NHL 24 Strategy Sliders are Extremely Problematic
As an exclusively offline player who mans the net in Be a Pro, I've come to notice a lot of things about the CPU AI decision-making on this game, and I have to say: I find it extremely problematic and frustrating.
As far as I can tell, the AI strategy on this game is top-down. What does this mean? It basically means that the outcome of the game is prioritized above the quality of the CPU's play. For example, when I set the CPU strategy adjustment higher than the BaP coaching and teammate strategy, my teammates play worse rather than the CPU playing better. This may sound like the same thing but I promise you it's not. For example, let's say the CPU begins cycling the puck in our zone against my team's top 2 defensemen... Our number 1 dman (with a defensive awareness above 90) will leave the cpu all alone in front of the net and triple-team another cpu that's already limited to his backhand under double coverage. I repeat, my dman's defensive awareness is OVER 90! It'd be one thing if the CPU found a way to outsmart my teammates and create a high-scoring opportunity, but for a defensive defenseman to make such an unbelievable gaffe just proves that it's about creating scoring opportunities for the CPU rather than making them smart/skilled enough to do it themselves.
I've also set my sliders the other way around and to nobody's surprise, the opposite happens. If my BaP Coaching strategy is set higher than the CPU's, the CPU tends to skate directly into the middle of the ice and forcibly turn over the puck in completely avoidable situations. And my teammates magically become smart enough to dump the puck or pass it in transition rather than skating into the CPU like a chicken with its head cut off. It's mind-boggling how many times the CPU or my teammates stickhandle into the legs of the opposing defensemen without even trying to deke them out or pivot. Nearly 70% of offensive zone entries come to a stop due to these kinds of turnovers.
All this tells me is that the AI in NHL 24 is about as intelligent as a peewee hockey player who just started playing 6 months ago. I watch real-life hockey games and you can see the pragmatic approach to the game by the way they calculate and make decisions. It's very obvious that professionals in the NHL can anticipate the outcome of a play ahead of time and make the right decision by either pivoting, dumping the puck, chipping it in or passing/shooting it with decent timing. Then you play NHL 24 and have to see the AI turn the puck over by skating into the middle of the ice or passing it to a player that's getting lined up for a career-ending bodycheck.
I get that hockey is a fast sport and it's hard to make decisions efficiently every single time, but for God's sake, I really get turned off to the whole experience when I have to nerf the CPU's AI just so my teammates don't triple team somebody in the corners and leave the CPU wide open for a tap in goal 3x a game. The most irritating part is, if I set my teammate's AI to 3/6 vs the cpu at 2/6, my team wins 75% of the games which is extremely unrealistic. But if I invert it and set the cpu to 3/6 and my teammates to 2/6, we end up losing 75% of the games. And with both set at the same difficulty, 75% of games go to OT where we either lose with 1:50 left, or lose in a shootout because I'm so bad at them.
I've had this game for maybe 4 or so months, and I'm not even halfway through my rookie season because I just can't force myself to play a game because of how painfully predictable it is. Does anybody else have this problem or is it just me?
