While it holds up some similarities to NHL 20, there is enough to go into the rink, lace up your skates, and hit the ice.
Ahhhhh…It’s that time of year. The leaves are crisp, the air cool, and EA is having you your skates and telling you ‘GET OUT THERE IT’S TIME FOR THE LINE CHANGE!!!!!’ While the Stanley Cup was hoisted in September, NHL 21 hit the ices in the fall and is ready for you to take your run at Lord Stanley’s most prized possession. While surface wise, it looks like the ‘carbon copy’ of last years ‘really great game’ of NHL 20, NHL 21 brings so much more to your experience.
Just from the get-go, the game hits at a whole other level. The intro on Ovi and his climb/influence he’s had one the league was honestly pretty touching (even as a Flyers Fan) and seeing that made me hyped to get on the ice. Hoping in and playing through a few quick play games was a blast to start off. Getting a feel for the game was pretty smooth. It feels similar to last year’s game, but that’s a-OK. Puck movement up ice is fast and fun (plus they added the Lacrosse goal which is cool), backchecking and defensive play are better than ever. Going back up ice and fighting off the AI was a fun challenge as they never felt too overpowered when going one on one. That was the overall feel with AI though. Nothing they really did paly wise felt as dominating as it did in years past. Playing was challenging, but it was a motivating challenge and fun to figure out how to overcome them. After dominating the Blue Jackets in a 6-1 win (sorry Jen) I jumped into my Be A Pro mode and man was I excited.
I’ve always dreamt of being a goalie in the NHL. When your 5 foot 5’ that will never happen though. Be a Pro has always been close to me as a hockey fan, but it never has been fully fun. Prior years were never exciting and intriguing to me, at least not for long. They were involved at first but would just fall off in interest. Play a few games, maybe get hurt, then stop playing it for a few weeks and get back into it. This year is a completely new world. You have so much more interactivity with your career. You’ll actually interact with your agent, coaches, and other teammates and it’s so much more inviting and fascinating to a player. The full character customization is still mostly unchanged (again, nothing wrong with that) but just the actual ‘story’ you write and create for your character is is wide open and so thrilling. It’s what Be A Pro has needed for a while. In prior years it brought you in but never kept you coming back. Now with these additions it honestly gonna keep me wrapped up and wanting to play more and more.
The HUT and HUT Rush modes are also enthralling to go through. Now, I’ll fully be transparent in I’ve never been the biggest fan of HUT modes. They’ve just felt like a lot of work for something that I’ve never been into. I’ve played them in the past, but never have put a lot of effort into them. Now in NHL 21 though I think I’m hooked. The ability to build a team of your dreams with any jersey, arenas, players is addicting to me now. HUT Rush makes it even more fun as it’s a ‘quick play’ for Hut modes that allows you to jump straight into games. Having full control over the team, and building up to get the legends I watch replays of is honestly pretty freaking cool.
Visually, not much has changed gameplay-wise, which for the end of the console generation is fair. However, seeing the same ‘MAKE SOME NOISE’ banners in an arena since NHL 13 kinda leaves me frustrated at times. We’ve made such gains since NHL 15 alone but we can’t change a banner and the scoreboard graphics? That being said, the HUD and menus all are upgraders and feel a lot better visually in turn to last years. The Be a Pro menu gets kinda clunky and overwhelming at times. It’s great that it gives you a lot of info (stats, character info, calendar, etc) but it gets cluttered and can be lots to take in at first. Main game menus are better and while holding the normal style/info as last years feel way better and color palate wise makes it a cool layout overall.
So yeah it normally viewed as the ‘yearly roster update’ but NHL 21 is honestly so much more. The Be a Pro mode is enough of a reason to pick this up. While it holds up some similarities to NHL 20, there is enough to go into the rink, lace up your skates, and hit the ice.
