Brutally Honest Review of NHL 27

Okay, here comes a brutally honest review of NHL 27 from my perspective.

To be honest, I mostly play offline — mainly Offline Franchise Mode. After I’ve cycled through all the players and the 2–3 rookies you get each year, I switch over to HUT and BAP, although I haven’t tested BAP yet.

So if you mainly stick to WoC and the online modes, you might not relate to some of what I’m going to talk about.

CONNECTED FRANCHISE

In my opinion, this is the biggest disappointment of the year..

I think me and many others got hyped after seeing that the requested game mode was finally back, only to find out that it’s basically 1/5 of an actual mode. Really poorly done.

Sure, if you have 32 friends and don’t care about realism, or you don’t play Offline Franchise, then maybe this is an amazing mode for you.

But this is basically GM Connected without CPU trades, with only one season, no player aging, no changes to OVR, no draft picks and no prospects.

What is the point of trading? There is literally nothing to trade for. There’s no draft, no contract offers or negotiations, no line chemistry, no fantasy element — nothing. BOOM one season and its over.

It’s a really boring game mode. You could have delivered so much better here, and the worst part is that the dev team is standing behind this mode as something new and finished.

If we don’t get meaningful updates and patches throughout the year, this is a complete failure.

OFFLINE FRANCHISE

Well... as expected, nothing new.

A few small adjustments to match the upcoming season and how the league works, but otherwise, nada.

You couldn’t even change the menus or backgrounds. It’s basically the exact same mode as NHL 25, which is really disappointing.

Laggy menus, glitches and bugs.

When a forward gets injured, the defenseman in PP2 4-on-4 is always removed. The same thing happens when you replace a player in the lineup — the player underneath them gets replaced as well.

Small things, but they are annoying bugs that have been around for far too long.

Last season, people were asking here if you could do something about older players, for example Ovechkin and Kopitar, who were playing until they were 45+ years old.

Now Kopitar isn’t even in the game, but Ovechkin continues scoring 40+ goals until he’s well into his 40s.

And we all know what he looks like and how he moves IRL nowadays.

It’s extremely annoying. I literally dropped him down to a medium/low Top 6 role and 84 OVR, and he STILL refuses to retire.

Weren’t you supposed to listen to the community?

Also, Kyle Connor somehow managed to score 97 GOALS in a season where scoring was set to medium, and then low after the trade deadline.

Coaches’ salaries work exactly the same as before. Todd McLellan wanted $8 million in salary. I offered him $4.5 million — literally everything I had — and he accepted.

Wasn’t this supposed to be fixed?

Also from what we have seen this summer with Larkin, Hellebuyck and Werenski with asking for a trade, i would want other options to handle the NTC-clauses. For example, in this game there is no way that Larkin gets moved, or Hellebuyck, you should be able to make an call about an player despite having an NTC.

This game mode gets a failing grade as well.

GAMEPLAY

Okay, gameplay feels better.

But it’s not $100 better. Not even close.

The gameplay feels sluggish, and honestly, it feels like something that NHL 26 could have achieved with a patch.

L2 has been nerfed, but there are still ways to exploit it. Just look at TikTok — people have already found glitches.

Why wasn’t this a patch?

Why wait an entire year and charge people $100 for a patch with no major changes?

And your AI opponents are dumber than ever. Just look at this video: https://youtu.be/ZzA_iIgrCqs?si=G1RS8K2jl3F2tzyS

They dump the puck in on the PP, while on the PK they refuse to dump the puck and instead try cross-ice passes through the slot while shorthanded!? What happened to your NHL Edge technology that was supposed to replicate real-life situations and gameplay as accurately as possible?

Good lord…

People need to start holding EA accountable and stop defending them.

This year feels either incredibly lazy, or there is simply a lack of resources and knowledge behind the game.

Gameplay is better, but it still gets a failing grade.

PRESENTATION

Okay, your big focus and your big selling point — the thing you have presented the most — and something I was actually really excited about.

I thought it was finally about time.

But holy **bleep**, did this turn out badly.

This is something I skip every single time.

Your “updated fans” are absolutely terrible. The graphics are really bad. It feels like NHL 12–13, and honestly, it’s painful to look at.

And the post-goal celebrations — great idea!

But... you shouldn’t implement things like this if you don’t have the knowledge, resources or simply the motivation to execute them properly. It genuinely feels like you don’t care.

Because it doesn’t look good.

Now everything just lags. Hands go through players, players go through players, players awkwardly and stiffly skate back to the bench.

VIDEOS ARE ATTACHED IN THE BOTTOM

It looks so incredibly unrealistic that it’s almost unbelievable.

Jerseys clip through players’ backs and equipment, there’s tons of laggy-looking animation and graphics, and overall the visual quality is just bad.

The arena presentation gets a passing grade.

Goal celebrations and the fans get a massive failing grade.

This is not worth $100.

This is a $10 patch.

NEW BROADCAST SYSTEM

I absolutely love never having to hear Cheryl Pounder again, but you guys dropped the ball a little bit on this one.

They repeat themselves way too much. Whenever someone scores a goal, it EVERY SINGLE TIMEsays, “That’s his first of the game.” Also, when a rookie scores their first-ever NHL goal, it doesn’t get acknowledged properly — it just says, “That’s his first of the game.” The same thing happens in the playoffs.

Also, this has happened twice now: when you score a goal that gets reviewed and is eventually ruled a good goal, the commentators still say that it’s the previous score.

And are you seriously telling me that you made an entirely new broadcast system, but you didn’t add the name of a generational rookie talent like Stenberg?

This really needs to be fixed.

PLAYER LIKENESS & CUSTOMIZATION

Okay, everyone here probably knows that I’m obsessed with face scans and player likeness.

But now I actually wantEA_Aljo​ or someone else from EA, to be held accountable and answer this.

What justifies 76 OVR Seamus Casey getting his face in the game before players like Fraser Minten, Zeev Buium — who just signed a massive contract — Ben Kindel, Emmitt Finnie, OR BECKETT SENNECKE!?!?!?….etc.?

And the list goes on and on.

I DO NOT want to hear “we add everyone we get.”

Answer me this as well:

EA posts on its own social media when players like Filip Bystedt, Porter Martone, Gavin McKenna and Konsta Helenius get their faces scanned...

BUT THEN YOU DON’T EVEN PUT THEM IN THE GAME?

WE HAVE 70+ CONFIRMED AND DOCUMENTED SCANNED PLAYERS,  40 WITH 20+ NHL GAME, AND THEY ARE STILL NOT IN THE GAME

Seriously, what kind of joke is that?

I want a real answer.

Your face scans are still well below the standard they should be at, and this has been a massive failure year after year. You know you will not run out of faces to put in the game? There will always be more.

No matter how much people work, ask, push and advocate for this, we just get slapped in the face again.

Especially now with your new presentation system where players are highlighted up close, with their entire face on screen.

Wouldn’t you think it was finally time to make players actually look like themselves?

But no.

Instead, we have to wait until next year to get another 12–15 new faces.

Maybe by 2035 we’ll finally have complete team rosters with proper player likeness?

And answer this as well:

What is stopping you from adding new face scans throughout the season based on how players perform and develop?

Last year, it was absolutely ridiculous that we had to wait ONE FULL YEAR for Ivan Demidov.

And Also, in the playtest Alberts Smits had an facescan or Generic face that looked exactly like him, please change it back, i beg you, dont know why you changed it.

The facescans in this year’s game ,both the ones currently in the game and the ones you haven’t added , have been getting more attention on social media than ever before, for being bad and for MANY being missing. Maybe take a look and see just how much it actually matters to the community.

And you have also literally created generic faces that match both Trevor Connelly and Carter Bear?? But you still gave them an awful face, really puts things into perspective on how little the dev team care, its honestly sad.

Customization in NHL is so far behind everything else that it’s honestly ridiculous.

Why can’t we change the color of skates or sticks?

Why can’t we edit faces?

Skin tone?

Etc.

Another failing grade.

However, I do want to give you credit for adding the new generic faces.

That was one of several things that me and many others have been asking for, and they are actually well done.

But honestly, it also feels like an easy way out of having to do more.

Still, you did it, and they look good. So credit where credit is due.

But I think there are MANY more people asking for more freedom and more customization.

The technology clearly exists.

Also -

When you remove a player’s neck guard in customization, they still wear it during games. It’s not a huge issue, but it’s something to keep in mind and hopefully fix. There’s currently no way to remove it.

Take some help from the FC team or the Madden team.

Maybe in 5–10 years you’ll be somewhere close to where they are.

I also found a clip from Mbon Hockey talking about NHL 27 that I’m going to include here. I think he absolutely nailed it.

CONCLUSION

I do not think this is a finished product worth $100, not even 50-70$

I think you have taken a step backwards.

I think we deserve better.

It’s been two days and I already feel done with the game.

It’s genuinely sad that nobody else is making a hockey game.

You should seriously consider changing the model to releasing a new game every other year, while updating the current game with roster updates and patches for a smaller fee in between.

This year’s game is proof of why that model would make much more sense.

Thanks. Please pass this alongEA_Aljo​