EA Sports finally brought back EASHL, and they touted it as the top "new" feature for this installment. Through ten games or so I can say it's great to have the mode back in the game, but there are some rather odd decisions EA made that I still don't quite understand. First and foremost, why aren't we able to edit our height and weight? If you're offering a "realistic" and "dynamic" game, how come we can't even edit our player's height? I love to be a power forward but I'm definitely not 6'3/215lbs, but now I'm restricted to being a certain build based on my player type, opposed to the old games where you could edit your player limitlessly. I get that they don't want 5'7 enforcers or 6'11 snipers, but maybe just implementing a more strict height/weight limit for each specific player build might've been a better idea. Also, I've noticed that the A.I. is still pretty terrible thus far in club, especially on defence. I can't count how many times my d-men have got caught behind the net in a daze before they're ran over and stripped of the puck, or where they simply turn the puck over for no apparent reason. I get that the A.I. are supposed to be inferior in this game mode but EA should at least look into making them have a little more hockey I.Q. In the bigger picture however, I'm just glad they brought back the mode so I can finally play NHL with my friends.
Aside from the addition of EASHL, not much else is new around here. They've added mascots that dance around behind the opposing net all game, and they've brushed up on some of the arenas around the league, but all of that is off the ice. I want a better on-ice game. I still feel the skating technique is off, but I can't quite put my finger on which aspect of it needs to be changed, it just doesn't feel smooth, or like skating. Also, poke checks are massively over-powered thus far (as they were in 15 as well) and EA needs to look into nerfing the poke check and focusing more on staying with the puck carrier and playing the body more on defence. I've had no issues with the goaltenders thus far, other than the new controls are a bit wonky. I'm a fan of the new precision pushing system and the pad slides with the right stick, but pressing L2/LT to go into butterfly and L1/LB to hug your posts still hasn't caught on for me. The new quick dekes are neat, but nothing game-breaking. For NHL 17, I hope EA focuses more on the on-ice portion of the game and less of the off-ice part. An authentic looking arena is nice and all, but if the gameplay itself isn't up to par I don't really care.
No new changes to Hockey Ultimate Team for the most part. You still feed in loads of money in order to get a good team, the only difference is there is no longer duration cards for player boosts, so in other words you can't train prospects to be high overalls (well you can, but for one game only), so the likes of Connor McDavid will still be valuable for the name, but they can't actually do much. It seems like you get more in packs these days however, as I've only bought a handful of jumbo premium packs aside from my starter packs and have actually pulled some decent value players such as Darren Helm and Brandon Saad. Working the market is still the best way to get coins, as I've started from around 20,000 coins and now have worked my way up to around 150,000 coins in just three days by playing the market.
I haven't really dove into Be A GM mode yet, but the new features look promising with player morale being more of a factor in this year's instalment. If the loading times aren't as painfully slow as last year and the player progression improves, it looks like you could be spending the majority of your time on this game on this mode (as usual). While it's nice to see EA make some improvements on Be A GM mode, I'm still waiting for the return of GM Connected, which will probably be the "new" feature come NHL 17/18.
Don't bother with Be A Pro, you still can't sim to your shifts, have fun sitting on the bench for four minutes in between shifts!
Still no soundtrack? Come on.
While the re-addition of EASHL brought some new life into the game, EA Sports' NHL 16 still fails to meet the grade of its' predecessors. The gameplay isn't far off of NHL 15, and there's nothing groundbreaking about the game that would put it far above the last instalment. It's a shame that amongst EA's array of great sports titles that they still can't figure out how to get NHL up there with the Madden/FIFA games, funding is the main reason but even back in the early 00's they had the same budget and produced some of the best hockey games ever. If EA Sports can go back to its' roots and find what made their older games great, maybe it will have a broader fanbase and a more enjoyable product. For now, it's back to the drawing board.
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