Introduction
Over the last ten years the ice hockey video game market has been dominated by the juggernaut that is EA Sports. EA’s NHL series had a stranglehold on the little competition it had over the last decade, however that’s not saying much considering all of its competitors couldn’t begin to touch the polish and solid gameplay offered up from EA. However, as the years went on and the next-gen consoles rolled in, the series underwent an extensive transformation and eventually ended up as an arcade-like, score fest with unrealistic physics and little strategy involved. Since the series had little to no competition, EA felt the need to sit on it and offer up nothing more than a mere roster update from year to year (yet they are still incredibly in-accurate). However earlier this year, during our beloved Dreamcast’s last breath, we hockey fans saw a ray of light from SEGA. NHL2k2 gave us more of a simulation style gameplay with true hockey characteristics. Now in November, Visual Concepts and Treyarch have teamed up again to bring us the predecessor to the EA hockey killer, NHL2k3.
Presentation
For this installment, SEGA has used it’s partnership with ESPN to give the game a professionally broadcasted look with ESPN overlays and menus. The game looks much better with this improvement, leaps and bounds better than 2k2’s generic theme. The game even features an out-of-town score ticker and even pop up ads!
The menus are easy to navigate, both in an out of game, it’s easy to make roster changes and transactions, but still a bit tedious to edit your lines. Thankfully, they have done away with those horrid circular menus in favor of a more straight-forward design. Overall, NHL2k2 is a polished title with little rough edges or signs of a rushed design.
Visuals
NHL2k3 won’t win any awards for it’s visuals, but they are good enough to please just about everyone out there. 2k3 sports a decent polygon count for players and each of the individual arenas look respectably close to their real-life counterpart. Player faces are nothing spectacular, but hockey players are ugly dudes anyhow, so I’m not exactly complaining; they do serve their purposes. The ice looks exceptional and shows wear and tear as the game rages on.
The player animations of 2k3 are unsurpassed in the industry today and cannot be touched by any other. Goalie animations in particular looks awesome, they can come from almost any position, be it on their back or belly and attempt to make a save, even reach under and behind themselves. The puck physics are still the best around and behave the closest to an actual bouncing biscuit. The collision detection capitalizes on 2k2’s effort by enabling you to actually follow the puck into the goalie’s glove or right off the stick on a snap-shot. All of this runs at a super smooth frame rate most of the time. You will experience a small amount of slow down occasionally when there is a lot of action around the net and a few changing lines. Once again, nothing spectacular here, but the package is presentable, and who needs graphical flash if your game actually plays good.
Sound
By far the worst part of the game. Nothing has been done here to improve 2k2’s lackluster sounds that it was. The two-man announcing crew is downright horrible and the in game effects are average at best. The crowd atmosphere is once again almost non-existent as they show little to no emotion at times, even after a huge play or a goal, it just doesn’t create enough energy. The music has been mildly improved, but still doesn’t capture that arena emotion.
A few good notes though, the goal horns sound nice, even though they are not entirely accurate for each arena. The in-game sounds effects are good to an extent, especially when the pucks smack against the player’s pads and the goal posts.
Gameplay
The best thing about 2k3 is it’s un-match able, realistic gameplay that made 2k2 so favorable to the hockey fan. Back again is the basic and advanced control scheme that allows casual players to pick up and play and more experienced veterans to expand their abilities. Players are able to perform all the basic moves we are used to but now include such things as a loose-puck snap shot, pinning against the boards and the ability to jump in the air and glove the puck down. All of these new features are superb, especially the ability to pin, which even has its own set of controls. This allows for awesome battles and cycles around the boards.
NHL2k3 now includes a plethora of customizable gameplay features including many sliders to alter the gameplay (similar to EA’s more recent titles), which allows you to play at your own level of competition and realness. It now includes an additional difficulty mode, which really challenges even the most experienced players. That is because of the exceptional opponent AI, which is about the best I’ve ever come across. The computer is smart enough to know when to dump and chase, when to play it behind the net during a series and how to adjust on a Power play or Penalty Kill. You are now even able to make line-match ups before the drop of the puck and decide on how you will defend certain line combos.
2k3 gives you all the basic modes, but this year a 200+ season franchise mode has been added, something that 2k2 desperately needed. Each season allows you to manage your team from bottom to the top. You can trade players (Yes, more than one for one, and draft picks too!), sign free agents, renew fake contracts and participate in a draft. I felt all of this could have been improved on, but are done well enough to keep me from complaining. For example, the computer controlled teams remain almost dormant throughout the year, making little moves during the season. The draft involves little strategy or research and your "minor league team" which houses players, doesn’t even play any games, which makes for little to no player improvement during their time on the farm.
Statistics are well kept and player tracking is easy to do. The current player ratings are alright, but some are still way too high or way too low. Not to mention there are several regular players missing from some team’s rosters including Alexandre Daigle of the Pittsburgh Penguins, among others. Add to the fact that you can’t use created players in a franchise even sours this mess.
The franchise mode is solid, but could have been so much better, it won’t make you dislike the game any, because the awesome on-ice play is simply that good. Never before have I had such satisfaction completing the most basic of tasks. The game is the most pleasing hockey package a die-hard fan would want. Despite it’s downfalls, NHL2k3 is still by far and away the best real representation of the sport in a whole.
Lasting Appeal
With a franchise mode longer than anyone would like to play and endless combinations of gameplay sliders should keep you hitting the ice until the next installment reaches the shelves in 2003.
Try taking some troubled teams from the bottom of the league to the playoffs, all while balancing their budget. Its a challenging task, but hardly enough to keep me really interested for more than several seasons. I suppose I am too spoiled from playing too much Eastside Hockey Manager, which has brilliant franchise management.
However, I could play game after game and not get tired of it, the gameplay is just that good, it keeps drawing you back in. Try testing out some different strategies each time, see which fits your team best and tinker with all the different settings it has to offer.
Conclusion
Despite being far from perfect, NHL2k3 has successfully dethroned EA’s NHL series and is now the reigning champions of the hockey genre. It is without a doubt the closest you can come to the real thing. The strategy, complexity and power of the game are all successfully captured by this magnificent title. The game should defiantly be checked out by those with even a causal interest in the real game, but if you’re looking for more of an arcade style play with higher scoring and better graphics, maybe you should sick with NHL 2003. NHL2k3 is the real thing, no doubt about it, and the included franchise mode is a bonus that will surely keep me coming back time after time. PS2 owners won’t get the online play that the XBox version does either, that will have to wait until next year. I’m okay with that though, because finally, for the first time in almost 3 years, I have a hockey game I can actually stand to play, that doesn’t have an ego bigger than the game itself.
The Good:
+The gameplay is simply unsurpassed for a hockey title
+The franchise mode, even though it could use some work for next year
+True-to-life arenas
+Awesome player and goalie animations
The Bad:
-The announcing is terrible, it sounds like they are actually trying to pronounce the names wrong.
-No real salaries
-Missing players
-Bland player models with little detail in the facial area
The Stupid:
-Please SEGA, for the next game, get some humans to do the announcing.
