Tape to Tape Reviews

Very fun game. Looking forward to the next updates. I hope the campaign 2.0 will be longer and have more variety in it to make the replayability better.

Perfect blend of hockey arcade action and fun with insane amounts of replay-ability. Cant recommend enough to anyone who likes hockey

So.. I do recommended this game it does come with a slight warning - I do like this game, I had fun playing this game, I would say if you're one of the 5 people in the world who've been demanding more Ice Hockey games release on PC it's definitely one to buy. However, I do think this game has a serious Achilles heel that cannot be ignored and is holding the game back in a bad way: No Career/Franchise Mode. Despite the game having great graphics, great physics, great gameplay and overall being very fun... it's painfully short, with those 2.8 hours on record I have already beaten the final team and 'completed the game'. I find the refusal to include a Franchise Mode baffling, especially for a Singleplayer only game. I want to get hooked and go deep into seasons building a team or player, recruiting talent, watching them grow, dealing with the finances, having rival teams, or creating my own character starting as a young talent with potential and levelling them up over the seasons - it's the only reason I play sports games when I play those Offline but I cannot do that here and I feel that it's holding this game back. It's fun and it's worth the money especially when it goes on sale, but I didn't hook me in for very long and I came away feeling very mixed - happy to have a good Ice Hockey game, frustrated that it doesn't fill the Career shaped hole EA Sports left when it became Console only.

A good fun game, nice art style, good game mechanics. The only things I would suggest is that the boss matches should have their own distinct novelty of special ability. The only ones that seem to have this is the Refs, even just general level implementations, where there could be hidden traps on the rink or AOE attacks from the tentacle monster. But overall a great game if somewhat short. 8/10

It plays like NBA JAM with stat/perk builds, based on drops. Every run is different. Pretty fun considering there are no NHL games on PC.

It's fun for a few hours but it quickly becomes repetitive and frustrating. * The campaign is very short and quite easy for a rogue-like. I've beaten it on normal difficulty on my second try and quite a few times after that; might be just luck with starting stats though. * There are too many unskippable animations. The whole experience would be so much smoother if you could turn them off for menu transitions, winning/loosing, getting stuff after games etc etc. (There's a setting to skip goal replays so hopefully they will add more of these.) * [Offensive] AI can be pretty dump at times. Your teammates often opt to chase the puck you are holding (so you cannot pass), or cluster in front of you with defense (so you cannot pass and you cannot shoot). The opposing goaltender is more likely to keep the puck when there is nobody in front of him - but he will pass every time you are standing right in his face (and of course with 0% chance to intercept). Hopefully it will get better in some next release (still an early access), I'd like to give this another try.

it clunky and unresponsive. No way to aim your shots, stick check, stick lift, block shots etc. I get it it's not supposed to be a sim but it needs work. The only way to retrieve the puck from an opposing player is to hit them and knock them off of the puck. it appears that it "auto pokes" if you are in the right position, but it is not consistent. having no other way to pick it up makes it awkward. I have too many hours in nhl XXXX to find the controls decent. maybe my expectations were to high, but in nhl hitz you could at least poke check. I would not recommend this game.

Not a lot of hockey games on Steam, so I recommend it just because there isn't much else out there to scratch that itch. This game COULD be a lot more fun. It has the right structure, but gets repetitive fast and has some super clunky mechanics that can make it frustrating to play. The hitting in this game is noticeably bad. For a game that you can tell is supposed to play sort of like an NHL Hitz, it is laughably hard to actually connect on your body checks and a lot of the time your players whiff entirely. Skating is also not very tight, which I get is because it's more of a funny arcadey game but it does not feel overly satisfying to play.

Update: since posting this review I've gotten a barrage of comments telling me I don't know how to troubleshoot, I'm stupid, and various other negative takes. As stated in the original review below, I did all troubleshooting steps. Including, multiple versions of Proton, desktop and gaming mode, re-install, local file verification, swapping between sd card and ssd, restarting. None of these worked. I would also like to point out that even if any of these issues fixed my complaints, it shouldn't be necessary to do them on a steam deck verified title. My deck is stock, no tools, no plugins, no alternate gui, nothing. My og deck I had issues on was stock software, the only changes being a screen replacement due to a tragic accident, and a replacement ssd for a bigger one. On both my og LCD deck and my new oled deck the problems persist. My friend that has my og LCD deck has tried to get it working with the same results, and another friend with an oled deck has had the same results. Just from the amount of vitriol and the odd persistence of commenters I have to assume my initial assumption of suspicious shilling was correct. So in conclusion, please note the og statement below in all caps. ***DO NOT BUY THIS ON STEAM DECK!*** I have tried it at multiple points since it released. When it works, it can be fun. I don't know why só many people recommend it. First off, there's an obnoxious early access banner covering half the screen in the main menu. I cannot close this accept by starting a quick game. It persists through starting the campaign, no button presses will remove it, and it's genuinely annoying. The controls work about half the time. If you get in a game, they tend to do alright. Good luck getting a game started though. Black screens, freezes, buttons not responding. It's genuinely infuriating. I've tried multiple proton releases, desktop and gaming mode, nothing works. Avoid this game at all costs if you're a steam deck user. I cannot find these problems mentioned anywhere, but I've had it on three seperate steam deck units. Two of my own, and one of a friends. Whoever is shilling this garbage has to be friends with the devs. How this game is steam deck verified is beyond all reason.

I'll start off by saying I really do enjoy this game, and I have over 30 hrs played. The issue with this game is that the dev designed it as a roguelite and that is what is actually holding this game back, and I do understand this is in early access. There simply is not enough depth to the roguelite aspects to give it enough replayability and just makes it seem like groundhog day. The reason I keep coming back to this game is because the gameplay is really well done. I believe to devs need to pivot and add Online Multiplayer, Career Mode and Season Mode, I know they have speculated on this along with a new version of their roguelite. I hope they acknowledge what the fans are asking for because this truly is a great game, it is just lacking in replayability currently.