NHL 24 features a ton of minor tweaks and changes from the previous year, adding up to one excellent experience.
The biggest change for this year’s NHL game is the new presentation features. The game offers “in the moment” experiences along with new camera angles and player visuals on the ice. The addition of dynamic boards is honestly one of my favorite things. It isn’t too distracting, but having key stats and different information on the boards instead of filling up the screen itself is awesome. Having them change dynamically with moments on the ice is also great.
NHL 24
Developed By: EA Sports
Platforms: PlayStation 5 [Reviewed on], Xbox Series
Release Date: October 6th, 2023
Visually, all the aesthetics of NHL 24 are absolutely stunning. So much so I wish they were in charge of TV presentations for real-life games. A lot of stats show up under players, on the ice, on the boards, and within face-off circles, but it’s never too distracting nor overstays its welcome.
While a majority of this leads to some great new direction, one drawback is the newly introduced goal celebration view. Every time you score—except for shootouts—the camera will cut away awkwardly, the arena lights go dark, and it spotlights your character doing a special celebration. A majority of the time it doesn’t flow with the rest of the game. I could understand maybe doing this during high pressure moments like a game winning goal or a go ahead goal after a massive comeback, or maybe even a hat trick goal, but every goal is a bit excessive.
Worse, the celebrations cannot be skipped, which slows the game down a lot. I would have preferred it if these flowed a lot better. Some of the celebrations flow great into the action, but many of them are cheesy and choppy. For example you score and see your player organically go to his team to celebrate, but then it cuts to just him doing some obnoxious celebration, then cuts back to him celebrating with the team. It would be awesome if they were more team oriented too, instead of pulling the player out, since hockey celebrations typically include everyone.
There’s one more minor gripe that I hope gets updated at some point. While the game does an absolutely fantastic job of getting you into the action visually, they kind of forget the importance of the audio. I would absolutely love it if, during intense moments (or key points of celebrating), the announcers would simply shut the hell up!
I don’t mind them for the most part, as they add authentic touches, but there are moments where it’s a bit too much. I scored a game winning goal once, and the announcers attempted to talk the ENTIRE time with useless information triggering. I would much prefer them to be quiet or simply say “we will step away for a minute” and let the crowd roar and players yell at each other. Of course this also means the players need voices too, because for some reason they are like Disneyland characters with no voices.
That being said the new camera angles are epic, and they get you right into the action. Outside of the celebrations, the camera does a great job of moving around and putting you at ice level to get right into the action. The sweeping moves, the close up, the panning, it is all done extremely well and feels very authentic.
The game also does a great job of making each sheet of ice feel unique…but some of the teams’ rinks get a little obnoxious. For example the Dallas Stars logo bouncing around the ice doesn’t feel as clean and focused as other teams. It’s very flashy and fast moving, and really distracting from the game itself. But otherwise the presentation does a fantastic job of keeping you in the moment, with lights focusing on faceoffs, and other very slight, but noticeable changes.
I’ll say it again this year though, as a Coyotes fan I’m disappointed that Mullet Arena is once again ignored. Love it or hate it, I wish the Coyotes arena at the very least was called the correct name instead of “Arizona arena.” The goal horn was at least used, so that’s a step up, but even the howl seems to be mitigated.
One of the bigger changes for NHL 24 is the addition of a new exhaust system, which in my opinion isn’t anything too new. I’ve always felt the games had a system in place where the AI would randomly have intense pressure and somewhat handicap you if you didn’t hold the puck. The exhaust system feels like they just finally slapped a label on it, but at the same time added the ability to track it, along with stamina gauges to assist.
Basically the longer a team remains in the offensive zone, their pressure gauge will build. The more it builds, the more amped up they get and the faster the defending player’s stamina decreases. There are already a few ways to cheese this by playing “keep away” in a sense, but overall it works well.
My only issue is the focus on offense with the new system. I wish more specific plays increased the gauge a little more, but I also wish it transferred to other areas of play. For example killing a penalty, or exiting the zone early and creating an odd man rush should instantly fill the gauge. The defense should get stamina boosts for player specific saves, like a goalie making repeating saves or a defenseman clearing the zone. In fact taking random pot shots at the goalie seems to be the most effective way to fill the gauge.
However these are improvements we could see in the future, but as it stands it’s a really good system that I enjoy. The fact that the AI was randomly getting boosted before with no sense of knowing why was so frustrating, so at least now we have the ability to see that the attacking team is about to be crazy.
FINALLY, passing was improved!
The biggest change I’ve noticed is passing, and my god it changes the game in a massive way. Last year I noted that while passing was overall a decent upgrade, it still had issues with passing in the wrong direction or past players. The new system organically targets your teammates on the ice, and lights them up with specific buttons on the controller when you look to pass. So instead of just aiming in their general direction, you can select the specific player you’re attempting to pass to. This sets up box offensive attacks, and breakouts so easily that this simple change drastically improved the game for me.
While it took some getting used to at first, the game does a good job of aligning the players on the ice with the buttons on your controller. You easily get a sense of how to correlate the two very fast. And there is the fact that you can still pass on the fly. So if you prefer the aiming and passing structure you can still do that, but then also blend it in with more precise controls.
The game does a fantastic job of being “body aware” too with a new physics based system. So if you’re skating full speed up the ice and attempt to pass through the defense, it’ll lead to an awkward take away. This goes for checking too, as the game does a solid job of allowing players to avoid body checks, or skate around players. You can’t just smash into players all the time, and having good control of your stick is essential.
More importantly it adds a new drastic change to how the game is played because players falling out of position, getting hit, or missing hits can take them out of the play. For example, crunching into a player could ruin an offensive attack, or missing your check in your zone could lead to an open man as you stumble around the ice.
World of CHEL isn’t my favorite thing in the world, so I spent very little time here, but overall it seems to have changed a bit in terms of unlockables. Instead of loot bags, you get…. You guessed it, a season pass. So at least you know what you’ll be unlocking, and it’ll take a ton of your time, but I suppose it’s better than the random loot we had before.
Overall the loot seems to be extremely arcade-ish though. Fans can design their teams to be anything but hockey players with flashy new animated sweaters and gear, and one of the unlockables in the first season is a literal beak for players. I understand they need to bling players a little more than colored sweaters, but it’s so flashy that the authentic feel of the game is entirely lost when you see this. That combined with seeing season passes makes me automatically lose interest in most games made me just stick to single player modes.
Other game modes are mostly untouched. Franchise mode has added a lot more minor things to assist in running a team, with a new layout to access various areas. One thing I noticed is the assisted coaching in franchise mode feels moderately better than before (or maybe I just have better coaches) as it was making good overall decisions with my team without me noticing. My biggest gripe is some of the biggest players of this year were not available yet as they haven’t technically played in the NHL, but are expected to (Doan and Cooley for example) so I have to delay really diving full steam into the mode until a roster update releases.
The game brings back something I haven’t seen in a while though with HUT moments. This is a game mode where you can relive key moments in history like winning goals, 100th career goals, shootout victories, etc… It has over 50 moments to start and more are expected to come soon. It’s cool for a quick gaming session, or to relive a moment from your favorite team.
