EA Sports NHL 25 Review (PS5) – Annualized sports games can be difficult to review, because there are some years where you simply don’t have a lot to talk about. What can really be said about a new entry that only makes the smallest of changes, if it changes at all?
That’s unfortunately the position I find myself in with EA Sports NHL 25. It boasts changes in animations and its systems that, on paper at least, sound like big improvements. In practice, those improvements (if that’s what we’re calling them) are inconsistently felt, to say the least.
It’s the reality of these yearly releases. Some years we get a version that includes a lot of actual, meaningful changes, or at the very least big swings in one direction that may not totally work out, but do succeed in shaking things up.
Others, we get a game that just feels like it’s not changed at all, save for team roster updates, a new cover athlete(s), and a new number on the front of the box.
EA Sports NHL 25 is the latter of those two, which makes this nothing more than one of those years in the life of someone who plays an annualized sports game series.
EA Sports NHL 25 Review (PS5) – Not A Game Changer
Ice-Q Where Are You
On paper, the idea that an animation system would allow players to respond within to what’s happening on the ice as close as possible to how the actual best players in the world respond sounds pretty great for a sports simulation game.
That’s what Ice-Q promises to be, but it doesn’t make the kind of impact on gameplay you’d expect. Being able to open yourself up to the net at a push of a button is nice, but it’s difficult to feel Ice-Q’s presence in any other aspect of the gameplay.
I still like the Exhaust System introduced last year just fine – it’s not like the overall quality and game feel has gone down, per say. It’s just stayed mostly the same, and the big change EA has touted for NHL 25 doesn’t feel like a big change at all.
Which I find really disappointing, frankly, though that’s perhaps more my own fault for getting my hopes up at the promise of Ice-Q. The players you control in NHL 25 might look the part with the properly licensed jerseys and gear but they definitely still don’t move like them.
Maybe it’ll be Ice-Q 2.0 or whatever further improvements on this system will be called that’ll actually deliver on the promises of this first-generation iteration.
Until then, in a game of the guys I play hockey with Wednesday nights vs. a team of NHL 25’s virtual players brought to life, I’d take my guys every day of the week to wipe the floor with the virtual players, and their unfortunately lackluster set of animations.
Please, Make It Stop
For all my gripes about unchanging gameplay, if NHL 25 did one thing right it would make it a 10/10 game. All it would have to do is have a really good, smooth menu system.
Not this year.
The block-y, slow, frustrating, and just ugly menu system remains. In fact it might be slower than NHL 24, which is a change.
Menus don’t have to be like this. Plenty of games have menus that, even if they’re not perfectly optimized, aren’t frustrating to use. That don’t make you feel like you’re playing a game on a last-gen console, because it’s so slow trying to go from one offline – not even online – game mode to another.
And this is the year that EA Sports games entirely dropped the PS4 and last-gen consoles. Everything is finally all current-gen, or “next-gen”, as the title cards introducing NHL 25’s new features call it, four years and a Pro-console mid-gen refresh later.
Could faster menus in NHL 25 officially become a reason to upgrade to the PS5 Pro? Maybe, but then maybe there are some things that more tera-flops can’t solve.
At Least It Looks Good
And that’s another thing. This is the first year (for all EA Sports games) that PS4 players are left behind. NHL 25 looks great, but NHL 24 already looked great.
Character models for some star players are a little more detailed, though there’s more than a few inconsistencies. In-game Auston Matthews looks like something out of uncanny valley, while Brad Marchand’s model is actually quite accurate. It prompts the same face of disapproval that comes over any Leafs fan when Boston is in town.
Does it really look that much better than NHL 24 that you’ll be able to see the improvements of current-gen consoles? Not as much as those opening title cards would like you to believe, is really the case.
I’m not saying it looks bad – it looks great! I liked the look of NHL 24, and I like the look of NHL 25. It’s just another aspect of NHL 25 that brings the ultimate feeling of this year’s entry to be ‘one of those years,’ as I said before.
I also have to say that as a someone playing on PS5, I appreciate any game that makes good use of the DualSense’s many features, which NHL 25 does. Not everyone may appreciate the controller speaker, but I do, and the many audio tidbits it adds.
Be A Pro-fessional Robot
I’ve done this bit now three years in a row. There’s no material changes to the Be A Pro mode, so I don’t change my sub-heading.
Not that I had my hopes up about any changes. The mode wasn’t even on one of the title cards. I mention it because it’s a personal disappointment every year to see the same stale dialogue options that make your created player sound like a robot.
Maybe it’s a reality of the annualized release schedule, and just a matter of where EA Vancouver prioritizes its efforts. But there’s real potential for a Be A Pro mode that includes a well-structured, intriguing, and entertaining narrative for your player character to follow.
It doesn’t even have to be very long – it can be a few beats played out across a season on your created player’s way to the cup. I’d just like something, anything, that actually tries to capture the drama and realities of any person’s journey from amateur to professional.
Speaking of capturing realities, the “revamped experience” promised in Franchise Mode brought along by some changes to menus and added features get a little closer to what it’s like to be a franchise owner.
The new conversation system however falls into the pile of promises not delivered on in NHL 25, right next to Ice-Q. The writing in contract and trade conversations still falls shot, which also translates into stale conversations with players and coaches that are not just boring to do, but thanks to the slow menus can feel frustrating.
Here’s another place where a more guided approach might be helpful, or at least a toggle for it, rather than switches that just take over functions for you.
Not A Game Changer
EA Sports NHL 25 promises new game features that each seem like they’ll properly shake up the gameplay from NHL 24 for the better.
Unfortunately, this is one of those years in an annualized sports game series where the changes promised don’t feel like changes at all. At its core, NHL 25 still feels like the NHL we’ve been playing for the last year.
Even cutting off last-gen consoles couldn’t do anything to make this year’s entry feel new and exciting. The most that’s really new about NHL 25 is the inclusion of live events for World of Chel that change daily.
There’s a lot of potential in a system like Ice-Q, if EA Vancouver can figure out how to implement it effectively. Hopefully if not next year, but sometime soon, we’ll get that 2.0 version that actually does improve the gameplay.
Anyone who just wants the new version of the game they already accept to be ‘the same’ each year will still have a great time with NHL 25. The gameplay itself is still fun, and it all still looks great.
It’s just not really anything that EA promised it would be. But maybe EA Sports NHL 26 will be, and the cycle continues.
EA Sports NHL 25 is now available on PS5.
Review code generously provided by publisher.