NHL 23 Review: Gameplay Videos, Features and Impressions

NHL 23 is the second next-generation effort from developer EA Vancouver and second within the Frostbite engine as the hockey series aims to make strides across the board.

Co-cover stars Anaheim Ducks center Trevor Zegras and Canadian women’s national team forward Sarah Nurse resemble the versatility the game strives to achieve.

On the ice, tweaks to gameplay when it comes to animations and overall systems aim to strengthen the accessible-but-deep experience. Leaning into the power of the new consoles for deeper immersion and major items like cross-play functionality headline the effort, too.

Coming off the successful NHL 22 that dove into the next generation first, it's fair to expect NHL 23 can meet some growing expectations, if not exceed them.

Gameplay

Seasoned NHL players will notice right away that this year's game feels different.

Not in a bad way, either. A number of additions in the form of animations, controls and behind-the-scenes strategies help the game feel less like a game and more like the real thing.

There are a number of fresh-feeling animations baked into the experience that make things feel more realistic. Players battling for position or fighting against too much momentum now make last-ditch efforts at shots on goal or passes.

Fans might recall some of Zegras's trick passes and shots and that's the blatant influence. Those sorts of feats aren't easy to pull off, thankfully, making them more special when they do occur. This overall counteracts one of the bigger complaints about gameplay in the past—the removal of control as a player's character stumbles into an unbreakable animation.

It's a little addition in the authenticity realm, but it makes the players and action feel quite a bit more realistic and far less robotic, lessening the gap between video game and actual broadcasts.

Fighting for a puck feels more realistic too, as players can now queue up intended movements before actually getting to the puck. It's not a guarantee to work, but double tapping shoot or pass buttons with the intention of doing so upon arrival is a nice way to give players more control.

Goalies behave more realistically too, in part because it would appear some of the human-only animations now happen for A.I. goalies too.

There are notably more intercepted passes this year, which will take players some time to adjust. But it's more realistic feeling too, as in the past, players could almost thoughtlessly zip a pass right at a defender safely. That's a no-go now, at least more often.

Poke-checking also feels tuned down this year, almost as a balance to the intercept rates. Spamming a poke-check, especially while chasing a puck carrier from behind, often felt overpowered in prior years. Not only does it feel less effective, it costs the defender more movement speed while attempting, which feels like the right way to balance the risk-reward nature of the move by defenders.

One of the game's hopes is that new x-factors remove some of that robotic video game feel, too. The few new skills indeed help flesh out the experience in this manner, though they aren't nearly as important as the above. Still, it's never bad to have more options in the hands of players.

The X's-and-O's of hockey don't go ignored either. Perhaps the biggest highlight is the addition of player roles for power plays, giving players more control of who does what in one of each game's most critical moments. Players can now also control and tweak the actual formation of powerplay faceoffs.

In this area and others, the game also helpfully offers strategic suggestions in response to what the opponent does. Most of these feel natural enough, and while players don't need to use them by any means, it's a nice option to have that makes the game more accessible to all levels of player.

NHL 23 remains a blast to play and hits its end goal with the above improvements. Some of the every-game-feels-the-same against the A.I. has been dialed down as a result and players have more control on the ice, including proper balancing of spammable abilities.

Graphics and Presentation

A year ago, the series made strides in immersion via presentation but left the feeling that quite a bit more could be down with the next-generation power.

That's come to fruition now with enjoyable things like new pregame sequences. They're a fun barrage of colors, noise and creative, swooping camera angles to flex the work put into the experience.

Tops among the upgrades is fun new crowd behavior. The inclusion of glow sticks for each person in the crowd might not seem like much, but it's an impressive sight and true to life. Fans also react much better to the action on the ice, going so far as to pepper officials with boos.

Tack on new on-ice projections and lighting to a game that already looked stellar last year. The neon or otherwise lighting effects splash off the visors, helmets and glass to stunning results.

And that's just the pregame stuff that feels fresh (there's a new Stanley Cup celebration players can interact with too, provided they make it that far). New celebrations in other areas and animations on the bench add variety.

It's also clear there has been a bigger emphasis on lifelike faces and expressions. Whether it helps the game best other sports heavyweights overall graphically is almost impossible to say, but it captures the unique feeling of the sport very well.

Speaking of which, the ice and rink itself would appear to have a major upgrade too. Wear and tear on the most-traveled areas appears as it would in say, a racing game. And ice actually accumulates in those heavy-traffic areas just like it does in a real game, such as against the boards.

Sound design, whether it's the crowd or the actual crack of a stick on the puck or even players getting crunched into the glass, remains top-notch, even if the commentary team suffers from repetitive lines.

And like last year, it's still worth pointing out just how well done the on-screen statistics are as they provide updating info as a game progresses.

Be A Pro, Features and More

NHL 23 nails down one of the most-requested asks of players across critical modes—crossplay.

That sort of thing wouldn't normally go front and center when talking about a sports game's laundry list of modes. But the inclusion of crossplay for same console generations in World of Chel and Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) means quicker and more consistent matchmaking throughout the game's life cycle. HUT auction houses and leaderboards not being shared is a major drawback, but finding matches is quite a bit more important.

In what might come as a refreshing surprise to sports gamers, it's Franchise Mode getting one of the biggest upgrades among the various game modes.

One of Franchise's biggest boasting points this year is merely further player agency in the form of options. That means deeper customization, including the ability to tweak the number of teams and games plus outright divisions and conferences and more, including salary-cap rules.

This is actually a bigger deal than it sounds because a player could, on paper, play a franchise that features traditional overtime instead of shootouts. But even the ability to sit back and just craft a dynamic schedule for the heck of it is a welcome feature more sports games should include.

Upgrades here pair nicely with the implementation of roster sharing online last year. Players can now download a roster and implement it into franchise mode, which offers immense upside as players get to creating historical rosters and sharing them online.

Of course, a big-time mode like World of Chel didn't go untouched.

Some of those presentation additions make it over to Chel as tweakable options for a player's created team. The power to change on-ice projections and pregame items like anthems is a nice touch. That customization carries over to the strategic side too, where players can control details like on-ice tendencies and formations.

Besides that, it's still very fun to hop into quick arcade-ish games of Ones and Threes if not partake in tournaments while going buck wild in the customization department.

Like Chel, HUT does feel a bit grindy when it comes to unlocking things. But there are a bevy of challenges and modes to tackle. And NHL was already a bit ahead of games like FIFA when it comes to team-building freedom thanks to sensible synergy slots.

HUT's two biggest upgrades this year seem to be the addition of the IIHF women’s national team members, playable in mixed teams, and faster reward trees and changing game styles. The latter is a big emphasis of HUT Rivals, though at this point, faster and worthwhile rewards are an eye-of-the-beholder thing.

Still, rewards directly tied to wins and win streaks makes for a nice incentive to keep grinding, and the new modes mix in well with the old to keep seasons feeling fresh. Maybe the low-key best addition that won't make a ton of headlines is the ability to control matchmaking within certain skill level and connection quality restrictions.

Continuing a long-running streak, NHL 23 remains out in front of other sports games thanks to its heavily diverse set of difficulty and control options.

Conclusion

Last year felt like the biggest leap the NHL series had taken in a long, long time, largely thanks to the new consoles and Frostbite engine.

This year feels even bigger.

There's no sophomore slump here for the series, to say the least. The gameplay remains a blast but has ironed out some of the spammy issues and wrestled control away from animations and put it back in the hands of players.

As expected, the game has no issue leaning into the power of the new hardware for a second year in a row to offer the biggest immersion leaps we've seen too.

NHL 23, then, stands alone as the best release in the series to date, with plenty of room to keep improving a nice exclamation point on a good example of what an annual installment should be.