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EA Sports' 'NHL 17' is better, but is it good enough?
Though EA Sports’ NHL series doesn’t have any direct competitors in the hockey video game market, it does, by nature, have to stack up to the other impressive sports franchises, such as FIFA, Madden, NBA 2K and MLB: The Show. And while all of those games have been worthy of praise with their impressive strides in gaming, it seems that NHL has been stuck in a bit of a rut lately. It felt like EA got too complacent and too comfortable with its hockey product somewhere around NHL 13 and was busy patting itself on the back while it fell behind in the arms race that is sports gaming.
While other franchises were putting out new games with awesome new features and incredible amounts of depth and detail, it felt like NHL was pushing out glorified roster updates and trying to sell us on game modes and features that were previously taken away and repackaged under the guise that they’d never been seen before. But hey, look, they added mascots, too!
So to say that EA and NHL need a winner with NHL 17 is a bit of an understatement. They don’t just have to make up ground on the superior franchises blazing the trail in front of them. They also have to worry about keeping the fans that haven’t given up on them yet and get back in the good graces of the frustrated ones who have.
Fortunately, NHL 17 is a pretty good game. But is it good enough?
What’s better?
Gameplay: Every sports video game hinges on its ability to bring fun and challenging gameplay to those behind the sticks. As the NHL series has taken aim at bringing a more realistic hockey experience in recent years, it’s run into some issues in the gameplay department. Gone were the days where you could blaze down the ice and change direction on a dime, but skating also felt clunky and too frustrating, as did the passing mechanics.
This year, though, the gameplay has been refined and things feel much smoother in several departments. Skaters no longer feel like they’re stuck in quicksand when changing direction or on their initial few strides. Passes often go to their intended target, not the guy 40 feet behind him that you didn’t even know was there. It’s actually possible to cycle the puck. AI is improved and players are smarter. Battles in front of the net and along the glass don’t feel as manufactured. Big hits still exist, but you can actually get knocked off the puck without being taken completely out of the play.
Also improved is goaltending, which has needed work for awhile. Goalie movements are more natural and realistic, which leads to most saves feeling realistic as well. Though netminders can still make the occasional outrageous eyebrow-raising denial, it doesn’t happen so often that you’re left shaking your head.
As a whole, the game plays pretty smooth and authentic. It finds a nice medium between fun and realism, and that’s a great base to build off of.
Menus: One of the most annoying issues with NHL 16 was its clunky, disorganized and sluggish menu system that would often leave anybody trying to navigate the game frustrated. That's been fixed this year with a newer menu layout that is not only prettier, but also more responsive and convenient. Players can get to where they want to go -- whether that be some quick gameplay or into a game mode -- in about half the time as it took last year. Also, it's worth noting that the menu experience is also made more enjoyable thanks to a very awesome soundtrack this year.
Arena atmosphere: One of the selling points of last year's game was that it brought unique arena settings and atmospheres for each NHL team. It was pretty overdue and didn't make up for the gameplay deficiencies, but it was important to the future of the franchise. This year, EA built on that by adding more team-specific elements such as goal horns and songs. Big moments and clutch goals feel more intense with appropriate crowd atmosphere. Even subtle changes -- like the camera shaking to the roar of the crowd after a huge goal -- make a big difference and provide additional satisfaction to gamers.
Customization: This is a big winner in NHL 17. Both player and team customization options have been supremely beefed up, which is especially great for one of the franchise's most popular online game modes, EA Sports Hockey League.
Not only do players have extensive options to customize their playable character -- from hundreds of premade face builds, to great new hair and facial hair options, to loads of licensed equipment -- but the game also features a pretty sick team-builder. Players can form and craft a custom team from scratch. Pick your team name -- there's a massive list of options, including hilarious ones such as Kitten Mittens, Tickle Time and Upside Downsies -- then intricately design your uniforms from head to toe, and finish with a fully custom-built arena that operates to your preferred specifications.
As someone who loves to utilize team builders, this one is fun and easy to use. It also becomes crucial to maximizing the EASHL experience, as players get to establish their own awesomely unique online squad and then face off against others who have done the same. As enjoyable as the designing process is, it's also fun to see what other gamers have done with their teams and arenas.
What still needs work?
Depth: While NHL 17 is a fun and enjoyable play, there will be very few pleasant surprises in store after the first run-through. It’s a very “what you see is what you get” game and, unfortunately, a lot of it has been seen before in previous installments.
One of the most boasted about upgrades to this year’s game is the improved franchise mode, which now allows users to take ownership of more organizational decisions – including ticket prices, promotional giveaways and even relocation/rebranding. While these options give the mode a little more life and are cool to have, they’re also not exactly new or impressive. In fact, EA offered pretty much all of them back in Madden 2004 more than a dozen years ago. Developers are going to need to try a lot harder and be a lot more creative to make players feel like they’re getting a new, truly immersive experience.
Attention to detail: One of NHL’s biggest weaknesses remains its lack of attention to detail when it comes to in-game experience. NBA 2K has signature styles for almost every player in the game, Madden brings true-to-life throwing motions for all its quarterbacks, MLB: The Show has authentic batter stances and pitcher deliveries for nearly every Major Leaguer, but pretty much all players in NHL 17 play exactly the same. There aren’t many subtleties to in-game action that make players feel true-to-life outside the vanity of their equipment, and sometimes the game even gets that wrong – especially in goalies. Incorporating individual motion capture for the game’s biggest stars would certainly help bring a more authentic and rewarding experience for die-hard hockey fans.
Ratings system: NHL’s player rating system is a bizarre and pretty frustrating beast. I won’t get into any flawed evaluations of individual players, but I will say that the ratings scale is perplexing as hell. There are more than 50 NHL players rated an 89 or above, but none higher than a 95 -- Sidney Crosby gets top honors there. That’s way too high a percentage of the player pool to be rated that highly (with many others not far behind) and bunched that close together. For comparison, FIFA 17, which features thousands of players, has only 16 players rated 89+, with only four coming in at 92 or higher.
Basically, it feels like there’s very little distinction between the tiers of players in NHL. Many second-tier players are rated too closely to the game’s elite superstars; too many third-tiers are close to second-tiers, and so on and so on. Any player in the game who deserves an NHL roster spot is rated an 80 or above, a mere 15 points away from the game’s very best player. That’s pretty dumb.
Presentation: EA revamped the franchise’s in-game presentation in NHL 15 when they added Mike Emrick, Eddie Olcyk and Ray Ferraro as commentators and integrated NHL on NBC themes to make the experience feel like an actual broadcast. Just a few years later, it already feels stale. Emrick’s frantic enthusiasm doesn’t really translate well to video games (much like Gus Johnson didn’t work for Madden) and too large a portion of the team’s commentary is recycled, generic and doesn’t fit what’s happening on the ice.
Also tired are the camera angles and ice level cut scenes used during stops in the action. For fans who have played the game for years, very little of the presentation feels new or exciting. It’s too familiar and miles away from feeling authentic.
Overall takeaway: For NHL’s standards, this is a very good game. Unfortunately, NHL’s standards are still way behind where they should be.
The improved gameplay and user experience will likely be enough to keep fans playing, but gamers well versed in other sports titles will likely recognize that NHL 17 is still far from being truly great, at least in 2016. If hockey is a three-zone game, NHL’s refined gameplay (though a huge building block for the future) only covers one of those zones. The franchise still lacks the depth and intricacies that it needs to keep pace with other sports games on the market, and there’s no chance you can compete by playing a one-zone game. (B-)
