EA Sports Hockey League is a great idea, but 6 random online players to play coherent hockey is harder than you’d think.
In the upcoming NHL 17, the EA Sports Hockey League (which I will be referring to as EASHL for the remainder of the article) allows you to create your own player and play online with and against real players in real time. You can choose to play any position on the ice, even goalie, with the player you created.
First, we’ll start with the player creator. There are a ton, and I mean a ton, of face models to choose from so you have a lot of customization options. A full spectrum of hair, skin, and eye colors along with an abundance of hair and facial hair styles allow for a wide range of customization.
From there, you get to customize the gear your player uses. You are able to select your player’s gloves, helmet, visor style, stick, and skates from the top brands available today such as Bauer, CCM, Warrior, Easton, and Sherwood. After choosing my player’s gear it was off to the ice.
You are even able to select your player’s number and goal celebration. I selected number 19 and a basic celebration my first time around. More elaborate goal celebrations are unlocked as you rank up in-game.
Once you are loaded into a game, you choose your desired position and player type. Each player type has different strengths and weaknesses and this is made to simulate different player’s styles in the NHL.
For example, Enforcers will be able to hit well but they are lacking when it comes to stickhandling and shooting and Snipers will be able to shoot accurately but aren’t physical and aren’t able to fight for loose pucks well.
There are also a few hybrid classes such as the Hitting Sniper that are a mix of two different playing styles. The Hitting Sniper, for example, is a physical player that can shoot accurately but they aren’t able to defend or pass the best.
The online lobbies pair you with real people who are playing the other positions on your team. Sometimes, a brave soul will even attempt to step in between the pipes but that only happened in one game out of the many that I played and it didn’t end well. (More on that later)
It’s also worth noting that you aren’t able to pick which team you were on and they were randomly generated. I played right wing for the Anaheim Ducks and center for the Pittsburgh Penguins. (Unfortunately)
As far as gameplay goes, EASHL has the same controls as the other modes and plays the same with the only difference being that you control your player only. Now, having actual players play all of the positions on a team sounds like a good idea on paper, but in a game, it’s a different story.
It was really, really difficult to play a coherent game of hockey. Not one of the players on either team were thinking the same thing strategy-wise and it was hard to get anything generated.
The game was also interrupted about every minute or so for a penalty of some kind, so most of the game was spent on either the power play or penalty kill, or because someone went offsides and both teams would have to face off again.
Without knowing who you are playing with or having a mic to talk to the other players during the game, playing EASHL is a guessing game in regards to strategy and what your team is thinking.
Everyone who owns NHL 17 and decides to play this mode isn’t guaranteed to know a lot about hockey either so frequent penalties and bad plays won’t be uncommon until they figure out what it is they’re supposed to be doing.
Once and only once did I play with a user-controlled goalie. Usually, no one had the desire to step in goal as they knew that the final score of the game would largely depend on their performance.
This game was unique as it was the only time I have seen a real or fictional game of hockey reach 11 goals. That’s right, eleven goals were scored on this user controlled goalie. To make matters worse, no one wanted to play goalie for the other team so it was a computer goalie versus a real player.
For reference, the computer goalie allowed only two goals in total. If you have an actual player play goalie for your team, you’ve basically been shot in the foot before the game has even begun and there isn’t much you can do about it.
Overall, I really enjoyed playing EASHL. There isn’t much to be done about the hockey knowledge of your teammates or whether or not you have a real goalie but other than that, the mode itself is promising and provides a more social aspect to NHL 17. Y
ou are able to play with friends so if you have enough players to fill the positions on the ice, it can turn into a social event much like MyPark in the NBA 2K series. That sort of thing is exactly what the NHL franchise needs to compete with other popular sports games.
Next: Tampa Bay Lightning To Play In Four-Team Rookie Tournament
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