Review: NHL 15 (Xbox One)

It's the start of hockey season once again; a time for players to wash their equipment before they stuff it back into their rank smelling hockey bags. All teams start fresh, and for those that insist on not winning every game by 20 goals… there's NHL 15 to get the results that you really want.

The gameplay like every other EA Sports property is top notch. The in-game action continues to be perfected in nearly imperceptible ways, but the end result is that as a gamer, you have to continue to refine and develop your own skills to win.

Some of my favorite garbage goal techniques of previous years have been patched and I find that I actually have to play the game like a simulation instead of just messing around.

The one big take away this time is the puck physics – I found that the puck was much more susceptible to rolling and bouncing than ever before. It certainly makes for some unexpected results if you don't use caution when you get a bouncing pass. But much like any other of the enhancements of previous years it's a little obtrusive at first, but you'll learn to live with it (I'm looking at you stick-breaking in NHL 11!).

The AI has had another much appreciated upgrade: on the higher difficulty levels, players will actually play aggressive one-on-one defense instead of just playing zone defense by default all the time. That being said, your opposition has had the same upgrade too, so trying to do your Bobby Orr end-to-end runs or your Alex Ovechkin 1-on-2 rushes is going to end badly.

All of the game openings have been pre-recorded by Ed Olczyk and Doc Emrick in the NHL on NBC graphical format. It certainly makes the uncanny likeness that we get in the other franchises look pathetic/sad in comparison. To go with the openings, all of the in game scores and clocks use the same format as the broadcast – very cool! Although I won't lie, I will still keep looking for the toggle to switch it to the Hockey Night in Canada mode instead.

Similar to the other EA franchises, we get the Hockey Ultimate Team where your participation in the mode earns you collectible cards to fill your roster. With the roster of all minor systems being incorporated into the mode, you get quite the array of talents to work with. If you play for any appreciable amount of time, you will always fill the team with NHLers but you'll feel a twinge of sadness in having to demote a youngster to your minors (a.k.a. the deck). Winning earns coins, coins buy cards, hopefully some of which are better than what you have on your roster which will ideally improve your chance at winning… et cetera. The time investment in just trying to build some semblance of an NHL caliber team will be significant, unless of course you want to pony up some of your own money of course.

Speaking of modes, you'll be in for a bit of a surprise when you go looking for some of your favorite ones… they may not be there.

For me, the loss of the online Team Mode was the most tragic, as it represented my favorite weekly game with my work colleagues. Needless to say the off-color-commentary being spewed out was easily more than half of the fun. The other missing modes read like a wish list: GM Connected, EA Sports Hockey League, Season Mode, and a ton of others. We're missing the 3 stars at the end of game too? Seriously?

Some of the modes that are included are practically lobotomized.

The Be A Pro mode starts you off with an NHL team on the day 1 roster and you can choose you own shifts. Huh? And you can't skip to your shift… double huh? The GM mode has been so pared down, it has a fraction of the actions that we've had in the past, taking much of the minutia out of your hands. Practice mode has you skating on a fresh sheet of ice doing shoot-out practice against a goalie… and that's all. Team customization and player customization are absent this time also; you lack the options to build your teams and correct player scores that you disagree with.

EA has promised updates for the end of October to fix some of these modes, and re-add some of the features that we expect but to release a seasonal hockey game without a season mode couldn't possibly be more insulting to your fans. At this point, my gut feeling is to say leave NHL 15 on the shelf for now. Pick it up in a month's time if you have to have it, otherwise wait until next year until a completed game is released.

- Tazman
Follow @EmpireArmchair

The Good:
- Exceptional look and gameplay
- Love the new game openings with Ed Olczyk and Doc Emrick

The Bad:
- Seems like we are reverting from previous versions – less modes, less options for playing the game how you'd like.