We’ve been lacing up our skates and starting fights (mostly starting fights) in EA Sport’s latest hockey offering, EA Sports NHL 15.
We’re massive fans of EA Sports NHL here in the office, so you can just imagine how excited we were to get ours hands on a copy of the latest edition to the franchise – the 26th edition, in case anyone is keeping count.
Like most EA Sports NHL fans, the very first thing we decided to do was choose our favourite team and start an exhibition match, for the sole purpose of starting a fight. We did. It was epic. The fight controls are the same as NHL 14, but if you’re not comfortable using the sticks you can always change the settings back to buttons.
While the fighting is merely a ‘mini-game’ to give you a break from the fast paced action on the ice, knocking several shades of shite out of your opponent is still one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game. It’s the little things that make this game pretty damn good in JOE’s opinion.
With that in mind, if you absolutely smash an opponent with all your might then his helmet will go flying off and he’ll be left skating around hatless until his shift is over. If you manage to stop an opponent’s rocketing slap shot with your stick then it will break in two and your player will have to make his way over to the bench for a new one.
You’ll also notice the ice wearing down over the course of a game. These are things that you might miss if you’re not really paying attention, but the minor details in the gameplay make the overall experience all the more enjoyable.
You can easily change whether the small quirks happen or not and how often via the settings menu, where you can also change just how simulated or arcade-like you want your hockey experience to be, along with the complexity of the buttons.
Not only has a lot of thought and effort gone into the action that’s being played on the ice, but off the ice too. The crowd animations has been given an AI update, which makes them look a lot more realistic than previous versions of the game and now you’ll see fans smashing on the glass as their favourite (or least favourite) player skates by, while others will jeer the away team players who have been sent to the penalty box.
Unfortunately, there’s no team play online this year, but you can still play ranked and unranked matches, as well as playing with your Ultimate Hockey Team which is comprised of all your favourite players.
NHL 15 scores a 10/10 when it comes to aesthetics and watching the slow-mo player-controlled replays really gives you a feel for just how realistic the game has become over the years. However, die-hard hockey fans might be left a tad disappointed with the lack of options available to them outside of exhibition mode.
The Practice mode was a tad disappointing as it’s just you versus a goalie, which gets painfully boring after a short while unless you’re using it to figure out the buttons. If you want to take your favourite team and play an entire season with them then you’re going to have to start the GM Mode instead of a simple ‘season mode’. While that was a tad annoying, it wasn’t that big of a deal and the GM Mode is actually quite fun once you get into it.
In fairness, we really liked playing normal matches NHL 15, so much so that it has remained in our Xbox One for an entire week without being swapped out, not just because we love starting fights in the game, but because it’s exactly what a hockey game should be: fast paced, hard hitting and thoroughly enjoyable when played versus the computer or one of your mates.
You can pick up your own copy of NHL 15 on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 & PS4 in all good retailers and on easports.com.
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