NHL 2K2

"Hmm, I wonder why this 2K2 game didn't get ported to the other next-gen consoles?"

Wait, I know: it's a buggy, frustrating game from a developer with no experience in making hockey games. The actual game is not all bad; it may become the building block of something great, but the bugs and limited features dwarf whatever positives that can be taken from the game. With all the 9s and 10s for this game, it was my obligation to set the record straight with my own experience and opinion.

This was the last Dreamcast game released in the US. Delayed for what seemed like forever, Dreamcast owners got only our second hockey game in the system's short life just as the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs were about to begin. I have to say, I eagerly anticipated the title, no matter how long it took to produce the game. When I saw the screenshots, I marveled at how the player models and uniforms appeared, how the ice surface reflected the players at the beginning of the game, and how this was to improve on everything wrong with NHL 2K and become the definitive hockey game (well, until they do another one). Oh, but it wasn't developed by Visual Concepts, it was done by Treyarch whose previous involvement in sports games was extremely limited, and I only recognize their name from the Spider-Man and Tony Hawk games. Yet, apparently this was enough for Sega to entrust them with their hockey game.

Their inexperience shows. Right off the bat, you'll notice that the game lacks both franchise and online modes. Hockey and franchise mode go together like Ryo Hazuki and martial arts, and the mode's absence is a travesty. Disappointed, I played through the season like everyone else had to. Oh, you can start the playoffs right away, but just like every Sega Sports game, the season is automatically simulated instead of you choosing the teams and the seeds. Stat tracking within the season is decidedly weak, and while there are postseason awards, I couldn't see them because I simulated some of the games during the season.

One cool thing about NHL 2K2 is that you can personally assign the captain and alternates on your team (the C and A's for the uninitiated). Of course, since there's no franchise mode, this is slightly less useful (I mean wouldn't it be cool to choose Stevie Y's successor?). Another nice feature is the ability to change a player's position, something that the NFL 2K series hasn't figured out yet. Perfect example: Mathieu Dandenault. He's a forward that was converted to a defenseman, and sometimes plays on the wing if the team is without a full roster of forwards. In the game, he's listed as a forward, but with a couple button presses, he's my third line defenseman just like in real life. However, there's a major problem with all of this: the game doesn't save these changes, nor does it save your edited lines. Even after saving roster file and settings file, every time I booted the game, my lines were changed to their defaults. This was true of the control scheme as well.

The newest thing in hockey games these days, and I noticed it here first, is to have the game clock count down from twenty minutes regardless of how long you choose the periods to be. What's wrong with this? Well, first, you don't know how much game time is really left unless you're constantly doing math problems in your head while playing. Last time I checked, this is NHL 2K2, not Donkey Kong Jr. Math. There can be a couple minutes left in the game, but it's not two minutes, and the seconds I think I have, I don't. Second, and most important, your power play time is directly proportional to the period settings. Playing a ten minute game? You get a minute power play. Five minutes? You have thirty seconds to get a goal. It's ridiculous. It's hardly a man advantage, and killing penalties is no sweat at all.

The game forces you to play with its advanced control scheme. It's really not even a choice. If for some reason you choose something like basic, which as a NHL Hockey veteran I'm used to, you're unable to do many of the extra hockey things available in the game. This is stupid. You might as well make the advanced controls the only choice, since it's a mockery to punish me just because I don't like to hold the L button to wind up my slap shot.

Checking is incredibly unbalanced and downright frustrating to do properly. If I get up to full speed and check a guy barely moving around the boards, the opposing player seems to absorb my body check like it's nothing, slowing me down to a crawl while he moves with the puck up ice. Yet, the computer, barely a foot away with no skating momentum, can shoulder check me to the ice. Sometimes I just let my teammates do the checking for me (since I obviously can't) while I try to poke check the puck away.

And then there's scoring, or the lack thereof. The NHL 2K hockey series is quickly becoming known for super goalies who make save after save that they have absolutely no business making. I've had games where putting together 50 plus shots results in only a goal or two. And they're great quality chances, a mixture of crisp passing in the zone, breakaways, and one-timers, yet I mostly have a donut on the score board come the third period. Of course, if you play on the rookie setting, scoring isn't a problem, but the games aren't competitive either. In order to get realistic scoring you either have to: A) play five minute periods on rookie, or B) play twenty minutes periods on the higher difficulties. What makes this really annoying is that you can't change the period or difficulty settings once you start a season. So, if half-way through the season you're not pleased with the level of competition or scoring, you have to start the whole season over again.

Then there are the bugs, and man, are there a lot of them. Let's start with the injuries. They happen often in the game, and that by itself is a problem, but here's the funny thing: if you don't sub the injured player, he'll keep playing throughout the game, and will be healthy for the next game as if nothing happened. So when my star forward goes down, I never fret, because he's never really hurt. Then there are injuries which don't even happen during a game, but show up afterwards. This happened to Brett Hull, and although he was listed as being out for an extended period of time, as long as I didn't personally remove him from his current line pairing, he continued to play for me. Unbelievable. Finally, when I did sit him down, the game responded normally, that is if you think that the computer assigning random injuries outside the game in the first place is normal.

Oh, but here's my favorite bug of them all, so bad that if you're a real hockey fan, you'll flip out like I did. Remember how I said that the game has problems with scoring? I wasn't just talking about you scoring goals; I'm also referring to how the game scores what you do. If you're not really paying attention, you may come to the end of game and while observing the scoring summary, you notice a high percentage of unassisted goals. That's strange, you clearly remember passing the puck around, making at least one pass to the goal scorer. Well, you're not hallucinating, it's the damn game. Let me give you two scenarios, and how the game scored them.

Scenario A has a defenseman move the puck to the center, then he feathers a pass to a charging winger who has only one man to beat to the opposing goalie. He shoots from just inside the blue line, missing wide, and having the puck bounce off the boards. The puck comes straight back to the winger, not touching any other player on the way. He shoots from just outside the crease and scores. So, how would you score it? Winger from center and defenseman? The game considers it to be an unassisted goal.

Scenario B has your team on the power play. Moving the puck back and forth between defensemen, you finally take an open shot from the point. The opposing goalie makes the initial save, but the rebound trickles behind him. One of your forwards pounces on the puck for a goal. Again, this is scored as unassisted.

I've even had a one-timer scored as unassisted. I kid you not.

I've basically figured out why this happens. It seems that any pass that doesn't directly hit your teammate is not interpreted as a pass, but instead as a dead puck being picked up. This is true when shooting as well; if you don't score on that shot, you can forget about getting an assist. Moreover, all rebounds cancel any previous passes between teammates. Considering that rebounds are a great way to score goals (when the opposing goalie isn't wearing an “S” on his chest), having your hard work not pay off in the scoring column is incredibly insulting.

The end result is that you may find all your players having more goals than assists, not because you're not playing as a team, but because the computer screws you over. It's more than enough to kill the game for me, and it did.

Graphics/Presentation: 7

The player uniforms look outstanding, best I'd seen in a hockey game at the time. The players themselves tend to be very bulky, and even the slimmest of players look like are of medium build. Many of the more prominent players have their faces mapped and are easily recognizable. However, they're not anywhere near as good as what you'd find in NBA 2K2 (you can see the back of their heads through their open mouths). The non-mapped players have the same pale, five o'clock shadow look to them that you'd associate with most hockey players. The coaches, on the other hand, look awful; they don't reflect their actual age or contain the slightest amount of detail. The game doesn't even tell you who the coaches are, so unless you know all the NHL coaches from 2002 (who, by the way, have the shortest tenures of any of the four major sports), you'll know them as the scary-looking dudes in suits. Is that bald guy in his late twenties supposed to be Scotty Bowman? You sure fooled me. It's not unusual to see clipping during the coach/bench cutaways either.

Music/Sound: 2

I don't recall hearing popular or organ music during stoppages, and if it was there, it wasn't worth mentioning. The broadcast team appears to be actors similar to the NFL 2K team, yet these guys bring nothing to the table, are perpetually annoying, and I seldom remember hearing anything interesting. I just played music over them and the game (something I do with every sports game at some point).

Gameplay/Control: 5

I really don't like how when moving South to North that you can't see your defensemen once you get into the opposition's zone. You'll end up turning the puck over a lot, sending it back down into your zone because you thought you had a guy back there to receive it. On the plus side, if you're able to get the power play going, scoring goals on deflections (the computer will credit you with assists on these) is extremely satisfying. However, the deke moves are disappointing; they don't ever fake out the goalie. Moreover, I never felt that a breakaway was a good scoring chance; I would almost always get stopped cold, and worse the defenseman would take me down, away from any possible rebound. Shooting the puck is also a hassle since most shots, no matter where they're aimed, seem to hit the goalie in the chest. I've had some situations where I aimed left and the puck ended up closer to my right.

Replay/Lasting Value: 2

With no franchise mode, it's hard to keep coming back and playing the same season over and over again. And with no online mode, your multiplayer options are limited. You can participate in the world tournament and I believe the rosters are correct for the Winter Olympics, but that's all you can really do with this game.

Overall Score: 5

Don't be duped into buying this game because of the limited hockey selection on the Dreamcast. You simply can't ignore the flaws. If EA released a game this broken, the world as we know it would end.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/03/04