EA Sports NHL dropped the first extensive look at NHL 25’s new gameplay mechanics and features in their recent trailer.
NHL 25’s gameplay revolves around, ICE-Q, the game’s new skating system, which looks incredibly smooth and clean. Along with it comes vastly improved AI and reactive actions, meaning players shouldn’t have to watch their CPU skate into dead areas of the ice or opponents anymore.
All of these changes frankly look incredible and refreshing to the NHL video game, which hasn’t seen a complete overhaul/rework of its gameplay flow in some time.
Alas, these changes, especially the empowered AI, should generate more offense and scoring chances for players. That’s great and all, but if the goalies don’t receive significant improvements, then I’m not sure the player base will enjoy the constant high-scoring games.
Well, thankfully, goalies are receiving major improvements. The following changes/additions for goaltenders are as follows:
General Improvements
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Preemptive save decisions and animations.
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Improved poke check and puck cover responsiveness and situation-solving.
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Improvements to save motion coming onto the goalposts.
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Increased save range including better solving for lacrosse goals.
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Goalies stay on their feet longer and won’t drop to or stay in butterfly if they have time to get back up.
Tweaks To Save & Capability Models
Improved Decision-Making For Positioning
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One timers.
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Facing in-tight shots.
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Challenge distances.
New Actions Added
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AI goalies will use the spread-v.
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User goalies can saucer pass.
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Goalies can cover the puck off of a teammate’s stick to better protect their own goals.
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Post-goal emotional reactions.
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Pad stack and desperation side poses are now merged.
These updates will prove whether the goalies are better in NHL 25. They were absolutely dreadful in NHL 24 and flopped around the crease far too often, even when their stamina bar wasn’t low.
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