With the arrival of Early Access, we’ve already gotten our NHL 23 Review in Progress underway with several modes standing out in good and bad ways.
With our first impressions in mind, here’s where our NHL 23 Review in Progress stands and where this year’s game has shone so far.
NHL 23 Review in Progress & First Impressions
While the worldwide release date is still a few days away, NHL 23 Early Access is already underway for players who have a pre order of the X Factor Edition.
Players can also hit the ice already for the limited time NHL 23 EA Play Trial, as this 10-hour experience lets you try things for yourself.
PRE ORDER NOW: Secure your copy of NHL 23 before it arrives
We’re still spending more time in the game before a definitive review score can be reached, but as of now several aspects have already made an impression for our NHL 23 Review in Progress.
Something that becomes clear all across NHL 23 is that gameplay is still top notch, and everything looks fantastic thanks to lighting and texture upgrades.
Overall presentation is also upgraded this year with the new Stanley Cup celebration as well as National Anthems before games improving the title’s overall immersion.
Custom Leagues with Franchise Mode leveled up
Easily the biggest highlight so far in NHL 23 has been the addition of Custom Leagues in Franchise Mode.
While last year’s installment gave you the option of doing Franchise in a standard 32-team league or a 33-team league with a new Expansion Team, they’ve ramped it up with Custom Leagues.
This year, you can create a Custom League with as few as 6 or as many as 48 different teams with full customization for the schedule, playoff games, conferences, divisions, standings, and more.
NHL 23 once again brings a fantastic Custom Teams and Arena Creator to the table, and an online Logo Vault like MLB The Show 22 feels like the only missing piece for customization at this point.
Be A Pro is copy and paste Career Mode
This is the bittersweet part of NHL 23 this year, as career mode was a big highlight in NHL 22 thanks to the upgraded Archetype system.
Unfortunately, Be A Pro in NHL 23 feels literally identical to Be A Pro in NHL 22, and we haven’t been able to identify any noticeable changes in the mode at all.
This isn’t that surprising, as EA chose not to talk about Be A Pro in the buildup to launch, likely because of the fact that the mode didn’t change.
The game mode is still solid across the board, but players only interested in career mode would be better off grabbing NHL 22 on sale if they haven’t played it already.
You’ll still get a great career mode experience out of NHL 23, but anyone who played Be A Pro in NHL 22 will be sorely disappointed.
HUT 23 & World of Chel push forward
Hockey Ultimate Team is about what we’ve come to expect in NHL 23, although they did continue to polish and make slight improvements to it this year.
If you aren’t a fan of Ultimate Team modes, there’s probably not going to be anything in HUT 23 that will change your mind.
World of Chel continues to improve this year, but somewhat online somewhat solo experience is a hard one to nail down.
We’ll need more time in both HUT 23 and World of Chel to give more final thoughts, but as of now they feel mildly improved without many significant changes.
Verdict (so far)
While we’ll need more time for a more final verdict, our NHL 23 Review in Progress has likely already identified this year’s standout.
Franchise Mode, thanks to the addition of Custom Leagues, pushes itself up the list of best Franchise experiences across major sports titles.
Graphics and presentation upgrades do shine when they’re seen, but they aren’t enough to carry the weight considering how much feels unchanged.
We’ll update this NHL 23 Review as soon as additional play time has allowed us to reach a final conclusion about this year’s installment.