NHL 24 Critic Reviews

An amazing leap from NHL 23, NHL 24 boldly advances the series via new physics, presentation and overall gameplay. A must-buy for any next-gen ice-hockey aficionado.

NHL 24 is definitely a step back in the right direction. The advances in on-ice play make it worth your time no matter what happens. HUT and CHEL continue to evolve for the better and are a good way to grow online play. While there are still some negative spots for the game, this is still worth the price of a ticket to play in the NHL and makes me feel excited for the future.

Hard-hitting, fact-paced, and action-packed. NHL 24 has hit the sweet spot between challenging and enjoyable.

Gameplay updates enhance the on-ice action, and despite some of NHL 24’s touted new features not being new at all, the game’s atmosphere is still electric.

In NHL 24, EA Sports focuses on improving the gameplay experience where it matters: On the ice. The addition of the exhaust-engine, the pressure system and the new controls work in favour of the overall gameplay. Unfortunately, NHL 24 lacks improvements in nearly every game-mode, which makes it hard to give the game a recommendation.

EA Sports NHL 24 scratches the itch for a solid hockey title. There are significant improvements over last year’s title, but replayability, as always is up in the air for sports titles.

NHL 24 remains a pretty solid game if all you’re after is an in-depth hockey game that can be enjoyed no matter your skill level. It may not be worth upgrading if you have last year’s game, but if you’ve taken a couple of years off from the franchise, now might be a good time to jump back in.

With no major changes in the game modes, NHL 24 shows some interesting signs of life thanks to some new gameplay features. With convincing graphics and sounds, which manages to immerse the player in the atmosphere of an ice rink, the matches are quite enjoyable, with a good rhythm and a truly well-thought-out renewed control system. There are still some issues, but those who live on bread and hockey will find a way to have fun.

NHL 24 does do some things that make changes to gameplay in a positive way. The checking is improved and going with the Total Control scheme allows for some more simplistic gameplay while netting advanced results. The Exhaust Engine is a nice addition that’s really only achievable to its maximum during power plays as it’s difficult to keep the puck in the offensive zone for two minutes straight, especially with this A.I. being so aggressive and overkill, once again. HUT Moments are the shining mode addition this year, but these classic moments to relive are locked behind HUT thus requiring an internet connection. Otherwise, outside of cross-play for that and CHEL, the rest of the game is mostly untouched and once again feels familiar.

NHL 24’s new gameplay features reinvigorate the on-ice action, but its collection of unimproved game modes has grown increasingly boring with each passing year.

NHL 24, like most sports games in recent years, continues to stagnate without any significant improvement. While attempting to introduce minimal changes and simultaneously ignoring what players actually want is the main reason why it fails once again to fulfill its potential.

Regardless of the mediocre upgrades to NHL 24’s game modes, I must admit, the on-ice action is a big step forward for the franchise. The new hitting and passing systems need work, but the changes in how momentum affects the moment-to-moment gameplay have injected new life into the series. At the end of the day, I find myself wanting to step back out onto the ice. And that’s more than I can say for how I’ve felt over the last several years.

NHL 24 hits the ice in a much stronger way than NHL 23 did last year, due in large part to the brand new exhaust engine, which strikes a good balance between NHL 24 feeling like a hockey simulator and a fun, arcade-y video game to play with friends. The lack of any changes to Be A Pro mode is once again disappointing, and HUT is still trying to squeeze out every dollar from you, but it's an overall strong package for hockey fans to pick up.

EA Sports NHL 24 adds quite a lot this year around for an NHL game. The Exhaust Engine and Vision Passing are welcome and profound additions to the gameplay, even though the overall balance doesn't feel quite right yet. Beyond that, improvements are slim, especially if you're predominantly playing offline. Be a Pro and Franchise modes see a few adjustments to the micro-transaction-powered online modes. If you've skipped NHL games for several years, you're likely going to enjoy this iteration. If not, you'd better wait another year or two. NHL 24 is a step in the right direction, albeit a small one, but it doesn't justify the full, next-gen price.

NHL 24 puts all of its pucks into the online play basket, so only players who fall into that category will find some excitement this year. The new controls and pressure mechanics leave something to be desired, and the complete lack of offline mode changes is baffling, as are the still incredibly slow menus.

NHL 24 puts a few pucks in the net but ultimately falls short of expectations.

If you don't play the game in online mode, you will cry over the content. There are no new features, so necessary for, for example, Be a Pro mode, still the same animations and dialogues, still the same storyline without flavour.

NHL 24 should be an improvement over NHL 23 in several areas, but in the end it's very minimal. The new pass mechanism adds to the experience and the new animations are also an improvement. At the same time, there are now a lot of owngoals and the scores are often unrealistic. In addition, several modes have almost no innovation or improvement. Do you already own NHL 23? Stay with that one.

Sports games are pretty predictable. From one year to the next, you’ll see one or two sweeping changes and then a number of smaller tweaks, but beyond that, you’ll by and large be playing the same title. By that logic, it’s actually impressive how much EA Vancouver has managed to change this year given how quick its turnaround is from game to game. Less impressive is the implementation of said changes. Selecting your pass targets is a wholly welcome inclusion and a rousing success. The majority of the other changes, particularly the new checking system, leave much to be desired. Why do so many things feel like they took steps backward? Isn’t this kind of problem usually reserved for the dawn of a new generation? What happened?