The Stanley Cup Playoffs are upon us (for those of you who are hockey fans and follow hockey in the U.S.). This means that we can anticipate high-stakes competitive action for the next two months at arguably the highest level of professional hockey. Sadly, the same cannot be said of EA Sports’ NHL 24 game, which underwhelms in many respects. If playoff time has you in the mood to jump into NHL 24, here is our review of the most recent entry in EA Sports’ hockey franchise:
EA Sports NHL 24 showcases the exceptional gameplay fundamentals that have caused so many to enjoy the franchise to date. To that end, NHL 24 is a fantastic hockey game, but its biggest pitfall is that it hardly offers any additional value from previous entries in the series. This means that EA’s loyal player base is essentially buying the same game again, repurposed and repackaged for a new NHL season. NHL 24 does have some new features and some notable additions to the World of Chel game mode, including new ways to play and an all-new battle pass, but the entry does little to justify picking it up over the previous years’ titles unless you can grab it on sale. While NHL 23 took a considerable step forward for the franchise, the theme of NHL 24 might as well be deja vu. Just like a team fresh off of winning the Stanley Cup Finals, all EA Sports seems to aspire to with NHL 24 is simply to run it back.
It’s not all negative though. The all-new pressure system aims to make the momentum and flow of possessions more authentic to real-life hockey. When the attacking team is in their opponent’s third, a meter builds up over time as the forwards apply pressure to the opposing defense by maintaining possession or unleashing shots on goal. The mounting pressure results in fatigue on the defense which could bring about an opportunistic goal. It’s rather similar to football, when one side retains possession and relentlessly pushes into the opposing third, just waiting for the opportunity to strike. The execution of this system in NHL 24 is inconsistent, but the idea behind it was more than sound, and it’s seemingly a beneficial addition to the game overall. The animations and physics, particularly for checking, have also been improved. A visible impact results from body checks on the ice, often making me grimace or grin depending on who was on the receiving end of a crunching tackle. EA also seems to have borrowed the “hit stick” from its Madden franchise and implemented it in NHL 24, giving players a high-risk, high-reward alternative method of body checking that can result in some jaw-dropping collisions or jeer-worthy misses.
NHL 24 implements a complete progression system overhaul to its online game mode World of Chel, where players create a hockey pro and compete with and against other players on the rink to earn swag and playing styles. The loot-box hockey bags featured in NHL 22 & 23 are a thing of the past, with an all-new seasonal battle pass replacing them. This was a much-needed change to mitigate the often random and inconsistent feeling rewards of past NHL games. However, the swap to a battle pass still feels like the better of two undesirable outcomes. Why any sports game needs to feature a battle pass at all is not something I’m certain of, and it wasn’t too long ago that sports games simply featured rewarding progression as a core pillar of the game design. Now it feels like progression has to be added into the game after the fact, and the progression method is often linked directly to some form of monetization. The first battle pass had some interesting items and was completely free to anyone with the game, but subsequent seasons have been progressively more lackluster in their offerings, and each season’s battle pass costs 10 quid. With Ultimate Team, players have come to expect aggressive monetization, since the card-based mode incentivizes players to pay for player packs rather than grind for a seemingly endless number of hours. However, having to pay money to partake in an additional game mode’s core progression system is a bit outrageous, especially since virtually everything else about World of Chel remains unchanged from NHL 23. Even the UI of the game mode is the same as it was in NHL 23 & 22. The quality of the game mode is quite good in terms of gameplay and things to unlock, but the overt blemishes are hard to overlook.
The most egregious part of NHL 24 is that the career mode is the exact same as NHL 21. In four straight titles, the offline career mode – arguably a core component for any sports game – has not changed at all. EA Sports has used the same career mode for four straight games. I wasn’t even aware that was something they could or would do, but they’ve neglected to add new career mode content for four straight years now. Likewise, Ultimate Team and Franchise mode remain largely unchanged from NHL 23, but in the case of Franchise mode at least, that’s actually a good thing. NHL 23 pushed the envelope of what a Franchise mode could offer in a sports game by providing a baffling amount of customization options. Likewise, in NHL 24 players can start their own expansion team in a variety of cities, customizing their mascot, logo, stadium, and players. Even the rules for the league, the makeup of the divisions, team budgets, and pretty much anything you can think of, can be tweaked. The disparity in attention given to the offline franchise mode vs. the offline career mode is striking, and I can only assume EA must have data that demonstrates many more players interact with the Franchise mode, but making no changes to the career mode since NHL 21 is still inexcusable.
NHL 24 is undoubtedly the best way to play hockey in video game form. That fact makes its obvious blemishes and lackluster improvements even more disappointing. If you’re looking for a good time playing hockey, NHL 24 can offer that in spades, but so can NHL 22 & 23. Here’s hoping that EA Sports can do more to excite the crowd in their next entry – presumably coming later this year – even though the franchise maybe would benefit from temporarily going on ice.
-Kirkland Gray
