ESPN NHL 2K5

"Not Quite There Yet"

The ESPN Hockey series has in my opinion, always been the best hockey series around. However, there is just too much room for improvement left in this game to give it a higher score. I'll break down some of the aspects of the game.

Scoring: Scoring is rather difficult in this year's outing. Sometimes you will have no problem lighting the lamp four or five times a game through thirty plus shots and then other times you will get nothing after fifty plus shots. It's like they went through last year's version and eliminated almost every way you could score. Breakaways are near impossible to make and even harder to cash in on. One timers across the net are often easily blocked with little or no effort from the goalie, and slap shots rarely go where you want them. All of this is based on the idea that you even get the puck to the net. The opposing D often runs a triangle defense that sets 3 guys around their goalie at all times. Centering passes will get picked off every time and slap shots rarely make it through. Rebounding is also fairly bad as it is entirely random and for the most part unrealistic.

Puck Movement: The puck movement is rather well done in this game. All the animations and dekes are fluid and smooth. However, AI players can all too easily deke past you or just move the puck away from you.

Checking: This is one of the more disappointing aspects of the game. Anyone familiar with the series will notice few new hit animations. Also the checking is often random in its severity. Sometimes you can get a defensiveman going full speed but when you try to check someone skating at you, they will often times just bounce off the oncomer and the guy will keep right on going with full retention of the puck. Other times when you just want to give someone a bump to push them away or push them off the puck you will instead pummel them and may then get a penalty.

Defense: The AI defense is terrible. It mostly consists of constantly bumping your guys that are set up around the net making centering passes, one timers, and just moving the puck around very frustrating. As for your d-men, well they rarely do anything at all. You will do a lot of babysitting while on the d side as your defensive men stand around and let the other team set up where ever they please. Penalties also seem to be random. I've seen the computer get away with four penalties in a row (the commentators will confirm this) and get no call and then I try to poke the puck away once and immediately get the whistle for hooking.

Graphics: The graphics are just as good if not better than last year's outing and if you haven't played it then that means they're good. Player models are very well done and everything from the goalie's mask to the player's jersey are top notch.

Sound: The sound is very good. You can tweak all the sound aspects from crowd noise to the goal siren. Almost every sound in the game sounds exactly like its real life counterpart.

Presentation: The absolute best commentary you will find in any hockey game period. Menus are well laid out and easy to navigate and the ESPN treatment adds a very nice and realistic touch.

Conclusion: This game just takes too much tweaking of the settings to get that just right feel. Many hockey enthusiasts will immediately notice a blatant lack of realism through most of the game. Its as if the developers of the game have never seen a hockey game played out sometimes. Its just too unrealistic game play wise and too &^(*%(^% frustrating the rest of the time too really enjoy. If your a fan of the arcade hockey or not too familiar with hockey to know any better, this won't be disappointing, but if you love the sport and want an exact recreation of what happens on the ice, you will be disappointed. But hey at $20 its still a decent buy.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/04