Before I begin let me say this: I finally have a game I want to play more than Halo! Yay! Yes, thats right. NHL 2002 is now my new XBox game of choice, especially when the friends are over to play. Not to say this game isn't without it's flaws, but man... this is a fun game to play. So now what you've all been waiting for, the gameday breakdown:
Graphics I don't even understand why we have real sports anymore. You could probably broadcast a videogame and nobody would hardly know the difference. Just about everything is done right in NHL 2002, from the realistic stadium with some actual polygonal audience, to the glass wobbling when you check someone into it and even a lot of the players faces look like their real life counterparts. There were a couple of things that they could have done better though. Some of the physics during checking seemed a bit off making collisions look awkward at times. This is especially apparent when the 'hit cam' comes up and replays a big check. From the looks of it, hit detection is a little skewed. But it all still looks beautiful, especially the intro to each game with team announcements. (After seeing that for the first time I was hooked on the game).
Sound: Well Jim, it seems we've come to the audio segment of today's review. Thats right, Jim. Audio is a big player in todays sports game, as a lackluster announcer could possibly kill the mood and ruin the game. (announcers get drowned out by crowd cheering) Ok, back to reality. I'll just say this out front: this is the very first sports game ever where I didn't want to shut the commentary off. Jim Hughson and Don Taylor are chock fun of funny commentary that actually has me laughing from time to time. And in all the time that I've been playing this game, Im still hearing some new ones. Here's a couple I just heard last night:
Don: "What a great save by Roy!"
Jim: "That was Save-tacular!"
Don: "Jim, do you ever run out of those?"
Jim: "No-tacular!"
or one of my favorites
Don: "What a hit! They must have felt that one up in the rafters?"
Jim: "Which begs the question... What are people doing up in the rafters?"
Even the stadium announcer gets in cracks between periods. To back up this excellent coverage is some great music by Sum41 and the Barenaked Ladies. I would have liked to heard a little more variety, especially since they could have dropped songs like 'If I had a Million Dollars' as it just didn't sound good in the hockey arena. The last area of sound would be the sound effects. They aren't bad by any means but are sort of unrealistic. A hard slapshot results in what sounds like a cannon blast and other such effects are also exaggerated. But this isn't too distracting and doesn't affect gameplay so it didn't bother me.
Gameplay: Speaking of gameplay: this game has more gameplay that I can handle most days. This game is a stats and gameplay machine allowing you to customise everything about it from your players eye color to your penalty kill strategies on the power play. With a Dynasty mode allowing you to play seasons, a tournament mode, a single game mode and a shootout mode, there are all sorts of games you can set up. But, like before, its time to nitpick. First of all, my goalie is an idiot. It doesn't matter who my goalie is. Patrick Roy, Fred Brathwaite, whoever I choose they stand there in awe as pucks zing by their legs into my goal. Now there is sort of a solution, I can control my goalie. But to do this I have to press the 'back' button wich is in an awefully awkard spot on the controller. Also, the only camera angles that don't completely suck are the overhead and action cam, which leaves you playing with the goals at the top and the bottom of the screen. I would have loved to played with the old side cam like in blades of steel, but the cam that offers that is like trying to control a team from the nosebleed seats. You can't see where you are or where you're moving to. And then there is my worst gripe of all about the game is the unbelievable dull, underdeveloped and distracting fighting scenes. The only good part about fighting is its easy to remember the buttons. X is punch. Thats it. All you can do is hope to tap X faster than your opponent. Of course the hockey players punch each other faster than chipmunks on speed so the fights only last about 2 seconds on average.
So aside from the fighting, the camera angles and a few other small problems, this is a wonderful game for any hockey enthusiast. Actually its a great game for people who aren't real hockey buffs, as my girlfriend really gets a kick out of this game. Recommended? Yes. Should you buy it? Well, I did. And I'd do it again, I like the game so much.
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