NHL 19 Review: Gameplay Videos, Features and Impressions

The name of the game in NHL 19 is creativity and expression.  

As a game with P.K. Subban on the cover should be. 

This year's offering from EA Sports could have rested on its laurels a year removed from strongly revamping gameplay to a series-best foundation, making a few tweaks here and there before calling it a release. 

Instead, NHL 19 boldly steps into new territory in different ways, most prominently by embracing player customization, offering an expansion of arcade modes not in arenas but vast outdoor locales and giving an encouraging nudge toward interactivity within a community. 

While acknowledging the sport's roots, NHL 19 offers up an unexpected foray into new areas not typical of your annual sports game release. 

Gameplay

NHL 18 came up with some intuitive on-ice hockey in digital form because it went back to the drawing board and re-examined how to best make controller inputs influence the events on the screen. What resulted was the removal of the random feeling from shots and a skill-stick system that put the user in control of the action. 

NHL 19 builds upon the base with the arrival of Real Player Motion. 

The physics technology made famous by the ever-improving player interactions in the Madden series takes to the ice and chalks up a successful debut, to say the least. There is a certain fidelity here even last year's overhaul couldn't provide.  

Control over the puck is still better than ever, but the new system allows for changes a user will see instantly. Players explode out of a dead stop like the elite athletes they are. They are also weighty and can collide violently in the right circumstances but still glide realistically or dig hard into the ice to stop on a dime.

Hitting feels a bit refined, with some of the controller feedback from a year ago not resulting in major takedowns as often, which makes sense in the new physics system as real players keep their head on a swivel and react like world-class athletes. At the same time, the number of tick-tack penalties seems reduced—unless a user spams poke, then it's going to be a rough ride.

It does some interesting things from a control standpoint as well. Clicking down the left stick to "hustle" frees up the right trigger to pass, using the left stick in tandem to aim where a user wants the puck to go.

Alongside the reworked physics, the mild learning curve eventually creates a rewarding experience both for those who want to pick up and play and those who want to engross themselves in a simulation. 

Sticking with the customization theme, users are prompted with different options for controls, difficulty and gameplay presets upon initially booting the game. Keeping it simple works just fine, though the pursuit of improvement and eventually diving into the options and upping these three factors is rewarding. 

And expect to receive plenty of feedback, for better or worse. In a mode like Be a Pro, coach feedback is really detailed, making good use of the break during a trip to the penalty box or pause screen. Call it a nice capper for those who want to master the combination of last year's control revamp and this year's new feel. 

Graphics and Presentation

Perhaps the most notable exception to the idea NHL 19 isn't a typical sports release comes in this department—which doesn't mean NHL 19 doesn't look good or offer broadcast-worthy immersion. 

Despite a new physics system, everything from prior years holds up well here. Hair and jerseys still flow realistically, ice itself still reacts as it should, and the most noteworthy player models continue to represent the real thing well. 

Maybe the biggest negative in this area comes in the form of the onlookers present at arenas. The crowds react to the action well but look poor and blocky from most angles, especially once the camera has to zoom. 

This game simply doesn't seem to have the same horsepower as Madden or NBA 2K. The career mode doesn't have any high production values or cutscenes, and World of CHEL features a new announcer for Ones, but that's about it. But these aren't overpoweringly bad things, and it doesn't take away from the presentation as a whole. 

And there isn't a total lack of presentation values. The announcing crew remains one of the best around and offers a broadcast feel.

It's the same story for the savvy use of angles like fans would see on television. The camera right behind a player's back as he hops over the rail from the bench before it zooms back out is fun and engaging. So are the angles from the crowd's perspectives as faceoffs get set up.

NHL 19 actually innovates in a few interesting ways like this. However, some of the overall graphical deficiencies in spots and lack of what we've come to expect from other annual sports releases makes them stick out more. 

World of CHEL, Features and More

It is NHL 19's turn to formulate a central hub of sorts, much like the NBA 2K series and plenty of other games outside of the sporting realm have done. 

But World of CHEL has an interesting twist, as it centers on a community-style hub with deep customization options and non-arena playing surfaces. 

Pro Am, Ones, Threes and EASHL are the modes contained in World of CHEL. The first is the offline portion, a useful tool with challenges helping a user get acclimated to the different builds and skills. Ones is a new 1v1v1 showdown that fits well with the overall theme of this year's release. 

There, the free-for-all mode featuring an NPC goalie and no rules also comes equipped with a ladder system. Users can win at different tiers and climb the ladder while earning points, though going on a negative skid won't just pause a climb, it will get a user relegated back down the ladder.

Those different rungs on the ladder also feature more prestigious outdoor locales the higher a user climbs. These are quick, digestible matches with daily tournaments offering rare cosmetic rewards, which is a nice touch for the social aspect. 

Threes made its debut last year, and EASHL is the ever-popular cooperative mode that offers 15 specialized classes. 

There is some RPG min-maxing going on here for tournaments with friends, as figuring out the best "party" lineup before heading into a game will ultimately decide the online leaderboards.

EASHL permits the saving of loadouts, an innovation in this genre carried over from others that feels wholly necessary for quality-of-life purposes. 

Customization in CHEL has all the minutia diehards will enjoy, ranging from shaft tape to the tuck of a player's jersey. This applies to casual clothing as well. To provide an example of depth here, a user in search of a new parka for their character has to click casual, clothing, tops, select home or away, scroll to parkas, select from NHL or CHEL, then sift through five rows of options when picking the latter.

It's a long way of saying EA Sports isn't cutting corners with the game's biggest theme and crafting a unique player with the seemingly endless droves of items is a fun time. 

Outside of CHEL, Be a Pro has a notable suite of customization options, and there are a few different ways to get a player's career going. But it was disappointing that one of the key moments of such a mode—entering the league itself—didn't get more love.

The NHL draft doesn't have any bells and whistles, just a spot on the calendar and a "you have been drafted by" graphic. 

That said, the RPG-esque skill tree as a form of progression is a deep offering rather tucked away in menus. It provides quite a bit more depth than the typical system found in sports games, which usually just let a user pump points into a skill rating without explanation. There are multiple branching skill trees, and each offers detailed info about point investment, which is something every sports game should be doing.

One of the on-the-box talking points is a new scouting system in franchise mode, which calls for users to assemble a maximum of 20 scouts for purposes of unearthing talent at the amateur and pro levels.

The former is more detailed than observers might expect, with the latter featuring a new wrinkle called the Fog of War. This hides certain stats and attributes of pros and requires the micromanaging of scouting trips with a helping hand from head-to-head encounters with the player in question. While a bit late to the party with this sort of feature, NHL 19 compensates with surprising depth.

There are a bevy of other games modes available as well, though they feel like afterthoughts this year given the strides made elsewhere, especially in the innovation department.

Hockey Ultimate Team is still here, and the game finally getting access to the sport's legends is a nice touch. There are also modes centered on team creation, playoffs, online head-to-head and a shootout mode, again aligning with the theme of player choice—even if the sheer quantity of it all is a little intimidating. 

From an overarching standpoint, the tile menu system is still one of the best overlays in a game. Some sports games suffer with too many menus, something made simpler here by being able to pin and unpin game modes to the home screen so they're readily available upon launching the game. 

The ease of use is appreciated, especially while users try to work through the rather intimidating list of game modes and formulate the trio they want pinned to the home screen. 

Conclusion

EA Sports

NHL 19 hits on unexpected but quite welcome notes. 

This isn't a typical annual sports release, though some of the typical stuff within—like the revamping of the physics—advances the game in a meaningful manner and justifies a purchase on its lonesome.  

Everything else is a refreshing cherry on top. It's fun to watch a series like this expand its horizons. Kicking it in a Ones game while waiting for an EASHL team to get online is a worthwhile way to spend time. So is taking a deep dive into the guts of an improving franchise mode or getting uber competitive with that same Ones game mode. 

Customizing the experience to each individual user and permitting the expression of everyone who picks up the game were strokes of brilliance for a series that couldn't afford to drop another cookie-cutter release. 

This is anything but, which shouldn't go unnoticed by both fans of the sport and a wider audience. Complex and accessible on a per-user basis, NHL 19 is one of the year's top sports releases.