NHL 2004

"A good game beneath the flaws and cheap AI"

For years, EA’s NHL series has been considered the hockey game to beat. Does this year’s game improve on last year’s effort, or do we get more of the same?

Video: Depending on your graphics card and settings, you can have some gorgeous graphics here. Uniforms, jerseys especially, are incredibly detailed. The player faces can be mediocre at times, but you can find improved or new faces made by third parties online. The crowd is entirely in 3D this time, and other than looking more realistic, it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference to me. There are several new, nice looking animations for checks, including people getting held up on the boards. There are many new hooking animations, too. The glass can once again break, too. Overall, a great job done on the graphics.

Audio: EA Trax returns, and I only care for two of the songs (by Deftones and Alien Ant Farm). Fortunately, you can import your own music. The commentary has taken a more serious turn, as Don Taylor is out at color commentator, and Craig Simpson is in. I miss Taylor, whose funny lines added an extra bit of enjoyment to the game. Simpson is often robotic. I still don’t like Jim Hughson on play by play. The PA announcer is pretty much the same, but he adds some emphasis on the names of star players, at least. Coaches call out for line changes, a nice touch. The crowd chants for the home team and boos the visiting team, as well as bad plays and losses in fights by the home team. They go wild for goals, big hits, and victories in fights, too.

Control: The game is MUCH easier to play with a game pad, but if you absolutely have to, the keyboard can get it done too. The game controls take a bit of time to get used to, but once you get it down, you shouldn’t have too much trouble. Some advanced controls require you to use the keyboard and pad.

Gameplay: AI controlled players will wait for their teammates to get onside before advancing the puck. Goalies leave the net to play the puck. Teams follow strategies fairly well, dumping the puck in and chasing after it, or attempting to cycle the puck. On the penalty kill, they will clear the puck down the ice. I don’t see AI players trying to set up a power play most of the time, as they’ll just rush in and fire away until the puck is cleared. 39 teams from European elite leagues have been added, so if that’s your thing, it’s here. The rosters are outdated initially, but there are plenty of third party updates and EA will eventually release their own as well. Penalties seem a bit unfair at times, as you’ll be called for hooking, roughing, and everything in the book while your AI opponents get away with everything. Of course, you can adjust penalty frequency.

On defense, hooking and poke checking are more effective, although hooking in particular seems to draw a lot of penalties. The AI is very stingy on defense, body checking, poke checking, and hooking you as soon as you get the puck. It’s challenging and can be a bit frustrating at times. Helmets can be sent flying by hard checks. Speaking of checking, one of the new features this year is “Bruise Control,” which allows you to “charge” a hit. The more charged, the more powerful. A fully charged check is a sight to see, if a bit unrealistic. It’s a bit difficult to use at times, but a neat little “arcadey” feature added in. Goalies seem to fall down and dive too much, especially if the puck is passed in front of them. This, of course, results in an easy flip shot and goal. They also bobble a bit too much, and far too often do I find a shut out ruined by a little wrister from the blue line that the goalie just drops into the net for no reason. Players knocking it into their own net happens quite a bit, too. I even scored shorthanded with my goalie when I just fired it down the ice, and as the goalie made the routine save, his defenseman knocked it in on him.

On offense, you can control the power of your passes, but if you pass too hard, the puck goes flying. Passing was criticized as being too accurate in previous games. Now it’s not accurate enough, as even star players will completely miss passes or easily lose control of the puck. Turnovers happen way too much, almost to the point where you try to carry the puck yourself rather than cough it up. To add to this, the AI always seem to be in the right place to collect the errant passes and rarely miss theirs, doing all sorts of fancy backhand and between the legs feeds that blast right past your defense and end in easy goals. Saucer passing is back, but I don’t find it too useful. Shooting and using dekes work pretty much the same as well. You won’t see much pushing and shoving in front of the net anymore, since interference penalties get called all the time, it’s not a good idea to try it yourself, either. Line changes are a bit screwy too, since everyone on the ice will bolt for the bench and you’re left to take on the whole defense by yourself.

Onto fighting. The fighting engine was completely redone. You can now block and counter punch rather than just wildly mash the buttons in a slugfest. Also, you choose when to start the fight, if at all. Helmets can be knocked off by big punches. There are no “life meters.“ Occasionally, even the goalies will get into it. There’s a few minor gripes I have with the new system. First off, body punching. You rarely see body punching in NHL fights. The AI will often go crazy with low punches, and the controller conveniently doesn’t respond to your attempts to block them. Secondly, there are sometimes some odd fighters, such as Maxim Afinogenov (2 career fighting majors) dropping the gloves against experienced scrappers like Wade Belak and Tie Domi in the same game.

New to this year’s edition is Dynasty Mode, which is much more in-depth than normal season mode, which is still there. You become GM of a franchise and need to earn points (by winning games, signing free agents, etc.) to upgrade your staff and facilities, improving your player’s skills and performance. You have to sign players based on salaries, and they can be ridiculously high at times. Other than the problem with salaries, Dynasty Mode is an enjoyable, but challenging experience. Those looking to just play through a schedule without having to worry about all of this stuff can enter season mode.

Unfortunately, “Jesus Mode” is still present, where the computer will suddenly become superhuman just so they can tie it and win in OT. You’re cruising in the third with a 5-1 lead. You got this one in the bag, right? Wrong. Suddenly, every shot starts going in. No matter what you throw at the other goalie, you can’t get one past him. Passing and checking suddenly become more aggressive. It’s one thing for a game to be challenging, it’s another for it to be cheap. If you have such a big lead, you deserve to win the game, not watch in awe or scream at your monitor as you see your sizeable lead crumbled by an unbeatable AI.

Verdict: 7/10. A good effort by the developers with a few nagging flaws and cheapness. Hopefully some of it will be addressed in future patches. Worth your time if you’re a hockey fan.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/28/03