NHL 22 Review
Pieces of NHL 22 feel like a callback to NHL 95, which introduced the spin-o-rama. That innovation was a quick piece of showy stick play that made dodging a defender easier, at the expense of realism. Decades later, such skills now turned into X-Factors, giving certain star players special moves. Now universal across NHL, Madden NFL, and FIFA, these shatter the simulation aspects these respective sports brands were previously known for. And thus, NHL 22 finds itself conflicted. It recalls the series’ growing pains in the early ‘00s where the slapstick, arcade-style play ruled before giving way to a fealty to the real sport. Given the near-total lack of penalty calls except for the most severe infractions (even with the penalty slider cranked high), NHL 22 takes steps toward this fantastical style and yet doesn’t fully embrace it.
It should be noted that this is the first NHL game to run on the Frostbite engine – important to say because you probably wouldn’t know it otherwise. The change is almost invisible, which is something of a triumph when you consider that Madden NFL still hasn’t fully recovered technically after it made the switch four years ago. On the other hand, it doesn’t look dramatically better than NHL 21, as you’d expect for the first game designed to impress on a new generation of consoles. So in that respect, no news is good news.