NHL 15
After opting to skip the first season of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 availability, EA Canada’s NHL team made lofty promises for its first ‘next-gen’ outing, that being NHL 15. However, while improvements to the series’ great gameplay were noticeable, odd feature omissions and a general lack of polish left many fans feeling blue.
NHL 15 could’ve been great, and it’s a shame that it wasn’t. After all, EA had gone on record with the reason as to why it had skipped releasing NHL 14 on the industry’s new-fangled consoles. It stated that the decision was made because its smaller NHL team wanted to learn from the men and women behind both the FIFA and Madden franchises, and would use their experiences to better their debut. Furthermore, it was said that the company wanted to produce the best possible experience, which meant no missing modes or anything of that sort. Of course, that didn’t end up happening, as we all know.
It’d be a lie if we were to say that the core gameplay wasn’t fun, as it was and still is. However, Canada’s favourite interactive sports experience simply felt unfinished. Absent were fan favourite modes like EA Sports Hockey League – wherein gamers team up to take on others in tracked online league play – along with something as simple as a Playoff mode. Add to that omitted shift reviews in Be a Pro, as well as the fact that said mode even exists in the game. In NHL 14, it was replaced by something better, dubbed Live the Life, but that never made the transition.
Glitches were also an issue, but they weren’t the major cause of everyone’s frustration. There’s no doubt that EA needs to work on removing technical, gameplay-marring follies from its titles, but that’s easier said than done. The most important thing that the company needs to do, however, is to value its fans more and not expect them to pay full price for only part of a game.
Here’s hoping that NHL 16 will be better.
-Chad Goodmurphy