build sets instead of continually trading them to get other cards.
As the game evolves and more content is dropped, I will update HUT. This mode is constantly changing, so my content around that will be coming all year on Console Creatures.
Verdict
NHL 25 delivers a vastly improved hockey game. The upgrades improve the hockey experience, but there’s still room to grow. Not everyone will find the changes to their liking, but the average player has the opportunity to enjoy a great game. Coming from where the series began to where it is today, it genuinely never looked this good or played this realistically, and the future of the NHL franchise looks bright. Annual updates to a sports franchise can be a massive setback when only the minimum has been applied; that isn’t the case here because you can tell the people working on NHL at EA love the sport as much as I do, or any fan. The Zamboni on the ice this year is that this is the first NHL game I share with my daughter, and you never know; maybe one day she will look upon this franchise as fondly as I do.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
NHL 25 is a glaring example of a developer phoning it in year after year, offering nothing but the bare minimum under the guise of a “new” release. After nearly four years of stagnation, EA Sports has once again released a game that is virtually identical to its predecessor.
The biggest issue? There is almost no effort put into improving or updating core game modes. **Be a Pro** mode, which has long been a fan favorite, remains utterly unchanged. It’s as if the developers didn’t even bother trying to make it feel fresh. The same old, uninspired mechanics are back, with no new additions or enhancements to keep it engaging. If you played NHL 24, you’ve essentially played NHL 25.
While **Franchise mode** gets a couple of minor tweaks, they’re mostly cosmetic changes to the UI rather than meaningful improvements to gameplay or depth. These token gestures don’t add up to a better experience, and they certainly don’t justify the price of admission.
At this point, NHL 25 feels like a cash grab, relying on minimal updates and misleading promises. If you’re looking for something new, this isn’t it. EA Sports needs to take a hard look at its hockey franchise and realize that fans deserve more than rehashed content.