Each year, EA releases a new version of their sports franchises, and NHL 21 is the latest to come out this year. NHL 21 has Alexander Ovechkin as the cover player, with EA wanting to take a cue from his outgoing personality to try and bring it into this game. When Alexander Ovechkin burst on to the scene, he helped change hockey and the way it's played at the top level. Knowing this is what's supposed to be the game's inspiration, NHL 21 is effectively a massively disappointing clone of the last few years with only a few new features to create some momentary, but fleeting, excitement.
Some new features that NHL 21 is touting are the revamped Be a Pro mode, HUT Rush, and some new player moves like slip dekes and "The Michigan" lacrosse goal. Putting those shiny new features aside and looking at the game itself in all its soul-crushing glory first, it is, quite simply, a clone. In saying all of that, if the original copy is broken, then each subsequent copy will be equally, if not more, broken, and that's the case here, as the NHL series remains stagnant throughout another year.
NHL 21 has enormous issues with how an enjoyable hockey game looks and should feel on the ice no matter the difficulty level. For example, in Be A Pro, playing in All-Star mode, there is no moment where multiple opponents are not breathing down players' necks, stripping away pucks that no player should have any right doing in the NHL. If players manage to get lucky enough to cross the blue line, the action in front of the net is the same as a rugby scrum with no room to make any plays. Another example is breaking out of the defensive zone, which should be a simple pass from the defenseman to the waiting forward in the slot to move to the neutral zone. It's an action so simple that NHL players, and even amateurs, can basically do it in their sleep - but it becomes an impossible task from the easier Rookie to challenging Superstar levels.
In keeping with the Be A Pro mode, playing each game feels like a mess where players continuously bump into each other, and they never generate any speed to make a play. In All-Star and Superstar levels, it should feel closer to an actual NHL game. When players break out of their zone, they have no purpose. When players are on the offensive side of the ice, they circle a lot, but not to a particular spot. If the game wants to highlight Ovechkin, his ultimate signature move is the one-timer from his office at the top of the left circle. This one-timer play is impossible to execute in NHL 21 with any consistency. Even while on the powerplay, this play, and others like it, are in the realm of fantasy to achieve because there are no lanes to pass, and pucks always magically end up on an opposing stick no matter the tactics used to get away from them.
More problems arise when players use the right thumbstick to hold the puck away from their bodies. When this happens, they stop skating. Nowhere at any time in the NHL will players stop skating with the puck away from them. Jaromir Jagr made a career out of holding the puck away from his body while still moving, and the NHL 21 AI should learn from him. Not skating causes opposing players to take the puck away effortlessly, and there is simply no way to make any plays. With the passing being atrocious - based on aiming the left stick and R2 buttons - this means, like NHL 19 and NHL 20 before it, passing is a guessing game hoping the pass makes it to the right place. After playing the Franchise mode and simple pick-up games, this problem becomes even more evident in all difficulty levels, beyond just Be a Pro where it is most exacerbated.
Electronic Arts wants players to focus on the tremendous new moves in NHL 21, but pulling off something like "The Michigan" was an effort of massive trial and error spanning multiple days only to do it once successfully. NHL 21 has successfully sold itself as a game with some fantastic moves in it, but barring some hardcore players, no one will bother to do them because of the effort required. As for slip dekes, after learning how to do them, there was never any real use to using it in the game because fundamentals remained difficult to execute and just keeping the puck moving from end-to-end requires too much focus to really enjoy pulling off anything flashier.
As for the new HUT Rush, this mode is the only interesting long-term feature that could keep players engaged with NHl 21 in the weeks following its release, since it's quick two minute games are enjoyable and the brutal penalty-fest that all the other game modes have doesn't exist here. It is entertaining and can give some coins to help out with regular HUT that previous years lacked, further establishing HUT Rush as the standout innovation in NHL 21. Another new add-on is the conversations between coaches, players, GMs, and agents in Be A Pro that added a different dimension to the game, though this one is obviously more muted in its impact given it doesn't directly influence on-ice play in the same way HUT Rush's entirely new mode does.
The Madden franchise and the FIFA franchise have come under fire lately for creating copies of previous versions, and NHL 21 did the same thing - except its base game is worse than its competitors, so it's even more egregious in this instance. While NHL 21 brings with it some exciting minor features, the game has not made any significant quality of life improvements with these new changes. In NHL 21, there is no soul, and the franchise needs to stop putting out features and create a new NHL game where changing the on-ice product is what sells the product. Dreams of making solid passes that are accurate, no more 55 minute games on the penalty kill, and no more glitch goals remain dreams - but that shouldn't be the case any long, and hopefully NHL 22 is a top-down restructuring of a series that sorely needs it.
NHL 21 is available now on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Screen Rant was given a PlayStation 4 download code for this review.