NHL 25

Outside of some subtle AI and graphical tweaks, NHL 25 seemingly took a year off in advancing the series. It looks and plays slightly better, but struggles to cope with its new much slower speed identity. There’s just nothing here screaming ‘first day purchase,’ but – while very similar to NHL 24 – remains a solid offering.

With NHL 25 EA Sports delivers another enjoyable ice hockeygame. Thanks to the solid presentation and overall fun gameplay, players will have a good time again. The NHL-franchise is stagnating and the lack of real innovation and the well-known pay-to-win-mechanics within Hockey Ultimate Team hurt the experience immensely.

EA delivers on a truly dynamic, next gen hockey experience in NHL 25, but neglects the modes that bookend the package.

Being the first sports game exclusive to PS5 and Xbox Series, we should be more demanding with this one. Despite being solid technically, it´s not amazing, but it´s enough to satisfy hockey fans, although its lack of new functions.

Quotation forthcoming.

For being the first current-gen game in the NHL series, the result is bittersweet: there have been undeniable steps forward in both graphics, simulation and gameplay, but the same cannot be said on the content and mode side. EA Vancouver probably needed more courage and time to come up with something new: for now, NHL 25 still remains a prisoner of its glorious past.

NHL 25 is a good game. Don’t get me wrong. The work and progress that the team has put into this year’s release shows itself. There have been a lot of quality-of-life improvements to the in-game product that make me feel good. To me, this feels like the first time this has been as close to real as possible. There are a few things that feel out of place, but overall the improvements are there. However, I just don’t know if this is enough of a step or leap forward to justify it for the average NHL fan or game player.

NHL 25 is a solid hockey game bolstered by improved AI and small incremental improvements, but its changes don't feel as substantial as other titles in EA's lineup.

NHL 25 makes some minor strides to improve on last year's game, but will mostly appeal to those interested in team management and being a superstar forward. As a franchise, it continues to wait for a top draft pick that can turn things around in a meaningful way.

It’s time EA Sports pivots towards not just enhancing aesthetics but also developing genuinely impactful gameplay systems that resonate with players across all modes. As it stands, NHL 25 offers a glimpse into the future of gameplay possibilities but remains rooted in familiar flaws that prevent it from achieving its full potential. The hockey community deserves better than a surface-level upgrade; they deserve a game that respects the intricacies of the sport and the dedication of its players.

NHL 25 is a good game when it focuses on hockey, it’s when microtransactions come into play that things become tacky.

The new NHL installment once again tests how little it can offer for players to still consider buying it. Innovations are sparse and not always implemented in an effective way. It’s still fun hockey—but unfortunately, it’s the only hockey. So, why try harder?

NHL 25 is yet another addition to the series that feels familiar. While it serves as a relatively complete simulation of the popular sport of ice hockey, this title fails to introduce anything new or address the longstanding issues that have plagued the franchise for quite some time.

EA Sports NHL 25 fails to deliver on the promises it sets in the new features that EA swears are improvements. It's another example of an entry into an annualized sports game series that doesn't feel like it's doing anything differently from the last year, but at least in this case last year's (and by default this years) game is fun to play.

This review has certainly gone off the rails but, in my defense, it’s my eighth one and I’m shocked every year that I find a new way to say the same thing. Yes, everything that EA Vancouver added is cool or nice or awesome but, no, it’s not enough. I know it’s not the developer’s fault, and I genuinely feel bad for them. They seem like hockey nuts, like the rest of us, but it’s not my job to pat anyone on the back for delivering patch-sized video games at full price just because their boss sucks. It’s actually my job to call that out, but hopefully one of these years I get to gush over a fully updated, feature rich game that doesn’t pick one mode to care about each season.

There’s no denying that the action on the ice looks better than ever in NHL 25, and it’s nice to see Franchise Mode get some welcome changes that help it feel more authentic for those interested in the sim experience. But when I look at this year's entry as a whole it's quite lackluster, with very few meaningful mechanical changes that ultimately just leave it feeling like more of the same as last year. For being the first NHL game available exclusively on current-gen consoles, it’s a shame that NHL 25 is still stuck in the same last-gen rut.