With the puck dropping on the NHL season in just a week, EA has released its annual officially-licensed NHL game with NHL 24. While the series hasn’t made the greatest of strides in recent years, a solid amount of updates have been implemented into this year’s release. The core modes do remain with the focus being on its CHEL mode along with Hockey Ultimate Team, Franchise Mode and the other options that have carried over from previous versions. While some of the changes are welcoming, plenty of legacy issues remain with the latest game along with some bugs, but still a solid game of unfortunately familiar hockey.
The biggest changes to NHL 24 do occur where it matters the most: on the ice. The development team at EA Vancouver has introduced the Exhaust Engine, which adds a new layer to the gameplay. Individual fatigue meter for players can now be viewed across any game mode as this helps lead to a great discrepancy of play. Players can take advantage of fatigued opposition as this also takes into effect the new Sustained Pressure System. This meter will build by holding possession inside the opponents blue line while taking shots and commanding the offensive zone. It does take a while to build this meter, and is mostly attainable during powerplays. When this meter is full, there’s a stark difference in gameplay. Your team is faster, smoother and more responsive as they simply take over the game. It’s a huge payoff that doesn’t occur a tremendous amount of the time, and this can be largely due to the aggressive defensive AI in the game.
The new Goalie Fatigue System means that goalies are also a part of the fun. Goalies will become fatigued when tracking the puck as the pressure mounts. This amounts to more desperation saves that can make or break the pressure moments. The overall experience with these pressure systems isn’t overwhelming, and there may not be enough time dictated to fully take advantage of this. Goalie play still remains inconsistent as some easy goals have gone across the board while other goals were stopped with full on pressure. The new changes to the goalie system has neither reduced the number of goals in the game, nor increased them.
Some of the changes that are more common to see come in the next three elements. Physics-Based Combat allows for new checks that will impact player stamina, which of course, plays a bigger role in the game. If it knocks the wind out of the player, they stay down for a good bit of time. To counter, the amount of stamina player has combined with momentum allows for varying execution of checks. Players can also simply disrupt plays by putting a body on a player. This is with either shoulder or hip checks, and the hip checks look beautiful. Glass is also prone to breaking, but there’s inconsistencies to the checking, which may be due to the new control scheme. The checks are executed much more beautifully in NHL 24.
Total Control is the new default control scheme that takes over for the skill stick. This means the face buttons make a return for pulling off moves on offense, or pulling off checks and defensive moves on defense. There was an adjustment period for landing checks on defense as I had to time the animation and couldn’t just spam the button. Once this was timed, landing hits was satisfying. As for the offense, for those wanting to pull off lacrosse goals for years and couldn’t, it’s now mapped to a button along with toe drags, between-the-leg shots and one-handed tucks. The issue I had with this, which also was more or less an adjustment, was pulling these off and actually aiming at the net. Lots of times, it would just shoot the shot twice after pulling off the animation. Players are still able to deke and spin with L1/LB and adjust the stick movement with the right stick.
Passing has always been frustrating as a good portion of the time the puck didn’t go to who it should have, at least I thought. This is now alleviated with Vision Passing, and it’s one of the best aspects added to the game. Simply holding the left trigger allows for icon passing, but this will only work for normal passes, not saucers. This helps when setting up in the offensive zone as well. Players still have the option to play without utilizing this or the Total Control scheme, but these are the real differences to the previous game as this more or less bypasses the issue without addressing them.
The A.I. remains on aggressive overkill at higher difficulty levels, even on Pro. They’re just faster and more aggressive than your team and can score at will. Sliders help with this, but this has been the case for a while. While you’re fighting to change momentum, the A.I. seemingly is able to cut on a dime, take the puck, pass with ease and score. It remains frustrating and players will need to adjust sliders and mix with the difficulty to find the right amount of opposition. This also makes taking advantage of the Exhaust Engine nearly impossible, but it could possibly come with time. There’s also a fair amount of bugs experienced this year as opposed to the past. One of the goals to accomplish in HUT was accomplished, but it didn’t register. Twice, there have been players laying in the ice, but they weren’t actually there.
The presentation remains unchanged despite adding new color commentator, Cheryl Pounder, who chimes in every once in a while. She replaces Ray Ferraro and will team with James Cybulski, the previous commentator. The scoring overlay is the same with the same AR stat segments. Dynamic Rink boards have been introduced to show useful information around the boards. There are some more stats including accomplishments and upcoming schedule. The major issue I have with this is that these remain so short that you can’t actually get immersed into the atmosphere the developers tout so much. It’s like being rushed out of a restaurant. The pre-game introduction is officially six seconds. All the lighting and atmosphere is immediately chopped off and you’re thrown into the action. If you watch playoff hockey, you know that broadcasts like to set the tone and that takes time and pacing. The updated replays and goal celebrations do look awesome and detailed, so kudos to that. I believe EA still has the ESPN license, though, and the NHL is back on ESPN, so it’s hard to say why we’re not getting this in the game. Cybulski does bring energy, but the entire pacing through the games is almost disrespectful. No player introductions, no three stars, nothing to actually showcase what makes the NHL the NHL is here, as the focus remains on the microtransaction modes and not on the offline modes.
Franchise and Be A Pro are mostly unchanged outside of the ability to hire and fire coaches in Franchise. Tournaments are an option along with the Expansion Draft, so at least the developers don’t remove modes and add them back later. Everything that has been introduced in recent years is still here. HUT does introduce HUT Moments, and I don’t get why this is locked behind HUT. Players will have access to classic teams and players to replay moments from players that do reward you HUT items. The HUT Moments are the standout mode for NHL 24 as these replace Live Moments. Some also lock you to specific players, including goalies, and will be updated. Otherwise, players will be starting over to rebuild rosters for HUT, but real-time tracking has been added along with upgradeable X-Factor cards.
CHEL introduces a Battle Pass for the first time as rewards can be unlocked, but there’s also a premium level for this. This is not pay-for-power, but rather cosmetic items. Items acquired here will carry over to the next game. Both CHEL and HUT are cross play with their specific generation, but regular NHL online play isn’t. Drop-in is still an option, but prior to launch and during the trial period, the game still waited for rooms to fill and didn’t actually drop in. CHEL really revolves around someone pausing every 30 seconds and no one ever passing you the puck while your low level guy slugs around and gets beat no matter if it’s EASHL 3v3 or 6v6. Connection during the games was fine, but it also takes about three minutes to actually get into the game, and this was for 3v3.
NHL 24 remains a visually solid title with more detail coming to player faces. The SAPIEN technology didn’t make its way over to this EA title, so the player model builds remains the same. Lighting and colors in arenas stand out the best, but the animations on checks are fluid when executed. Replays do look fantastic when it goes into the vignette mode. Gameplay is still a smooth 60 FPS experience, but I will say the menus trudge what Madden did this year, especially in HUT. The biggest changes to come to the animations, which do shine. The developers did add licensed music during gameplay to add to the atmosphere, and for those brief seconds, brings you into NHL action. No longer will there be some random licensed soundtrack music prior to a faceoff, but rather recognizable music that is heard in arenas. It’s a nice touch.
Closing Comments:
NHL 24 does do some things that make changes to gameplay in a positive way. The checking is improved and going with the Total Control scheme allows for some more simplistic gameplay while netting advanced results. The Exhaust Engine is a nice addition that’s really only achievable to its maximum during power plays as it’s difficult to keep the puck in the offensive zone for two minutes straight, especially with this A.I. being so aggressive and overkill, once again. HUT Moments are the shining mode addition this year, but these classic moments to relive are locked behind HUT thus requiring an internet connection. Otherwise, outside of cross-play for that and CHEL, the rest of the game is mostly untouched and once again feels familiar.
NHL 24 is the 2023 released ice hockey simulation developed by EA Sports. As a yearly upgrade, it brings new players into the rink alongside improved graphics and more realistic gameplay.
