NHL 25 Review – Staying Within the Crease

I hope you weren’t expecting any huge changes to EA’s latest NHL game, because you’ll be sorely disappointed if you were. Franchise and Be A Pro modes are almost identical to their NHL 24 iterations, with very slight additions brought forth to HUT and World of Chel. It’s in the gameplay and presentation where NHL 25 differentiates itself the most from its predecessors. This is technically the first exclusively ‘next-gen’ NHL game, though it still feels like little more than an incremental improvement.  That said, NHL 25 is good fun and feels more sim-like than ever before. Let’s discuss all the small improvements and how they add up to make NHL 25 what it is.

"NHL 25 ditches last gen’s consoles and focuses in on modern graphical fidelity. Player likenesses are improved across the board using Sapien facial technology.[/custom quote]

I’ll start with the graphical improvements since that’s the most immediately noticeable change to this year’s NHL game. Well, kind of. NHL 25 is technically the first game in the series to be built from the ground up for ‘next-gen’ consoles. Yes, that means folks relying on PS4s and Xbox Ones to play the newest sports titles have finally reached the end of the console’s life cycle. NHL 25 utilizes its next-gen exclusivity through the new Sapien Technology graphics overhaul. Players look more like their real-life counterparts compared to last year thanks to a complete refresh of character models. That said, I wasn’t blown away by the graphics or anything; there’s still your uncanny facial animations and low-res audience members that gamers have gotten used to over the years.

That said, animation is improved in other non-visual ways. Reactive animations are new to NHL 25, realistically portraying a skater bracing for impact or narrowing their body to fit through a small opening. These reactive animations transfer to better gameplay, with more dynamic hit boxes and movements that flow with the action more realistically. This stems from NHL 25’s improved AI systems. EA says that this year’s ‘empowered AI’ is a full overhaul of how NPCs behave, and while it’s doubtful this equates to a complete overhaul, it is an improvement over previous years. NPC skaters react quicker to sudden movements and position themselves depending on the context. I still recommend not relying on them too much without using the in-zone strategy hot keys to control player positioning, since the NPCs may have a different play in mind than you or I.

[custom-quote]One-timers are now skill-based, requiring exact timing between the pass and shot to pull off. This puts more control into the player’s hands."

Skill-based one-timers are technically new to NHL 25, but they pretty much function the same as previous games. As the name implies, you have to manually time the pass and one-timer shot just right in order to execute a skill-based one-timer to its full effect. Previous games treated one-timers as a more binary automatic command, so it’s nice to get more player control involved with it this time. One of my favorite gameplay additions is what EA is calling ‘next-gen vision control’. When on the defensive, you can square up to the puck with the tap of the shoulder button. On offense, you target the opposing net when holding the vision control shoulder button. This allows for greater rink management, giving players more opportunities to intercept passes and better coordinate pressure near the net.

"A host of options are available to the player, allowing for a customized experience going as sim or arcade as you wish"

If you’re new to the game and want to automate a lot of the skill-based inputs, there’s a ton of gameplay sliders that accommodate that. Just switch off ‘total control’ in the settings menu and set the trick shots to the face buttons and you’ve got a more traditional, less sim-like hockey experience. Want to automate last year’s Vision Passing system? You can return back to EA’s arcade roots and fully automate passing. You can even set independent parameters like NPC pass speed, shot accuracy, penalty rate, and toggle AI learning from 0 to 6. Most of these options were present in previous entries, but their continued existence in tandem with NHL 25’s enhanced AI is still welcome all the same.

Unfortunately, I’ve already reached the end of NHL 25’s suite of major gameplay changes. Yep, that’s right, they still haven’t fixed wrist shots to be more consistent and reliable. I’ve gotten used to the ‘hit stick’ controls but still never figured out how to reliably execute a simple wrist shot thanks to its subjective thumbstick input. While I like the flexibility possible with stick combination inputs, wrist shots just require too many movements considering how common and integral they are to hocky as a sport. You have to flick to the side and motion down and all the way up in a swift motion to pull it off; this succeeds at about the same rate as waggling a Wii-mote in front of a motion sensor. When you have YouTube tutorials saying to position away from the net to perform a wrist shot, you have an integral problem that needs fixing. At least make wrist shots re-bindable on a face button or something.

"Last year’s pressure system returns, with opposing players getting more fatigued as you take time in front of their net."

Anyway, enough about my wrist shot rant. Last year’s innovative Sustained Pressure and fatigue system returns unchanged. Staying near the opposing net for prolonged periods of time add to the pressure meter, which accelerates player performance while wearing down the opposing AI. EA has managed to balance this system so the enhanced reactive AI recognizes when a player is just milking the puck for the sole purpose of upping the pressure meter, and the response is smart AI players poking the puck and trying to intercept. Speaking of pokes, poke checks remain the most reliable means of intercepting the puck just like past games, so FYI.

"Wildcard is a brand new mode within HUT bringing with it a streamlined XP path. Each competition cycle features unique rulesets within this mode."

Unfortunately, NHL 25 does very little to change its stale suite of modes. The most notable changes come to Hockey Ultimate Team and World of Chel. Hockey Ultimate Team, or HUT for short, features a new Wildcard mode this year, which allows players to level up their players within HUT offline for the first time through a singular XP progression path. In fact, every mode in HUT streamlines XP through a singular progression path, helping ease the convoluted confusion that past entries gave players with their many separate paths. Wildcard is constantly updated with new challenges and rewards, as you’d expect from any HUT mode, and all the previous HUT modes return here un-changed.

World of Chel functions as NHL 25’s event portal, of which the new NHL 94 Flashback event looks especially promising with its retro pixelated graphics. As usual, these limited time events rotate based on season, so WoC capitalizes on FOMO with its live service features as much as past games. There’s a bunch of little tweaks and tiny changes here and there within WoC, but they amount to little more than small updates and patches on the existing model. This incremental aspect brings me to the game’s Franchise and Be A Pro Mode, where things feel more stagnant than ever.

"Franchise Mode streamlines menus to allow for better at-a-glance info"

There’s no two ways around it; Franchise is virtually unchanged from previous years. Sure, menus have been streamlined with a new tab layout and Franchise HUB, but the contents are almost exactly identical to previous years. The one noticeable change I do like, slight though it may be, is the option to ask players to switch up their playstyle. Negotiating with players to be more aggressive on defense or focus on passing instead of shooting opens up your team options, but I found most players obstinate to change, leading to lower morale in the long run. Setting player goals tended to be more fruitful, rewarding you with new abilities and improved stats if the players meet them during matches.

Be A Pro has been my personal favorite mode within EA’s NHL games thanks to fun quirky features like purchasing cars and homes through Salary Perks, but this year’s iteration is even more stagnant than Franchise. The only improvements here are on the presentation front, which aren’t exclusive to ‘Be A Pro’, mind you. I love the new camera angles on the ice, and especially enjoy watching my team play from my star player’s perspective on the sidelines. Intro and outro cutscenes are the same as last year, showing a 5 second clip of audience members waving light sticks and team mascots dancing around. My biggest gripe with all the modes are the loading times when browsing rosters or switching between tabs and menus. There’s a slight lag between every input that really adds up to create a somewhat sluggish menu experience. Menus have felt like this the past couple entries as well, so it’s not something exclusive to this title, but I wish they could have fixed the slowdown in menus out a bit more.

"EA’s new ‘Infinite Replay’ engine allows for a wider variety of camera angles for use within game highlights and replays."

Rivalry games receive additional flair with a new ‘Grudge Match’ presentation. Grudge Match displays matchup history between teams and contextual broadcast info on real-life details from the rivalry’s last matchups. It’s a brief little presentation addition, but it adds a fair bit of liveliness to matches while immersing players more into the game of hockey through NHL history. More fundamental are the changes to replay and highlight cameras. Through EA’s ‘infinite camera system’ you can cycle between more angles than ever, and the results show themselves to good effect through more dynamic in-game highlights. These are slight presentation additions to be sure; I’m hoping the next entry adds something fresh to Franchise and Be A Pro modes. Some off-field activities or customizable cribs like the old 2K sports games could do wonders to the game’s increasingly stale modes.

All in all, NHL 25 changes very little from the last game, especially in its modes. It’s in the AI and animations where this game differentiates itself the most, and even those additions feel incremental at best. HUT gets a new Wildcard mode and a general streamlining of XP progression, but aside from that and some tiny incremental improvements, there’s nothing new to get excited about. Still, the host of iterative improvements do add up to a game that feels more polished and presentable than last year, and the gameplay further lends itself to more sim-oriented angle if you wish to play it that way. NHL 25 is a solid hockey game in and of itself, one that I highly recommend if you skipped the last 5 games in the series. But for returning players, it feels like little more than a live service update on an existing game.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.