Remember the "good ol' days?" Back when all we expected of a sports game was some sort of graphic representation, somewhat similar to its real-life counterpart and controls that loosely imitated moves real players could do. The games Blades of Steel and Ice Hockey come to mind immediately. Looking at either of those two games, which were very highly regarded in their time, you can see just how far sports games have come. Nowadays a sports game not only has to play perfectly, but come equipped with full, accurate rosters, a decent player creator, the ability to trade players, realistically modeled rinks/stadiums, great animation, the ability to change lines and/or special teams, substitutions, great crowd animation, etc, etc, etc. In other words you need all the control of a player, coach, team manager and broadcast director, not to mention a presentation that resembles a television broadcast to the extreme.
Well, here's the deal. Black Box has managed to get the gameplay pretty much perfect in NHL 2K. Beginners will check this game out and believe I've lost my mind, but trust me, after a few practice games the goalies are beatable. In fact, I'd have to say that this is the best feeling skating engine I've ever had the pleasure of playing with in a hockey game. It improves upon the already superb engine used in NHL 2000 from EA Sports by making a change of direction much more fluid. In NHL 2000, more times than not, your player would literally stop and do a horribly long and drawn out turning motion before moving again, in NHL 2K, the turn is sharp, quick and feels natural. The entire control scheme is like this, and is made even better with the use of the analog control. The result is a fast and frantic game of hockey that most closely resembles what you'd see in the real NHL.
Unlike most other video hockey games, the goalie AI isn't the equivalent of a wooden post standing between the pipes. Goalies in NHL 2K rarely get fooled into committing themselves too early, and make some incredible looking saves. Like I said earlier, at first the goalies will seem far too good and can be really frustrating, but learning how to set up a great passing play and how to aim your shot will have you scoring like a pro in no time flat.
However, we've found the first chink in the armor. The learning curve on the shot control in NHL 2K is incredibly steep. For a while there's no way you'll even lift the puck off of the ice, let alone decide which corner to shoot for. Sure, this becomes second nature after a while, but not nearly as quickly as it should.
The next gameplay complaint I have is the bulky line and coaching strategy-changing setup. Much like NHL 2000, you press a button to bring up a line/coaching change screen and make your decision. The problem is that these screens are absolutely huge, covering so much of the play that it's difficult to tell what's happening. What's more, when these screens are up, the players on that team are controlled by the AI. That's not so bad I guess, but I know I've had more than a couple of goals scored on me while my opponent was in the middle of changing lines because the AI took an amazing shot in the interim.
The line-changing setup itself is nice; you can change offensive and defensive lines separately. Hardcore hockey fans are gonna love this, but an option for a single, 5-man line change is sorely missed for the casual fans out there. Oddly enough, the coaching changes are severely limited.
In fact, the interface throughout the entire game is a tad clunky and screams "first effort" loud and clear. The front end is functional, but nothing more. Setting up a game can get confusing sometimes. I do like the option to choose a bunch of classic jerseys for most teams though. The player creation section is nicely done too, with scads of player aspects to mess with. I don't understand why there's no cap to the player's ability points though, and I thought there was going to be a stick and helmet style option when they were hyping this game a long time ago. Oh well.
But hell, the graphics that really matter are in the game, and NHL 2K succeeds in a big way here. The players all look like their carbon based counterparts albeit with a limited set of body styles. Still, you can tell who you're looking at just by zooming in to someone's face. The arenas look authentic right down to championship banners hanging in the rafters, the sticks have lettering on them, heck, you can even read "Made in Canada" along the ridge of the puck!
Something else to note is that the crowd, while still the standard sprite based cutouts, looks and animate really well. They stand up in their seats to cheer a great play and are constantly in motion. They sound great too.
It's too bad I can't say that for the announcers. Done by the crew from Hockey Night in Canada, the play by play keeps up with the action nicely and has enough variety to stay interesting. The color commentary, however, gets old really, really fast. Usually repeating itself within the space of a single game. I also wish there were a little more banter between the two commentators during a stoppage in play, like discussing a recent penalty, current player stats or how the game's going so far. This is something that EA's NHL 2000 has all over NHL 2K.
The sound effects, however, are superb. The puck hitting the boards sounds great, your forward receiving a crushing check from their defenseman sounds bone-cracking, etc. They did an especially good time capturing the heart-breaking sound of the puck bouncing off the goalpost, the most feared sound in any sport.
So basically, NHL 2K plays like a dream. There's very little to argue about there, but the amount and diversity of the options present in this title are suspect. It definitely feels like a first effort, unfortunately that excuse won't make the hardcore hockey fanatics who've waited patiently for this game feel any better. However, when all is said and done, NHL 2K delivers on the most important aspects of the sport, and now they've got a year to polish it up to the EA Sports level of presentation. A solid hockey game.
-- Jim Cordeira
