NHL 2002

"Has EA lost its touch?"

I have loved almost every EA sports game since I bought NHL 94. Each game seemed to be far and away the best game in its individual sport. Madden with football, NBA live with basketball, FIFA with soccer and so on. Still I feel that the NHL series is what drives EA Sports on by setting an example to other games. Yet sadly, with NHL 2002, I don't feel the same kind of impression that previous games in the EA NHL series had left on me. Still, fundamentally it is a solid game and worth a buy.

Graphics 10/10- Another superb job by EA sports to stuff in more realism into every single game. The celebrations are more in-tune, the warmup before each game was nice. 3D fans gave each arena a sense of home team advantage. The graphics seem to be VERY similar to NHL 2001 but there have been plenty of little additions that have made the game more realistic.

Sound 8/10- The actually sound effects were everything I expected. The loud crush of a punishing hip check, a 100mph slapshot, pucks rejected by the sound of goalie pads. Also, in-game temper tantrums are audible. What gave the sound a lower mark was the simple inclusion of one man: Don Taylor. His remarks are at times childish, lame, have no relevance to hockey whatsoever and takes away from the realistic feeling of announcing. Jim Hughson does another good job, but Taylor just doesn't seem to fit in. I hope they take him out in NHL 2003 and give a better support man to help out Hughson.

Gameplay 7/10- Ok, I wasn't impressed with gameplay. First of all, in every game, there would be at least 10 breakaways and perhaps 1 or 2 of them scoring. Somehow, EA Sports needs to figure out a way to make defense more stable. And that leads to another topic: it is incredibly hard to score close range! Guys like John Leclair don't seem like themselves in the offensive zone. Why? Because they never stand in front of the net. Standing in front of the net should screen the goalie, set up a chance for deflection or give a chance to pick up a rebound. Every defenseman should be trying to get the forwards out of the front of the net. However, there are almost no deflections in this game and the sensitivity in front of the net for delicate jobs just isn't there. The NHL cards however, I do like and is a welcome addition.

Replay Value 8/10- I just don't feel any motive to play this game again and again unless I'm playing against another human. However in previous NHL games, the computer was an unpredictable and worthy opponent. Now it seems like the game is pre-fixed thanks in part to the HERO system's effect on the computer, super-boosting their players so the computer always catches up. It's simply too predictable.

Overall 8/10- In the end, this game has some brilliant graphics and sound effects like you would expect, but there are just too many little annoying problems that seem to just shatter the experience of truly playing an NHL game. Anyway in conclusion, NHL 2003 better have some significant improvements or inevitably, it will lose its throne as the number one hockey simulation.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/26/02, Updated 08/26/02