NHL 2002

A lot of people will be annoyed by Don Taylor’s silly one-liners and banter with Jim Hughson (returning to do play-by-play). In this area, I’m biased toward liking both Hughson and Taylor. (Hughson has been doing play-by-play for the Vancouver Canucks for a number of years now, and I often listen to him on the radio if I’m in the car. Taylor co-hosted Sports Page in Vancouver for a number of years and has recently moved on to other things.) Nearly all the reviews I’ve read criticize Taylor as sounding moronic. I don’t agree but that’s just me. Many of his descriptions I found funny, with the delivery spot-on. (Even the rink announcers get in on the act – listen carefully.) The banter between Taylor and Hughson is also good. After playing 20 games, I noticed some repetitions, but it’s a testament to how many lines of dialogue there are. The play-by-play is good and manages to keep up with the action without sounding too jagged.

The overall sound is good. All the ambiance present at a hockey rink is included.

Graphics are very good, with the most noticeable improvement being the crowd. They seem less like cut-outs and we’re even treated to shots of the crowd rendered in 3D. The player animations and textures are great, but the coaches look like they were put together by Picasso. It’s not to say that their eyes and lips are mixed-up, they just look blocky as hell and weirdly constructed. As 

found in the NHL 2001, there are a number of camera angles to play with even though some of them are totally impractical to actually use and deliver massive hits to the framerate. (The "Ice" view is probably your best bet.) Overall, everything moves at a good pace, and the various wipes and instant replays don’t detract the least from the action. The "break-away cam" did distract me on the odd occasion I did get a breakaway. (The breakaway cam puts you in a quasi-Max Payne/Matrix moment where everything moves slower, your heartbeat can be heard, and the edges of the screen are blurred. It just screwed with my concentration.)

But a hockey game is nothing, no matter the high quality of graphics and sound, without proper AI. (N2 supports multiplayer over the Internet – official support from EA for the next year – and LAN.) No AI is perfect and I don’t expect it will ever be perfected, but there is a huge hole in the defensive AI. Which would be fine if it was the opponent AI, but it’s your defensive AI. Probably 40% of the games I have played, the opponent AI scored within 5 seconds of the opening face-off. This becomes annoying real fast and I’ve learned to take control of someone on defense ASAP so I have some measure of control. For the most part, the action is fast and furious, if slightly on the arcadey side. Blind passes and crazy one-timers are the order of the day. Of course, all this can be tweaked by the number of sliders and options that EA’s NHL series has become famous for. (Decrease passing accuracy, penalties, etc.)

The addition of Player Cards could be seen as little more than a gimmick. Player Cards can be "bought" in the game with points you receive for completing certain tasks. (e.g. Intercepting a pass = 400 points.) Each pack you buy has a number of cards to stockpile. Each card has a specific effect, such as giving one of your players "Hero" status or making a random player on the opposing team unavailable due to illnes or ones that give you access to Easter Egg extras that can have some truly weird affects, such as a Big Head mode and a Shrink ‘n Grow mode, that makes a player bigger the more goals he scores and smaller when he gets knocked down. (The size only affects how they look, they still skate at the same rate and their shots don’t become more powerful.) The Cards can be activated before any game.

The biggest draw of NHL 2002 is that it’s fun and easy to play a few games without feeling the need to play three or four hours to make progress. (Which will probably annoy those anal retentive people that think EA should make a hockey simulation instead of a game.) Playing a game before dinner or before trudging off to work is a great way to blow off some steam. Even playing through an entire season is easy, and if dinner hits the table before you’re done just save and exit and pick up where you left off once dessert’s over (even if it’s dessert two weeks later). People that own NHL 2001 will most likely hesitate as they’re standing in the store looking at NHL 2002 wondering if it’s worth it. (If you absolutely need the updated stats and Player Cards – go for it.) If you’ve been away from the series for a few years, I recommend NHL 2002. Its short-comings (defensive AI, possible annoyance of Don Taylor) just can’t squelch the graphics, sound, and fun that make NHL 2002 a great addition to the series and a very good game.

- Omni