NHL 26 review

I’ll admit, it’s been a while since I’ve played an entry in EA Sports’ NHL series. If you’re relatively old, like me, you might fondly remember the days when you could actually get into a fight while playing. Happy memories. Of course, the series has come on leaps and bounds in other ways since then, and if, like me, you haven’t played an NHL game for a while, you’ll be pretty impressed by the sheer number of modes and features that NHL 26 packs in.

Whether you like to play online or offline, NHL 26 has something for you. It also caters for those who want to dive deep into a managerial or player career, or simply enjoy a quick game with their favourite teams. Honestly, the number of modes here is seriously impressive. Though of course, most players will gravitate towards a small number of them. And those are perhaps the ones that EA has put the most effort into improving this year.

Be A Pro, for example, has had a massive overhaul, with a new chapter-based progression system as well as new cutscenes, cinematics and voice acting. The stakes are also apparently raised, with immediate consequences to your choices and actions. Despite all this, however, it still isn’t all that impressive. It’s pretty prescriptive with ho-hum choices to be made, the results of which are laid out right in front of you. You might also be dismayed by the phoned-in voice acting of Macklin Celebrini, though the voice acting on the whole is average at best.

Still, if you want to create your own character and lead them to success, Be A Pro mode proves to be a pretty engrossing experience. Just make sure you play all of your matches, or your hard work might be undone by the computer when simulating.

Another mode which has seen some considerable attention is Ultimate Team, with a new Cup Chase mode being the most interesting new addition. This new single-player mode lets you battle through a mini-season of 18 games, and so it will be of particular interest to players like me who aren’t all that thrilled about playing against others online. Is it enough to draw players to Ultimate Team if they don’t like its card-based antics and microtransactions, however? Maybe, maybe not.

It appears many modes haven’t been on the receiving end of much love, though; if they had, EA would be shouting about it, for sure. Instead, work this year has mainly been put into improving the core gameplay. NHL EDGE data is used for the first time to improve things like player behaviour, for example, and in-game presentation has been improved across the board to make the action more authentic. There are new X-Factors, too, and you’ll notice that they’re now displayed below players when in use, providing more information as you play.

Along with other improvements, such as a new goalie crease system, which includes 81 new animations, NHL 26 certainly offers a fun game of hockey that is authentic for the most part. Being a game, there’s still the odd moment where the CPU goes a little crazy and things get sloppy, breaking your immersion a little, but for the most part I can imagine it’s like actually being on the ice, but in your living room. The experience is highly customisable, too. Multiple control schemes are available as well as difficulty levels. And if you dig into the settings you can tweak even more options until you’re happy.

Is NHL 26 worth picking up if you have NHL 25, or perhaps even NHL 24? Unfortunately, that’s something I can’t tell you. If you haven’t played an NHL game in some time, however, then it will no doubt impress, despite some shortcomings. It might be the same price as the latest EA Sports FC game, for example, but you can just tell that it doesn’t get as many resources put into it – it’s still got a bit of a last-gen feel to it. As hockey games go, though, it does a great job of recreating the hard-hitting, fast-paced action of the sport, and offers lots of ways to enjoy it.