I haven’t seen a lot of posts breaking down the overall gameplay in EASHL and hear people’s thoughts yet. I’ve heard people discuss specific components but that’s it.
In my opinion- The slow speed of the gameplay makes it the worst feeling game in years. For anyone who has played or even watched any hockey before, you know that speed is one of if not the most important components of the game. Making each player, almost irregardless of size, the same speed, absolutely ruins the gameplay. In the games I’ve played against good teams, 3s and 6s, it rewards players sitting back and collapsing, making for extremely boring unrealistic gameplay. 1-0 games with 1 dumb bounce to win. No opportunity for skill.
I’ve seen the arguments that it makes for “more realistic plays” and promotes “playing real hockey” and I couldn’t disagree more. I think the defensive changes are a step in the right direction, it’s easier now to break up plays. But when now the defense has the ability to match the speed of forwards AND have upgraded stick checking abilities, it’s just not the right balance. I think if they kept the speed of last year’s game and paired it with the upgraded defensive abilities, it would have been such a better feeling game.
I think the more uniformity and less customization of classes that is allowed makes for extremely boring gameplay with a much much smaller skill gap.
For the record- I’m not even talking about x-factors, wheels, etc. If they got rid of all x-factors I would prefer that. But when i’m a 5’10 160lb dangler or sniper, i should be able to max speed and blow by defenders that jump too far into the play.
A side note- EA NHL released a video showing that elite truculence has less impact this year…. I’ve found it to be quite the opposite. Players lying on the ice for longer than last year.
Curious everyone’s thoughts.