NHL 21 Has Been Released - Share Your Impressions with the Community
Just got the game a few days ago and so far it has been a good experience. I play exclusively offline and I will compare it to NHL 20 where I had great sliders and played the game year round. I will solely focus on gameplay.
What NHL 21 does better
1) neutral zone pressure is real, you will be hounded and you just cant waltz in, it was ok in 20, because I had my sliders create sloppy hockey, but this is definitely a significant upgrade.
2) Less ping pong passing, and the cpu ai will carry the puck more instead overpassing to enter zone which sometimes happens in 20.
3) Board play is better, more frantic, less suction.
4) Goalie animations took a step up.
5) Skating animation more fluid.
What NHL 20 does better
1) Defensemen are more involved on offense. They join the rushes more, take a lot more slapshots and the cpu ai forwards would from time to time suck in defenders down low and then pass back to the point for a one timer score. Dmen sometimes even have a breakway , this aspect the series finally got right last year. In 21, unfortunately it took a step back. Less slapshots, less joining rushes, and I still havent seen a one timer from the cpu dmen. This so far has been the biggest flaw of 21. Nhl 21 cpu dmen however do not over pass which is better than 20, but as a whole 20>21 here.
2) Goalies while having less animations were more lifelike and balanced in terms of save choices. One example is the stick save to corner animation. It was also present in 20, and it was used more appropriately ( slow low risk shot, clear path long distance shots) in 21, it is sometimes used too liberally. 5 hole goals were incredibly done in 20...side to side passing and quick shot bw legs.
Both games score very high in my eyes, but I will play more games to decide the clear winner.
Edit: played 4 games in a row just now and cpu dman didnt take ONE slapshot. I have dmen shot tendency at max at team strtegies. Hopefully slidets can fix this but if this is hard coded, it is a definite GAMEBREAKER in terms of gameplay.
Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports
Just got the game a few days ago and so far it has been a good experience. I play exclusively offline and I will compare it to NHL 20 where I had great sliders and played the game year round. I will solely focus on gameplay.
What NHL 21 does better
1) neutral zone pressure is real, you will be hounded and you just cant waltz in, it was ok in 20, because I had my sliders create sloppy hockey, but this is definitely a significant upgrade.
2) Less ping pong passing, and the cpu ai will carry the puck more instead overpassing to enter zone which sometimes happens in 20.
3) Board play is better, more frantic, less suction.
4) Goalie animations took a step up.
5) Skating animation more fluid.
What NHL 20 does better
1) Defensemen are more involved on offense. They join the rushes more, take a lot more slapshots and the cpu ai forwards would from time to time suck in defenders down low and then pass back to the point for a one timer score. Dmen sometimes even have a breakway , this aspect the series finally got right last year. In 21, unfortunately it took a step back. Less slapshots, less joining rushes, and I still havent seen a one timer from the cpu dmen. This so far has been the biggest flaw of 21. Nhl 21 cpu dmen however do not over pass which is better than 20, but as a whole 20>21 here.
2) Goalies while having less animations were more lifelike and balanced in terms of save choices. One example is the stick save to corner animation. It was also present in 20, and it was used more appropriately ( slow low risk shot, clear path long distance shots) in 21, it is sometimes used too liberally. 5 hole goals were incredibly done in 20...side to side passing and quick shot bw legs.
Both games score very high in my eyes, but I will play more games to decide the clear winner.
Edit: played 4 games in a row just now and cpu dman didnt take ONE slapshot. I have dmen shot tendency at max at team strtegies. Hopefully slidets can fix this but if this is hard coded, it is a definite GAMEBREAKER in terms of gameplay.
Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports
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