NHL 17 Reviews
NHL 17 is a solid return to form for the series finally adding back many of the features that were removed at the start of the generation, but it never does anything to take strides forward.
EA Sports has three different sports titles under their belt.
The NHL series' gameplay continues to impress in NHL 17, but with only incremental upgrades, it feels like a game we've played before.
When compared to NHL 15, NHL 17 is miles ahead; when compared to NHL 16, it's incrementally better. That's the EA Sports way. There are some new features and improvements, but nothing mind-blowingly innovative. That's perfectly fine. There's a good hockey game at the core, and a lot of options on the periphery. That's all we ever wanted.
NHL 17 has some real strengths, but it still feels like it hasn't quite made it out of the previous generation. The gameplay is strong but increasingly dated; the feature set feels haphazard, and there are lots of niggling quality-of-life issues. It feels more and more like the series is stuck in a rut, and it's hard to say where EA Canada should take it next. For now, NHL 17 is another decent outing, but the next step remains elusive.
NHL 16 saved the franchise from utter ruin, but NHL 17 shows you just what developers who love hockey can do when given ample time to work on a product. This year’s result is polished and bursting at the seams with care and love. With more modes than you can shake a stick at and niggling bugs of the past destroyed — I couldn’t find a single glitch over a marathon play session while preparing for this review — this is the best version of NHL to date. Grab a copy, some beers and a friend and show each other what you can do.
The actual affair of playing hockey is more exciting than it's been in years.
NHL 17 has everything in place to separate itself from the other sports titles with only a few cracks in the ice keeping it from a perfect slick.
NHL 17 has some real strengths, but it still feels like it hasn't quite made it out of the previous generation. The gameplay is strong but increasingly dated; the feature set feels haphazard, and there are lots of niggling quality-of-life issues. It feels more and more like the series is stuck in a rut, and it's hard to say where EA Canada should take it next. For now, NHL 17 is another decent outing, but the next step remains elusive.