A Look at the State of NHL 22

On October 15th, 2021, Electronic Arts released their latest entry in their NHL franchise, NHL 22. It is the 31st entry into the mainline series and the first to be developed for the new generation of consoles, the PS5 and Xbox series X. To market the game they have shown off several new features that have been added to improve the experience for the players. 

The first feature is the new Frostbite engine. Previously used in the Electronic Arts soccer series FIFA this upgraded engine allows developers of the NHL series to make players look and move more realistically. Along with the improvement to the look of the players, it has also improved the look of the arena with the glass now reflecting as it would in real life, snow shooting up from the ice when a player makes a sharp turn, more realistic lighting, among other small improvements that make the game more visually pleasing. 

The second feature advertised was the Superstar X-Factor. This feature was also brought over from another Electronic Arts series, this time being the Madden football series. Split into six different categories: Skating, Shooting, Passing, Defending, Goaltending, and Hockey IQ, the Superstar X-Factors allow the unique skills of NHL superstars to shine against their peers as they do in real life.  

These features seem to make for a great game on paper but is that translating to a fun experience for the fans?

“These new features are cool for a minute but at the end of the day it’s the same old boring game,” said Noah Ashford, a longtime fan of the franchise

The general player base seems to agree. NHL 21, the previous NHL game has an audience review score of 2.5 out of 5 while NHL 22 only has a score of 1.9. While the general player base believes that NHL 22 is a worse experience than NHL 21, the most trusted game review site does not agree, IGN has both games rated as a 6 out of 10. Good but not great. 

“I actually really like the new features, the game looks and feels better. My only problem is that there’s a lot of technical issues, I can’t even count how many times the game has frozen or crashed on me,” said Eric Anderson

This is a problem I also encountered while playing the game. In online modes, there are awkward pauses after almost every goal and a decent chance that you are disconnected from the game as a whole. In offline modes, the game deals with stability issues as something as simple as entering the NHL draft in career mode can cause the game to crash.

Overall fans seem to not be enjoying NHL 22 as much as other entries in the series, whether that be because of a lack of innovation with the gameplay or simply because they can’t enjoy the game without experiencing glitches and crashes. I wonder if Electronic Arts will make updates to the game to improve the experience for the fans or simply wait to make changes for the next game in the series. I guess we will simply have to wait and see.