Want to use the right stick for more precise control? That is also an option. Want to use just face buttons to perform your various actions? You can. However, give credit where it is due: there are a ton of options and tweaks that can be played with to customise your gameplay experience. Make no mistake that NHL 17 is at its heart a sports simulation game. Player collisions are not as frequent as we see in more arcade style sports offerings, but they are still plenty intense. The action on the ice is pretty intense, with the puck behaving so much more realistically now and it did several years ago. Luckily the 'for better' is still outstanding. There is a little more polish, with some extra features here and there, but at its core we have the same basic game, both for better and for worse. Still, in the grand scheme of things these new additions and tweaks are not huge leaps and bounds ahead of what NHL had to offer last year. The World Cup of Hockey is a nice new addition that is basically the same game, just with a different type of 'season' to it. You pick the ones you think will best fill out your roster and while there is a lot of luck in it, there is plenty of strategy as well. Think of it as fantasy hockey where you get to choose from available players randomly selected for you. The new Draft Championship mode is nice, as it is one of the modes I enjoyed with Madden in the past. These small nuances are certainly nice but not for everyone. Some new tweaks have been added with some more management details for those who like to manage budgets or relocate their teams. You have quick matches, the ability to play online with friends, a franchise mode, a create a player mode, the Ultimate Team (think of it as a card collecting game that they plays out on the ice) are all back and they work very well. All of the modes I have come to expect from over the years are here. The thing is, NHL 17 comes away like an updated and polished version of last year's game, but without really adding a lot of actual meat to the experience. Last year EA Sports managed to right the ship, making sure to include most if not all of the trimmings that people looked for from their hockey game.
The idea was sound, but the series took some lumps that first year as NHL delivered some new physics and player models but somewhere along the way forgot to include many of the modes and features that hard core sports fans enjoyed most. The overall engine was rebuilt a couple of years ago for the new generation of consoles. The atmosphere is there and the way NHL 17 rolls out by having you take over one of two teams with no real stakes on the line as a learning experience is a good introduction to what the game has to offer. The outdoors look at the stadiums and the use of actual announcing announcers successfully drive home the presentation that makes you feel as though you are about to watch an actual hockey game. The visuals have a clean and crisp appeal to them with the player jerseys standing out starkly against the frozen white ice beneath the players. So, right out of the gates, I want to state that NHL 17 still makes a really solid impression. Related reading: You can check out Nick's review of last year's NHL title here. That being said, the lack of changes from last year to this has given the game a somewhat stagnant sense of progress that nagged at me as I continued to play. There is a lot for hockey fans to enjoy in NHL 17, because the on-ice action still delivers and there are enough modes to keep gamers coming back from more.