Oh boy, where to start. I started playing in 2016 and the game has come a long way since then.
If i managed to play this long the game cannot be bad, actually it has to be excellent.
There is 4 different worlds. Attack Buzzer and Cage are european style worlds with promotion/relegation system between different leagues (GHL, SHL, BHL, CHL, IHL, LIHL). Do you have what it takes to climb from LIHL to GHL and win the Golden Cup? Zamboni is NA style world without relegation/promotion. 4 conferences with 14teams in each.
Attack (4 games/day)
Buzzer (2 games/day)
Cage (1 games/day)
Zamboni (2 games/day)
So there is a world style that will fit in any situation of life. I choose to play Cage since it needs the least attention and has a great community around it, although not the most active. With premium account you can play 2 worlds at the same time so i choose Zamboni as a side project.
Players in this game are real individuals. They have 6 different personality traits, which will define various things like how much they take penalties, are they leadership material, are they after money when it comes to contracts, are they teamplayers, do they get shaky legs in playoffs or do they shine in tough games, are they hard workers and so on.
Players also have very good rating system which you can see on my posted jpg. Some info you can only get by scouting, like potential, how good are they at specific tactics or how good they play against specific tactics and so on.
Training players is one thing that in my opinion could be more deep. At the moment you can choose to train Offensive, General and Defensive and you can decide if they train hard, medium or easy. If players train hard they can get tired more easily in games and vice versa.
There are many more parts of the game that i didnt take a deeper dive in this review including, playoffs, free agency, drafting, trading, waivers, statistics and probably missed some. UI is smooth, easy to learn and i would advice you to just try the game and decide yourself if you like. Get to the discord before or after if you have any questions, people are happy to help here.
Developer is active and constantly looking for ways to make game better. Community is very helpful and i would advice to join Game Plan Hockey Manager discord to get all out from the game. Much of the trades are discussed in discord and of course friendly hate between rivals, although there is in game chat.
Life has changed much in these 6 years, but GPHM stays.