Not much since last season
NHL 22 is out since October 15th and I have to say it does feels like a rush job, for those who owns the NHL 21, this new season adds the XFactor, which is actually the abilities that you could purchase with points, so no major addition there, but not only does the game does not provide much more, but it also cut corners. In the NHL 21 in the be a pro mode, while you are sitting in the dressing rooms after a game, you would get the radio commentator get calls and he would exchange with the callers, after playing over 10 games this season, the radio announcer received only 2 calls, but every games he would say let’s go to the phone lines, only for the game to go quiet. Also removed from the games, whenever a player scores a hat trick on home ice there are no more hats being thrown on the ice, yet the commentators claims so. Speaking of the commentators, the lines are exactly the same during the games as they were for NHL 21. Beside the addition of the Seattle Kraken as a team and updating the teams rosters, this version of NHL feels more like a DLC than a full game. EA Sports makes enough money on the games and the in game purchases that they should at least introduced the capability to send a picture and would generate you player.
For review purpose, the game was tested on a PlayStation 5, the game is available on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series.
This game is cold, not because it is played on the ice, but because, you feel like you have been left outside in the cold after spending your money on it. Having the same team represented on the cover does not help, at least they could have used the picture of Andreï Vassilevski the winner of the Conn Smythe for the 2021 season. The very few changes applied to NHL 22 does not warrant a full price, Here’s hoping EA Sports sends a few free goodies to the game owners to make amends.