EA Sports NHL 25 review

It is sporting season in the video game world, and that means the usual run of EA releases, as the publisher updates its long-running franchises for another calendar year. EA has been guilty in the past of delivering purportedly “new” titles that feel like they should have just been a downloadable upgrade rather than a full price new game, especially when it comes to the NHL.

NHL 25 steps outside of the comfort zone just enough to justify picking it up if you had last year’s iteration, and are a fan of the sport that has been a hit on home consoles since the 16-bit era. The main reasons for this are in the actual gameplay mechanics and the overall aesthetics and presentation as a whole, which feel like this is the first NHL title truly engineered and grounded in this generation of super-powered systems.

The oddly named Sapien technology is employed to make the skating bad-asses their most realistic looking character models perhaps ever seen in a video game. There is a new replay system that employs what EA are calling the Infinity Camera system, which equates to some of the most on-point, sports broadcasting style cuts I have ever seen. The character animations are dynamic and extremely impressive as you see players reacting to the impact of hits and tackles, or bend and adapt their bodies when slaloming through the opposition. They have dubbed some of these improvements “Reactive Actions” which is apt, as it certainly feels more realistic and true-to-life than any other instalment I have played in the series.

Another new addition to NHL 25 is what EA has rather amusingly named ICE-Q. This system promises more precision control and an overall more intuitive experience with better-constructed hitboxes and skating mechanics. There is yet another newly-monikered inclusion in the form of Empowered AI – which means that the behaviour and overall AI of teammates and opponents is smarter and more realistic than ever before. Another winsome new gimmick is the Next-Gen Vision system.

Pulling the left trigger basically positions the player you are controlling towards the puck, applicable in both defence and offence. This, as you can imagine, makes marking opponents a lot easier and carrying out swift counter attacks a cinch if you you’re your cards right. Hell, there are so many flashy sounding bells and whistles here than you know what to do with. And I haven’t even mentioned the Strand Hair Technology, which lets you see things like sweat, and hair, obviously.

Some of the good stuff from last year, like ongoing player fatigue and the Sustained Pressure system, remain. Basically the hockey equivalent of a Pep Guardiola team passing someone to death, applying offensive pressure when near the opposition goal can cause the attacking players to up their performance and the opponents crumble.

Sadly, the raft of mostly excellent gameplay tweaks don’t stretch to the variety of modes in NHL 25. First of all – the good. I will admit to not dipping into Hockey Ultimate Team very much in the past, but there is a new Wildcard option which allows players to level up their roster offline by earning XP, and that can’t be a bad thing in my view. As always, you can spend cash money on this should you wish, and as always, I am crushed a little inside by the cost of some of the packs and microtransactions that are available.

Apart from Wildcard, HUT looks pretty much the same as last year from what I can see. There is an event hub named World of Chel which has regularly updated rotating stuff over the course of the season. This seems like a lot of fun to me, and the live updates will be worth keeping an eye on. I am particularly keen to see what they do with the forthcoming NHL 94 event which promises a tasty old-school tribute replete with suitably pixelated visuals and the warm feel of a much-beloved entry in the franchise.

And then – the bad. Apart from some nice looking visual presentation changes and – I admit – slightly more intuitive hubs, the Franchise and Be A Pro modes just don’t seem to feature enough new inclusions to warrant a purchase purely for this style of play.

That said, for me the strength of this game is on the ice, playing the hugely enjoyable and much-improved take on the sport. In fact, I have enjoyed the core gameplay more than I have done in many years thanks to the genuinely innovative tech and the stunningly realistic visuals. Playing against a friend remains the pinnacle of the NHL experience, and it still feels immensely satisfying when you deliver a crushing hit or flick a cheeky wrist shot past the netminder. Just be aware that if you want a massive overhaul of the other single player modes, then NHL 25 does not do much more than its predecessor.