NHL 22: Breaking Down the Newest Features

EA Sports provided new information into NHL 22 on Thursday, announcing some new features for some of the game's most popular game modes. Here is what you need to know.

EA Sports provided new information into NHL 22 on Thursday, announcing some new features for some of the game's most popular game modes.

Here is what you need to know.

As shown off in the recent technical test on all systems, World of Chel has a revamped customizable classes to get more out of your created player. In NHL 21, the game allowed for a few prebuilt player classes with just a handful of attributes. The same player classes are back, but with many more traits and the new x-factor abilities added in.

World of Chel's game hub received an overhaul, with the menus taking much less time than before to advance with a better overall UI. World of Chel has typically been very sluggish, but through the first testing phase, it felt snappier and looked much nicer while organizing the old menus in a better, easier-to-understand way.

A nice little quality of life change came through Party Flow. Like in other major titles such as Call of Duty, you can invite friends to stay in your party and travel from game mode to game mode together. It was buggy at points in the beta, but an overall nice addition.

Full details on how this is going to work will be announced later, but the big selling point this year is "customizable synergies". EA says players will "unlock and choose synergies" to upgrade player performance. A deeper dive into Hockey Ultimate Team is coming in early October.

Be a Pro received more features to create the biggest iteration of the game mode we've seen. This year, the mode puts a focus on new storylines, such as winning more consecutive Stanley Cups on different teams than Patrick Maroon. We don't have a ton of details yet about Be a Pro, but a more in-depth look is scheduled to come in early October.

Franchise mode doesn't have a ton of details just yet, but EA Sports did reaffirm that expansion will continue even with the addition of the Seattle Kraken. For the first time ever, players will be allowed to have 33 teams in the NHL - whether that's good for the league or not in real life, that's up to you.

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Release Date: October 15, 2021
Platforms: Playstation 5, Playstation 4, Xbox Series X and Xbox One
Version: Standard, X-Factor Edition
Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: EA Vancouver
Graphics Engine: Frostbite (all platforms)
Cover Athlete: Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs
Commentary: James Cybulski, Ray Ferraro
Cross-Platform/Generation: No

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