REGRESSION

EA has a history of removing features only to re-introduce them as new years later. In some cases, to simplify the annual copy and paste job that is a hallmark of all of their sports titles, features are abandoned forever despite what the community actually wants and is asking for.

Fully Customizable Loudouts

Although EA is slowly rolling back the system for players to create custom builds, it is still no where near as flexible as it originally was.

Initially you had a player type and attribute points to allocate however you see fit. Certain archetypes (Playmaker, Dangler, etc.) could not top out specific attributes without a heavy cost but the choice was still completely yours to make. No X-Factors, no boosts, no bullshit. Just additional points after progressing throughout your career to improve your build. How it should have remained.

In an attempt to close the skill gap and be more inclusive, EA has overcomplicated the player creation process and introduced game breaking mechanics in the form of boosts which make the game full of exploits and bug manipulation.

These inclusions make fixing exploits without breaking the foundation that the game is built upon a massive overtaking. An example of this in NHL 26 is how the new implementation of X-Factors has broken the stick checking that worked so well in the previous installment.

Build Anonymity

In the past, outside of the base archetype and their height and weight, a player’s loadout was hidden from the opposition. 

This allowed for a much more authentic gaming experience. In real life you do not know to what extent a player on the opposing team has prepared.  The only indication of where their individual strengths originate from come from their in-game performance. 

Build anonymity created a larger skill gap by not allowing your opponent the access to your individual playbook which also made mastering custom loadouts a much more rewarding process.

Celebrations

Being able to gang together multiple celebrations in a row offered a layer of customization and control that is key to a rewarding game loop. There is nothing more emersion breaking than a cutscene immediately after a goal is scored.

There is a time and place for cinematic intervention and EA has lost its way in terms of when and when not to implement them.

The older generation remembers a time when we could point at our teammate after scoring with a quick up tap on the right stick as if to say, “nice pass, buddy”. Or even better, pointing at someone in the front row right before slamming into the boards in front of them.

GM Connected

A multi-player franchise game mode has been absent from the EA NHL games now for over a decade despite an outcry from the community. NHL 14 was the last entry to offer GM Connected.

Until it is re-introduced into the game, one might assume that its absence would likely be due to how it might reduce the amount of players that engage in Hockey Ultimate Team and the cornucopia of micro-transactions that come along with it.

TV Style Broadcasts and Presentation

EA’s NHL 19 was the last game to feature a full NBC broadcast and since then the franchise has fallen short of delivering a convincing replication of a hockey game as it is delivered on television.

Furthermore, presentation has been reduced to green screen graphics and unrealistic animations and cut scenes. This culminated recently into the “Grudge Match System”, a series of immersion breaking cutscenes and random boosts that nobody asked for, nobody wants, and nobody likes.

Go even farther back in time and you still see teams skating out of the tunnel, stretching and warming up, and lined up to hear the national anthems before the game, all while graphics display statistics of impact players and team comparisons.

Custom Gameplay Cameras

The last EA NHL game to feature the ability to create fully custom gameplay cameras where you could adjust the zoom, height, and angle and save it was NHL 14.

There is a wide variety of gameplay cameras to choose from currently but removing the freedom to tweak and modify these is decision that baffles the mind, not unlike many that are being made by the developer today.

Custom Plays and Playbooks

For offline modes, being able to design a playbook and create shortcuts to call for them during gameplay was a way to course correct the issues with CPU logic the has plagued the EA NHL Franchise.

This feature, alongside a ton of others, was killed off with the release of NHL 15 and has never been reintroduced back into the series.

Conditional Matchmaking

Even at the risk of higher search times, the community has been begging for the return of conditional matchmaking options in EASHL which included “Match Club Size” and “Match Goalie”.

Speculation leads to believe that the removal of these options was to improve search time average during low population scenarios but has only increased the amount of pre-game back outs which has made the process of finding games that meet the requirements of two clubs even more time consuming.