Despite my expectations, I actually enjoy the game (with a caveat)

[iaxy]

Preface: I only play offline and only play in True Broadcast camera.

Based on the demo, I was really underwhelmed with the package, which felt stale and open to abuse online.
For the first time in 10 years I did not pick up the game on launch date. As a matter of fact I did not intend to buy it at all.

Since I had purchased the EA Early Access monthly pass for FIFA 20, I decided to try NHL 20 too for the 10 hours of free access.

My first thoughts upon downloading were the same as previous – same old, stale and uninspiring, with just a few minor tweaks.
I hate how zoomed in True Broadcast camera angle is, making it impossible to see much of the ice and having to reduce the game speed to 0 in order to have an accurate representation of the speed and flow of the game. This has been a legacy issue since the introduction of the True Broadcast camera.

I decided I could not tolerate this in a NHL style ring size, but everything changed when I tried the European ring size, which pulls the camera back considerably and allows more of the ice to be visible.
I started a league with Plzen in the Czech league and have been having lots of fun.

The new game features became much more apparent – particularly the seamless puck pickups, where you do not loose speed. The lifted pass is also much more usable this year. Passes from one wing to the other and dump ins are now an added weapon in the arsenal. And I love the new shot animations. Gone are the days of stupid looking shots and contorted bodies, defying physics. The game feels much more organic, the flow – much more natural.

I still don’t like some aspects, like the CPU’s almost perfect pass accuracy (even at pass accuracy set at 0) and the CPU’s ability to magically dispossess the puck form your skater without an animation to illustrate that play. But overall, this is an enjoyable game which pushes you to think and play good positional hockey.

Positives:
+ New puck pickups are a game changer
+ Realistic shot animations
+ More authentic physics
+ Lifted passes / dump ins
+ A greater variety of goals

Negatives:
- A lot of legacy issues
- True Broadcast camera is too zoomed in (no possibility to tweak)
- CPU passing accuracy is unrealistic (especially in the larger European rings)
- Some of the sliders don’t seem to have an effect. I reduced pass accuracy to 0 and did not see a single CPU pass go astray (this is on PRO difficulty)
- Also, in terms of sliders, I want to increase the importance of momentum and inertia. I tried to do that by reducing the back skate speed, thus giving an advantage of forward skating players over backtracking defenders, but this had no effect.
- The CPU seems to be over aggressive on forecheck and too passive in their own zone. Once again, there is next to no pressure in the neutral zone. This needs to be balanced out.

[tjung0831]

I've always wondered why they don't give us the option to zoom out on the True Broadcast camera. That would probably be my main camera if I could scale it back a bit

[Cycloniac]

Quote: Originally Posted by tjung0831

I've always wondered why they don't give us the option to zoom out on the True Broadcast camera. That would probably be my main camera if I could scale it back a bit

Does turning off auto zoom help? Haven't tried that this year

[schlitz73]

Ever since the PS3 generation I went from buying the game annually to just once every few years. I don't feel enough steps are made year to year to warrant an annual purchase. That being said my last NHL game was NHL 16 which was pretty mediocre imo so I was chomping at the bit to finally give the series another go.

I am having a BLAST with NHL 20. I understand if you buy it every year how it seems like little to nothing changes but with a 4 year gap for me the jump is enormous. The sheer amount of modes is staggering and just for lack of time I know I won't get into many of them, namely World of Chel since online play has never been my thing.

There are some things that surprise me after so many years. The game speed like you mentioned it one of them. I also put the speed down to zero because otherwise its just lightning fast and just too much imo. Heck even starting up the game over here in europe I still have to choose my language every single time instead of letting us set a default. Pretty sure that was in there back in NHL 09 so I don't get why they can't do something about that after all these years.

The menus are kinda clunky and ugly so I wish they'd go back to a more traditional menu system. This style is just unnecessary in a sports game if you ask me. Playing a little bit of HUT all the constant swipes with the HUT logo are annoying as hell as it covers your line changes/strategies making it very difficult to make changes as you go. I also don't like the drastic change in the feel of gameplay between some modes. Going from Franchise to HUT to Threes is jarring because each mode plays and feels different. I tried one game of threes and ended up rage quitting and won't go back. And why on earth can we not have fully customizeable faces by now when creating your players?
Why is there only one ref thats been around for 10+ years? Add in a couple more faces to give us random refs. That generic celebration is sooooooo old as well and is identical from NHL 09 even in its stiff and aged animation. I like the slow-mo low to the ice replays but even those get repetitive very quickly. Add in 2 more angles for replays so things don't get stale so fast.

There are other things as well that have me scratching my head but overall the game plays SOOOOO much better than 4 years ago that I'm really enjoying franchise and BaP again. Fleshing out BaP is also a top priority since that was largely ignored from 19 from what I gather but all in all I'm finding NHL 20 to be a really solid title that I'm sure I'll enjoy until 21-22 come around.

The game has made some impressive strides in many areas but is still stumbling over some legacy issues that should have been cleaned up years ago.

[scagwi]

@schlitz73

Good thoughts, thanks for sharing.

I’d probably be willing to try it - if it were on PC

Loving Madden PC this year!
I’m done with buying consoles.