NHL 27 by developer EA Vancouver and publisher Electronic Arts—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Jim with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 18 minutes.
I have been a hockey fan for as long as I can remember, thanks to my babysitter, who was a huge hockey fan in the 90s. I watched games on TV with her; it almost didn't matter which teams were playing, but it was extra special when her favorite team, the Red Wings, were on. Before streaming, you only got Red Wings games when they played one of the NY teams or the Devils, so it wasn't often, but I was also lucky enough to see the Adirondack Red Wings play before they left the area. Back in the day, I had a Sega Genesis, and I remember renting NHL 95, and I have been playing NHL games since. It didn't matter whether it was EA or another game like 2K in the 2000s; I loved hockey games and still do, but is NHL 27 a step in the right direction?
Right off the bat, in my first quick match in NHL 27, I could tell the presentation has been updated. The arenas look great, and the fans react much better than they used to. One thing I did notice is that when players are waiting to come out onto the ice, the arenas don't look authentic. I have watched enough Red Wings games on TV to know what the arena looks like before the players skate out. For a game advertising authentic arenas, I feel this should have been made a little more like real-life arenas.
Other presentation updates include a new commentary team of John Buccigross and Darren Pang. They are alright, but they lack any emotion. Turns out they used some real voices and some AI. A game being made by EA should not be using any AI at all! No wonder the play-by-play in NHL 27 felt flat to me. The opening team entrances are a good touch, but they were better in older NHL games. They don't talk about the players or anything; they show the players skating out, then show the goalie matchup. It's better than last time, but it still needs some work. For the most part, all of the goal horns seem right, at least for the teams I know, and some goal songs are right too, but not all. I know the Red Wings goal song from last year is "Without Me" by Eminem, but in NHL 27 it's "Party Till We Die" by MAKJ & Timmy Trumpet featuring Andrew W.K., which was the song at one time, just not anymore. I actually prefer Party Till We Die, but it's not accurate like EA is trying to advertise. I also had an odd thing happen: during a fight, "Song 2" by Blur played, and I thought that was really cool, but after that I got into other fights and no song played, so I'm not sure if it was a glitch or something. I also feel the game feels a little slow at times. When you watch a game on TV, these players move really fast, but in NHL 27 they sometimes feel a little slower than they should.
NHL 27's Connected Franchise is this year's big addition, and I got to play it with Nick and PY. It's a fun mode where 3-32 human players can play in a custom league. Since I set up the league, I could choose the season length, playoff format, salary cap, and other settings. We played a short season to see how it works. You can trade players and pick up free agents, although we couldn't figure out how to get one. I think for it to work, each player needs to put in a bid, with the highest bidder getting him. Of course, if you're playing with a salary cap, this will hit your cap. Even though it's called Connected Franchise, I think it would have been better called Connected Season mode because it's missing a lot of what's in the single-player franchise mode. It can still be a lot of fun, though, if you can get a group of friends. One good thing is that you can play games in any order and at any time. I do wish there was a way to watch others' games as a spectator, though, and it should let you add CPU players to a season. Here is what Nick and PY have to say about NHL and this mode.
Nick’s overall thoughts of the game in general and Connected Franchise in particular: So far, I’ve been enjoying my time with EA Sports NHL 27. The presentation continues to be top-notch in terms of the visuals, music and sound effects (even if I’m picking up on some repetition from last year’s color commentators again). It has been a bit crash-heavy for me on PS5 so far in my career mode (three times during my third game) – hopefully that gets cleared up with the day one patch, but that’ll come after I’ve written this blurb. The mode I specifically wanted to share my thoughts on the Connected Franchise mode, which allows a group of players to come together and pick a team and duke it out through a variety of formats. There’s a round robin style (which is what we did), but also more season-like formats of 20 games or the full game schedule even. It’s sort of a strange hybrid between a season mode and a versus one, and the core gameplay is still a lot of fun and it’s a welcome addition to the series, but it feels a bit bare bones for me personally. For one, it’s handled as a single season, so calling it a ‘franchise’ mode feels a bit off, as there’s no season-over-season progression elements like I expect to see in an actual franchise mode. There are however, some options for trading and claiming free agent players that gives you a bit of control over your team and how its structured, which is nice. The ability to play against players and trade with them is a good time. However, compared to something like Madden’s shared franchise mode, NHL is playing catch-up.
For comparison’s sake, Madden lets you have as few as one team or as many as all of the teams in the league managed by human players, and the computer takes control of the remaining teams. It’s a better, truer version of the season as it plays out a season schedule with AI opponents to help fill in the weeks. Conversely, NHL’s Connected Franchise requires a minimum of three players, there’s no computer-controlled teams, which means you are only going to be competing against other human players. Combine that with the single season format and not a true franchise season-over-season progression, and NHL’s offering left me wanting a bit more, despite still being quite fun. It’s a good start for the mode, but there’s room to grow it. Also, hats off to Jim, who won our round robin season convincingly. He absolutely mashed me in our first game and in the playoffs, I held up a bit better, but it was still a solid win on his part. Congrats.
PY’s overall thoughts: It's been a long time since I've actually skated, and probably even longer since the last time I played an NHL game. Growing up I played NHL ‘95, ‘98 and maybe ‘02 was the real last one that I really played? So booting up and jumping into NHL ‘27 was wild for me. Everything felt new, exciting, and like I was at the game. The gameplay options available were impressive as they spanned options for brand new players and veterans to the series alike. Which is a good thing as I had a lot to catch up on before competing against Jim and Nick in the new Connected Franchise mode. And did I ever lose! But that's not the point. I had fun and learned that I have a lot to learn before the next round of competition starts. While I won't have as much to say as the other two, not really playing sports games, I did appreciate the structure and how the new mode in the series was set up. It's all about the players. It's all about an actual connection to the others that join the league as there's no CPU joining the matchup. It's all real people trying their best to come out on top. Everyone has to play everyone else to determine who will go to the finals. Playing against Jim and Nick was tough and damn near nerve wracking as I tried to not get decimated. Which I did. But seeing the stats, coordinating game times, it was neat to progress the season. If there's one thing I would have loved to see is a spectator mode. The option to watch the other games going on in a season instead of just the scores. Especially when it comes to the finals. I could see this mode easily evolving and being a hit for the Fantasy Hockey Leagues. Why wait for the actual season when you can make your own?
I also appreciated the built in chat reducing the need for independent party chats through the PSN or Discord. It was one less thing to worry about. But overall, the gameplay for me? Having been away for so long? It felt welcoming and smooth to pick up. Sure I still have loads of mechanics to learn like Nick's epic snapshots, but NHL ‘27 makes it easy to figure out as I start my own pro career mode adventure.
The single-player Franchise mode is pretty much untouched from last year. I saw no difference. It's still a fun mode that lets you become a team's GM and try to take it to the cup each year without getting fired. There are enough settings to let the CPU handle certain aspects of the team, like scouting and such, that even I can play the mode. The lack of updates to this mode is a little disappointing, though.
Be a Pro is one of my favorite modes, and it got a few minor updates this year. I have been playing the new leadership storyline, where you try to work your way up to leader and become a team captain. This opens up new dialogue options during interviews and similar interactions. The regular season is now 84 games and a 4-game preseason. So minor QOF updates and the leadership storyline are welcome additions to a mode that saw a big update last year.
NHL Threes circuit mode has no changes. It hasn't seen any major update since it was added. I know it's probably not a mode that is played much, but it's still fun and easier for younger players. I wish they would do something new with this mode, maybe a new short-story-type mode or something, because every year I have to be the Fridge Raiders and beat all the NHL teams again.
Next up is World of Chel. I have to admit this isn't a mode I play much, so I don't know if much has changed, but I will tell you about my experience with it. You start by creating a player and picking what kind of player you want them to be. I like playing as a sniper. Most of World of Chel is online. I could only find one single-player mode: a 3v3 match where you and CPU teammates take on 3 players from different NHL teams. I honestly got bored of this quickly. You do earn some points to level up your season pass. Using a season pass for a mostly online mode is a truly awful idea when you can use real money to level it up, making the online games pay-to-win. I played a few 3v3 and 6v6 online games. I honestly didn't like the 3v3 games much, but the 6v6 could be fun; it's hit or miss. If you get decent players, it can be fun. Still, it's a pain when you know you're playing someone who either plays the game way too much or paid to level up their season pass, because this one player was faster than anyone on my team and always scored because he got breakaway after breakaway. It can be fun, however, when you get two decent teams together, and both have decent player-controlled goalies. Chat can be a bit toxic at times, though. I don't see myself coming back to Chel very often, but maybe now and then for a random 6v6 match.
Next up is HUT, although I don't mind HUT. I didn't play much of it last year, so I am not sure if much has changed. I liked HUT; even though it's an online mode, it had enough single-player options to keep me happy. There's Cup Chase, where you play in a single-player 16-game season and then playoffs. The higher the difficulty level you set, the better the rewards, and of course, making and winning the playoffs will give better rewards too. A few things still confused me. You can get and set captain and coach cards, and having certain players from certain teams can boost stats.
There are also salary caps in this mode, with each player costing money, and you can not go over the cap. This is purely gameplay; it doesn't cost real money or coins/pucks. It's to keep the game fair, I think. I was confused by the captain and coach thing; I use the AI to edit my lines to the highest overall automatically. Just like Chel, it's a bit of pay-to-win, as you can use real money to buy card packs and get better players. I do like the HUT Moments mode, where you have to do certain objectives in games most of the time in a short 2-3 minutes, like taking shots with certain players or scoring a certain number of goals. I actually surprised myself with this mode and was able to complete some moments on all-star and superstar difficulty levels! Doing these can give you coins, players, or collectibles that you can turn into "sets" for new, better players. Hut is definitely better than Chel when it comes to being fair, but I wish companies would stop looking for money on top of a $70 game!
There are, of course, the normal online matches you can play outside of these modes, along with a handful of single-player modes like playoff mode, letting you set up your own playoffs for the cup, tournament mode, season mode, and, of course, play now mode. There are plenty of modes here, but I feel like last year they let you play a PWHL season, and I don't see that here. I thought they added one last year, so maybe it'll come in an update, but I'd like to see it. I also really like seeing all the AHL and ECHL teams in the game too!
NHL 27 has some of the best music in years. Every song is a hockey song played at arenas, and when a song plays, it says where it's from, which arena plays it, and whether it's a goal song or a pump-up song. The sound effects are really good too, as they have been every year. If you play it with a headset on, it really sounds like you're at a hockey game. Graphically, the game is good, but some of the players' face scans aren't very good and can look downright goofy. Before an update that came out a day before I wrote this, fans and players would clip into each other, but it seems the update fixed some of the issues. You'll still sometimes see fans or players clip into each other, especially during the fist bump line after a goal.
Overall, I have enjoyed NHL 27, but there isn't enough new from last year to really warrant a full-price release. Everything they did could have been pushed out in an update, and it feels a little lazy. There is also no reason for them to use AI for voicing part of the commentary! NHL 27 isn't the worst game ever, but it is an off year for sure. If you didn't play NHL 26, then 27 is worth picking up, or even if you're interested in the Connected Franchise mode.
Score: 7 / 10
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