NHL 15

The choice to rebuild from square one on a new engine has resulted in a game that doesn’t necessarily stand up to last year’s on paper, but shows promise when taking into account the track record of EA Sports NHL. In the game of hockey, sometimes you have to make the counter-intuitive decision to take a big penalty to prevent a season-ending goal.

NHL 15 shows a lot of movement in the right direction on the new platforms and is a strong basis to make even better games for years to come.

New engine’s impact on game’s quality is noticeable, but still rather small. [Dec 2014, p.73]

NHL 15 is an episode full of contradictions and choices that have puzzled us. Still, it proves solid as ice, accessible and deep as ever, enhanced by Ignite that seems to have found its raison d'être in hockey games.

NHL 15 lacks all the game modes. It is just an engine update for the coming seasons. [Oct 2014]

Where NHL 15 falls down is with its replayability and game modes. Not only are fan favorite modes missing, but the ones we do get are not feature complete. If you can deal with only having a few modes, then NHL 15 is well worth buying, but the lack of variation is sure to become an issue over time.

It plays extremely well, whether online or offline, proving why EA Sports' long-running series has been the king of the ice for over 20 years. But there needs to be a reason to keep playing, and it's there that NHL 15 falls short and feels somewhat vacant.

Sadly, as it stands right now there is too much missing to make it feel like a complete package.

It still plays a great game of hockey but in losing game modes and features that long-term players will miss, NHL 15 on PS4 is pretty hard to recommend to fans. [Issue#249, p.68]

NHL 15 looks beautiful but behind its face there are some lacking elements. The last NHL game had obviously more modes than NHL 15 has now. It still is a fun game but not the best NHL game to get.

NHL 15 is a promising but lacking premiere on the new consoles. Basic mechanics work great and the new physics engine improves the shooting and skating quite a bit. Unfortunately there isn’t much more to do than shoot and skate since most of the in-depth content is missing. What isn’t missing though is odd bugs and lousy defensive play. NHL 15 is still a good game, but it should have been better.

Taken from within a vacuum, NHL 15 is a perfectly solid hockey title, however longtime fans of the series are bound to be disappointed by the things that they have grown used to over the years that are missing.

The action on the ice is fantastic. It looks great and plays even better. However even with the beauty on the ice there is a lack of substance within the game that makes NHL 15 feel like it needed another year before being released on the new consoles.

If you're expecting a completely stacked, feature-laden game as you've gotten in the past, you're bound to be disappointed and on the phone with EA's customer service department, wondering where the majority of your game content has gone. However, if you're an avid hockey fan, you probably won't mind hitting the ice and taking part in a well-rounded contest of hockey, and seeing what the new visuals and audio have to deliver.

If I were to sum up NHL 15 in one word it would be “disappointing.”

This is not about what hasn’t made the cut into the final product. Sometimes it can be good to start over. This is about what it is there. And this is not enough. This is almost as if in this case EA stands for Early Access.

Gameplay-wise, marginally better and prettier than the last. Content-wise, the worst example in recent memory of the tight-fisted annual sports game model. [Christmas 2014, p79]

An embarrassment for a great franchise.

With the startling amount of missing content, kneecapped modes, and uneven gameplay in NHL 15, either EA Sports isn't giving EA Canada the same level of resources as its other sports franchises or the development team is woefully incapable of negotiating a console transition. If the publisher doesn't care to put a winning effort into its NHL series, hockey fans have no reason to jump over the boards and buy the game.

A game that screams 'contractual agreement' rather than 'passionate creative endeavor.' [Dec 2014, p.83]

NHL 15 is not very good. It’s not whole. But I keep playing, because it’s enough.

The gameplay isn't so much better that it offsets what has been lost. The only way that EA could further annoy hockey fans with this game would be if the company had Gary Bettman personally deliver every copy.

NHL 15 is right to focus on improvements to the gameplay and the presentation, but they aren't nearly good enough to justify the cuts made elsewhere. It dazzles out of the box, but it doesn't take long for the upgrades to feel shallow in comparison to what's missing. Ultimately, NHL 15 feels like a major misstep.

Devoid of many important modes and features, NHL 15 feels incomplete, and will not appeal to long-time fans.

Those simply looking for a great game of virtual hockey will find some enjoyment here, but dedicated players who enjoy digging deep into the various modes EA has introduced over the years will be sorely disappointed.

Considering that EA Sports took an extra year to craft NHL 15, the wealth of missing features here is inexcusable.