NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community

[hyacinth1]

Players models look a little bigger on default cam.

[Qb]

Played one game last night on AS/10/Fullsim, Rangers @ Penguins (me). I tried to stick with default settings as long as could but only made it a few minutes before I had to drop game speed (always my preference for offline so no surprise). Played the rest of the period with it at zero. Still seemed very frantic to me. I know the argument is hockey is a fast sport, but it's not played out of control, and that's how I feel about this series at anything close to default settings.

First period ended with me up 2-0, shots like 15-12 in favor of NYR and the CPU pass % was 97%. Can't say I ever saw that before and while things didn't feel good, it didn't seem THAT ridiculous while playing. I scored on a cross crease setup off the cycle and a pretty cool PP goal with the second unit. Kapanen took an awkward shot under pressure from the slot/left circle and it turned into a perfect pass to Zucker crashing backdoor for a tap in past an outstretched pad.

Started making other sliders adjustments from the second period on. I haven't played much over the past few years, but when I do I can tell there's a decent game to be found with heavy slider adjustments. Unfortunately I don't have the interest or patience to get to that point anymore. I saw some encouraging AI behavior like better puck support, including during board play (I like to pin) and more pressure in general - although I think the game is too "scrambly" considering how structured play is these days.

Or maybe I'm just getting too old... They do like to say hockey is a young man's game.

Edit: Oh right, I won 5-2 after jumping out 4-0. Kind of sat back in 3rd and CPU cranked up strategies to aggressive before I added an ENG to close it out. Shots were way up, maybe 47-35, although I felt like I couldn't hit the net to save my life with any slappers or even wristers from farther out. All my goals were in tight, 3 passing and one shot for rebound on the rush.

[ChaseB]

Think the new moves create some opportunities for fresh gameplay online, which is nice. I still don't have much interest in checking out offline (sans the new BAP stuff and trade deadline ish) but I think online could be more interesting this year.

[Elite Virtual Hockey]

Your experience was pretty similar to mine. Only had time to play 1/2 a game so far, played default full-sim just so I could get a base of what needs fixing this year and if I'm up to the challenge of fixing said issues. I think this game is a much refined version of 20, but if I were a software developer, 20 -> 21 feels more like a beta -> full release than say a full v1.0 -> v2.0 like we're being charged. If you're a big simhead/slider guy like me, the game definitely has a lot more to work with than 20, but I think I'll wait till a sale on this one.

Pros:
1. CPU pressure - NZ doesn't feel like WWI no man's land. Not to say it's great, but even a moderate improvement in this area feels like a HUGE improvement. To this point, CPU uses their stick a bit more which makes zone entries somewhat dynamic rather than painfully repetitive and easy.

2. CPU Offense On the Rush - making moves, felt a little more dangerous than last year. Your AI support the puck more (could really only go up from the last few years lol) and they read lanes a bit better on the rush.

3. Skating - Just seems more refined. Not a drastic difference, but you can definitely feel it in a good way imo.

4. I actually like that you lose a fraction of speed on pivots when going to your 180. Makes jump and chase more viable, but you'll see that pain-point on this later in the thread.

5. Goalie animation - As a IRL goalie, always like seeing improvements to these. Might not be huge, but it is much more immersive if you even remotely pay attention to the position.

6. Shooting - Again, a little more fluid. Not worth an upgrade if you're a casual, but just looks and feels smoother. Basically patch-work which is rather annoying as a player, but I'll take it.

Meh:
-New dekes - The CPU rarely plays anything dangerously/realistically enough for dekes to ever be a huge factor offline. Online, I see these helping mitigate the 0-5 trap in 6s so the sweatyboiis will probably make more use of them than me, but they're not required and more detrimental than anything offline.

Cons:
1. CPU Offense (CPU and User) When Setup - In-zone offense is still atrocious. CPU opponents ping-pong pass, CPU AI teammates still don't understand cycling nor dynamically creating passing lanes/space. Powerplay is still laughably bad and I literally have zero enjoyment seeing special teams in this game.

2. CPU Cheating - The CPU opponents still don't adhere to most things the user has to. They don't lose speed on pivots, they can cancel animations mid-animation to "one-touch dump" on the PK. Another year, same garbage.

3. AI Teammate Defense - They still can't even remotely be relied upon making the most fundamental off-puck reads for you which allows the CPU opponent much more time, space, and options than it should. They aren't as quick to sprint away from their positions to "cover" for the user which is nice, but they're still equally as bad at reading plays/scenarios that humans would, so it's a marginal improvement at best.

4. Default sliders in general - Another year, another awful meta of sped-up super-sonic hockey. Good luck to those brave enough to go online lol. Brutal.


Final Thoughts:
Will hold my attention for the 10 hour trial. I will attempt to make sliders again that I like. It is a much more refined NHL 20 which is very noticeable in many subtle ways if you played 20 as much as I did, but won't move the needle if you're a casual fan. The foundation is much better if you're willing to put in the work with sliders and strategy adjustments from what I can tell. That being said, this is an underwhelming experience (which is pretty high up on the scale for this generation) to top-off what has been an absolutely abysmal generation of hockey games. I've been playing video games since the N64 days and there's never been a console generation that has lacked a truly fun, addicting hockey game that you just want to keep playing and playing...until now. This game requires hours of work and a huge imagination (I'm weird, I know) from only the most passionate of hockey fans to get it to a state where it's salvageable, and even then it wouldn't be after awhile because NHL 20 would just completely ignore your sliders whenever it felts like! I'm interested to see if 21 is the same in my testing, and if it is, I can guarantee I'll stay far away.

If you weren't willing to put in that work on 19 or 20, or if you're a more casual hockey fan who would only play this game a bit to get a hockey fix now and again, stay far away from a $60 purchase. Wait till the inevitable sale if you really want 21, or just play 20 and punt till next-gen. This game is just straight-up arcade even on "Full-sim" OOTB and there's not enough here to warrant slider tinkering if 20 and 19 couldn't convince you to start down the slider rabbit hole.

[CarryTheWeight]

Here's hoping they ironed out some of the issues regarding player scheme fits.

I found, playing NHL 20, that fictional draftees tend to make certain scheme traits obsolete after a few years --- for instance, after all the real-world prospects were drafted, I couldn't find any defencemen with "hold line" or forwards with the "efficient" trait.

(I also think some of that may have to deal with the strength of my scouts, because in my Kraken expansion franchise in 20, I drafted an offensive defenceman whom I thought was my long-term solution but ended up having very different traits than I drafted him for --- and my scout was apparently 100% accurate! Ended up firing them after that season and traded the prospect away.)

[bryta47]

Don't buy the game. It's nothing more than a scam at this point.

[iaxy]

After another few games, I can definitely see and feel the improvements. It just looks and plays more fluid. Controls are tighter, there is more respect for real life physics, and the player positioning is definitely better - both on offence and defence.

Granted, this is what NHL 20 should have been, I think it's definitely an improved and polished product.

My only 2 gripes are:

- Game speed is way too fast even at 0 (I play exclusively on True Broadcast)
- True Broadcast is still way too closely zoomed in

If EA gave us the option to zoom out the angle on True Broadcast - this would be a day 1 purchase for me.

[Travolterjohn]

Would say In generell better to wait till January till the NHL, AHL Season starts. Played about 1000 games with 20 in Franchise mode and tried some games in 21 at the test version. There is so less improvement in the Gameplay and the past told us that there is a big difference from the Trial to the final release version but not in a better way. So if you are not a person which easily going to be hyped than wait. NHL, AHL Season starts in December, January. You will get this Game than cheap as used from private.