It is a Herculean task to continue to develop and improve a product year after year that already has millions of satisfied customers. It is necessary to make improvements that appeal to new customers without losing the existing ones. Year after year, EA Sports has managed to do this, and the Canadian manufacturer also knows how to inspire with the new version of the legendary ice hockey game.
by Rolf Fleckenstein
In short, the game is much better than last year's version (NHL 16). The players act more realistically than ever on the ice, their movements and reactions are completely natural, and even the audience seems as if you were at a live match. Overall, you have to steer more precisely, which will please experienced NHL Game players, because you can get the feeling as if you were actually moving yourself on the ice. Beginners will be a bit challenged here, but that's where easier control modes will help if you feel overwhelmed. Especially on the higher difficulty levels, the game becomes unpredictable and realistic. Anyone familiar with the game knows that in previous versions, you had to make certain moves to be virtually guaranteed to score, whether it was with a cross to your teammate or a feint to the left and subsequent shot into the right corner of the goal. In this way, you could outsmart the game itself. Especially on the higher difficulty levels this is no longer possible, which challenges the gamer more. The goalies throw themselves into the scene more, the opponents check much more often, scoring a goal now clearly takes more, which makes the game more exciting overall. The goalkeepers in particular are more authentic thanks to the new Reactionary Save Intelligence, as they are able to calculate the opponent's position, angle and shooting situation before firing. The new goal-area duel physics make for tough duels in front of the goal, and never before have you cheered as much after a goal has been scored as in NHL 17.
Player or manager?
Those who enjoy the more precise and realistic gameplay will also enjoy the new game modes. Being a hockey player, playing a team to victory, that's one thing, but how fascinating it must be to run your own hockey club, that's a whole other league again. All these dreams come true with the franchise mode. Here you work as a manager of a club and you have to answer to the owner of the club. You work with a budget, you have to think about sensible marketing measures, set ticket prices, push merchandising, organize player transfers, expand the stadium, and so on. Here you get to know the business of field hockey from a club's point of view in an impressive way. The Arena Creator is also useful as a manager tool, with which you can build your own dream stadium.
More novelties
Other innovations include the World Cup of Hockey, which lets you play for a country or continent in international tournament mode. All official players, teams and jerseys of the Ice Hockey World Cup are available. As expected for Swiss ice hockey fans, you can play with all clubs of the Swiss National League. In NHL 17, the Vaillant Arena Davos, the Postfinance Arena Bern and the Hallenstadion Zurich are now also playable. The visual ice training, the team editor, the new Draft Champions mode, the new HUT synergy (HUT=Hockey Ultimate Team), completely new dynamic HUT sets or decisive career moments are further exciting features of this comprehensive ice hockey game. If you love ice hockey, you will be thrilled by the new NHL 17 game!
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