NHL 07

"Take the fall, act hurt, get indignant"

Another year, another NHL game. I must say that although I'm a fan of the series, I was really losing patience last year. I was angry because even though NHL 06 was fun to play, it still wasn't realistic statistically. Even on the hardest difficulty setting, my team's numbers were way higher than even the best hockey teams in real life (and trust me, I'm not amazingly good at this game or anything). I had an average of 6 goals per game, which is about three higher than the best team in the real NHL currently. My powerplay had a rating which was about 40% higher than the rest of the league (in the game). My penalty kill, on the other hand, was about 40% lower than the rest of the league. Goalies in 06 flopped around like fish and slid all over the place. Players had little individuality.

But fortunately, the series took a leap in the right direction. Many of the above issues were dealt with, and the game was improved graphically and in overall realism. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many of the issues that bothered me about the last game directly improved upon. The biggest problem was of course the statistics. Even though I enjoyed winning, I was sick of winning all my games with ridiculous scores, like 7 to 2 (it's possible, but such scores only happen every so often in real-life hockey, whereas it happened almost every game in NHL 06). I originally thought that the way to fix this problem would be to make the computer goalies more difficult, but now I realize how wrong I was. The goalies were already really hard in 06, but they were also inconsistent. They would make amazing saves time after time but then finally you would get a goal, and it would be on a dump in or a crappy shot that a real goalie would have gotten easily.

No, the goalies weren't what was causing the issue, it was the defense. I can't believe I didn't see it before. The defense in 06 was awful. They almost never intercepted passes that went right past them, they almost never body checked you, they almost never poke-checked the puck off your stick, and they absolutely never laid out on the ice to block a shot. These are all the things that real defenseman do. The computer-controlled defenses in 06 were too easy, and that made the shot numbers through the roof. An average amount of shots on net in real-life hockey would probably be in the 20-30 range. In 06, I almost always was in the 50s. But NHL 07 pumped up computer defenses, increasing their ability to poke check, strip the puck, block shots, and even get big hits when necessary. This improvement decreased the amount of shots you have the chance to get, and especially decreased the amount of scoring chances you get, which in turn decreased the amount of goals you score. Brilliant. One move that I think the gamemakers should add to the defenseman is the ability to deflect shots over the glass. In real hockey, defenseman do this all the time, using it as their number one way to block shots. If they added this, defense would be even more realistic.

And this improvement on the defense forces you to get better, more realistic goals as well. No longer do you get every one of your goals from sliding a cross-ice pass and one-timing it in the short side. The game is no longer about scoring cheap one-time goals on an empty net, it's now about cycling along the boards, having good stick handling, and finding holes in the defense for good team passing plays, like real hockey.

Another reason that goals look more realistic now is that goalie animations were again improved. In 06, goalies magically slid around the ice occasionally making unbelievable saves that just looked silly. But now, goalie momentum is much more realistic. If a goalie wants to slide across the ice, he has to push off with his leg, making a slight hole to possibly shoot through. This seemingly minor change is actually huge. Now scoring breakaway goals is less about shaking your stick back and forth and shooting it over the flopping goalie. Now it's about making the goalie leave a hole by forcing him to move in a way he doesn't want to. This is more like it's done in real-life, so that's cool.

And the final major improvement upon the game is the overall individuality of the players. In 06, you could just quickly tap a shot to the top corner with almost any player, and they would nail it, almost never missing the net wide. But this is so unrealistic, hitting the top corner of the net is very hard and only skilled players can nail it perfectly. So now in 07, only your players rated as "sniper" will hit that sweet spot with regularity. This isn't to say that other players will never be able to shoot high, but the balance is just more realistic now. So the game is no longer about always shooting to the top corner on every shot, like you could in 06, it now forces you to know who you're controlling, and know their abilities. Lots of players won't be able to hit the top of the net, so you need to know to aim lower.

But other than these improvements and other slight graphical improvements, it's just the same game as NHL 06. And for the most part this is alright, except for the issue of announcers. Yep, the same announcers are back, and they say all the same phrases again. Except for a few additions to their arsenal, they announce pretty much all the same stuff. I think that the gamemakers need to completely remake this. These announcers are just no longer interesting, and are in fact completely annoying. I'm tired of having to turn them off and play in silence. If the gamemakers could just get some good announcers in there, the game would be almost perfect.

And while on the subject of audio, I might as well quickly mention the soundtrack. It's pretty lacking, as it is almost entirely punk and emo music. Not exactly my favorite genres. There's a couple rock songs though, like "Talk to Her" and "Barely Listening", which are decent songs. All in all though, the soundtrack definitely needs some work. And this area is almost always negative in NHL games. I don't really know how they could fix it other than to pick more of a variety in their songs. Obviously, not everyone has the same taste in music, so picking songs from a wide variety of genres will please more gamers.

So all in all, a very promising game for the series. The gamemakers definitely made some good decisions and improved the game in many aspects. Fans of past games will definitely enjoy this game, as the only real thing to turn them away would be the new default control scheme. Personally, I didn't like it, but don't worry, it's easy to change back to the old control style or any new style you would prefer. This is definitely a must-have for any hockey fan with a PS2.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/07