NHL 23 Review: Two strides forward, several back

EA Vancouver has polished its yearly title in some aspects and dulled it in others.

The black sheep of the EA Sports family, NHL is the low-budget, low-resourced franchise that speaks to Canadians and lovers of the sport alike. Long standing (or is that suffering?) fans of the franchise have seen it all, from a rocky start onto last-gen consoles, to being left behind as other franchises moved to Frostbite, to eventually getting onto EA’s fancy (slash beleaguered) engine itself.

Like Star Trek feature films, the NHL franchise generally has a good year followed by a bad year; as I’ve generally advised, you can usually save yourself a lot of frustration (and cash!) by sticking to that purchase cadence. A bit of a falter onto Frostbite last year should have meant that this year’s NHL 23 was a must-buy, but I’m afraid I’m left to recommend people pick that up instead of this new iteration. The tradition, it seems, has been broken.

NHL 22 was a solid release, but nonetheless seemed rather soulless — an emphasis on the move to the Frostbite engine meant for better visuals and lighting, but that’s not all that a game needs to succeed. The once spectacular Be a Pro story, first added inside NHL 21, was merely copied over from the last year. AI improvements were noticeable, but so too were the bugs that Frostbite seemed to bring with it. NHL 23 promised more than just a prettier presentation — though there is that too — with new features like desperation moves, more goalie animations, the inclusion of IIHF women’s national teams and a custom franchise mode.

While the new bits and pieces are nice — and the introduction of women’s teams something that should have been done years ago — each addition is usually met with some new bug that cancels it out.

New arena presentations and celebration sequences have been touted by EA Vancouver as a big improvement in NHL 23, and while they’re nice enough, they hardly matter to gameplay. Every (admittedly cool) lazer light show you see in Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena lasts about five seconds, and in launching and relaunching playoff mode to properly capture said shows, I managed to break the game about 20% of the time. When that happened, I wasn’t able to progress and was stuck looking at an empty ice sheet, though a single water bottle sat on home ice and every single spectator in view was in the much-dreaded unanimated T-pose, a visual made infamous by Cyberpunk 2077.

I was admittedly a little shocked as I’d never seen a T-pose within an NHL entry before. Sadly, that changed very quickly.

Playing through Be a Pro on Xbox Series X, I found that the T-pose became a regular occurence after every other segment where the coach calls you back to the bench to challenge you to score an extra goal or hold the line. I giggled, took a screenshot and carried on, hoping it was something that was just plaguing me… though a quick look at Reddit suggests otherwise.

This aside (though my best T-pose screenshot can be found below), other little presentation bits and pieces do make for a better experience. Crowd noise has been adjusted and feels more lifelike, surging and peaking during dramatic moments (and even moreso if you’re playing at home). Scoring a hat-trick and seeing a plethora of hats streaming onto the ice is also pretty nice, though again lasts for scant seconds, leaving you wondering how much development time and effort was put into the animation. Those lazer light shows I mentioned? They’re only applied to a handful of arenas, so don’t expect to be seeing them a lot of the time.

In the same vein, new desperation moves — both shots and passes — and actions like Zegras’ lacross-style moves come up so infrequently in games you’ll certainly blink and miss them. They’re nice to have, just like the introduction of women’s teams and players, but there’s not a lot of fanfare around them. Be a Pro is yet again a copy paste job from 22, and 21 before that; if we weren’t able to get a new script for the regular Be a Pro, would it have been difficult to maybe introduce a second, smaller mode featuring an up and coming female player looking to carry her own national team to glory?

Online play in World of CHEL seems to have been changed, largely, for the better. When it comes to 6v6 play, cross-crease goals defintiely don’t work as often as they used to (and that’s included the clamp down seen in NHL 22). Playing between 80-140MS ping — as is normal for an Australian largely playing against North Americans during their peak times — there still seems to be more opportunity to cycle the puck. As a defenceman, positioning and smart play are key; spam the poke check button too frequently and you’re sure to get burned and left out of play. There’s certainly a meta to be found and understood, so those with their pulse on online play will benefit from the correct grouping of X-Factors and skills.

For that reason, I wish EA would do away with player archetypes and customisation in favour of standardised players inside World of CHEL Threes and Ones modes. I’m a bit sick of being hit by a short yet somehow 100,000,000lb player who can manage to take me out of the play for five to ten seconds just because of a single hit. Threes can be fun, but if you’re playing with those quite happy to take advantage of cheesy loopholes, prepare to be frustrated.

HUT remains HUT, and if you’ve found fun in the microtransaction-laden mode in past you’ll likely again. Otherwise, collect the Achievements to be found within — as again, NHL 23‘s list is basically every list from every year before it — and move on.

Ultimately, NHL 23 feels like NHL 22; it’s just more of the same, better in spots and worse in others. If you’ve given the franchise a miss in the past few years, I’d recommend picking up NHL 22 for a cheaper price; you’ll largely have the same experience as this newest iteration at a fraction of the cost. It’s great to see the IIHF women’s teams — and new female referees and GM models across NHL‘s modes as a result — but it’s a case of a missed opportunity as much as it is an applauded addition.

With EA Sports Football Club set to shake up EA’s football franchise next year, I’m left to wonder if NHL doesn’t need something similar. The handful of small amendments doesn’t warrant the purchase price year on year; are we better suited for some type of live service iteration instead?

NHL 23 is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS4 and PS5.

NHL 23 was reviewed using promotional codes on both Xbox One (secondary) and Xbox Series X (primary), as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.

NHL 23 14 October 2022 PS4 PS5 Xbox One Xbox Series S & X   Buy on the Microsoft Store