ESPN NHL 2K5 (X-Box)
Developed by: Visual Concepts/Kush Games
Published by: Sega

Ahh yes, hockey season is here again. The leaves are falling from the trees, frost is spreading across our window panes, and the first snowflakes are starting to crystallize in the air. Wait a minute… what the–? It seems I’m still wearing shorts. Something’s not quite right here.

This year Sega has once again decided to up the ante by releasing their new ESPN hockey game a good 3 weeks ahead of EA, and at less than half the cost — a true early bird special if I’ve ever seen one. It’s hard to argue with a Canadian price tag of $29.99, especially for gamers who know that Sega’s sports titles have been quickly closing in on EA’s in terms of production value. This year’s ESPN football game received rave reviews and was believed by many critics to be superior to EA’s almighty Madden franchise. As a result, I had high expectations for ESPN NHL 2K5.

Unfortunately, hockey as a sport does not even come close to football in terms of popularity, and the development manpower for the two games appears to have been scaled appropriately. ESPN NHL 2K5 does not meet the high standards set by NFL 2K5, and indeed at first glance it doesn’t even seem to have changed much from NHL 2K4. However, I thought last year’s game was pretty damn good on its own, and 2K5 contains a number of subtle improvements that make this another high quality title.

The most important thing is that the gameplay has been relatively untouched. The fluid skating and stickhandling controls are still just as intuitive and gratifying as they were last year, and once again I think this is the big advantage the ESPN games have over recent EA hockey installments. They’ve made a couple small changes that add some complexity to the overall control scheme but put some new moves at your fingertips. Skating backwards is now performed by squeezing the left trigger, at which point you can use the right analog stick to freely swing your stick back and forth with “Total Stick Control”, in an attempt to knock the puck away from your opponent. With a little practice, this may quickly become a more effective defensive strategy than simply throwing your weight around. Speaking of which, if you want to deal some damage, you can now use the right analog stick as you’re throwing a hit to activate the “Intense Contact Controls”. The disappointing thing about this new feature is that it usually results in a slash or a cross-check instead of an extra punishing body check, and it almost always lands you in the penalty box. Pinning is also a bigger part of the game this year, as it happens more frequently and the player being pinned can throw elbows, kick the puck, or call in a teammate for assistance.

In terms of puck handling, The “Total Control Dekes” are back from last year, and most of them are still kind of awkward to use as they cause your player to cross almost half the ice surface while they carry out one of these clumsy automatic dekes. What is useful, however, is the new give and go passing play. It may be of note to some players that there’s very little difference between Classic, Intermediate or Advanced controls this year, so if you’re hoping to avoid using many of the complex maneuvers you may still have to deal with an unwieldy controller setup whether you like it or not.

Visual Concepts answered my plea from last year (yes, mine specifically) and decided to create an all-new fighting system to do away with the typical button mashing contests that we’ve gotten so used to. The new fight controls allow you to skate around the ice more as you tussle, and perform a number of moves including grabbing jerseys, dealing uppercuts, ducking, and even taunting and throwing fake punches. The action is still a little too chaotic to form any sort of strategy though, and the fights all seem to end in the same way. Winning a fight will give your team an unlimited turbo boost for a limited length of time (so I guess it’s not really unlimited… hmmm). More than anything, their new fight system made me want more realism in terms of the context of fights… they still seem to be triggered by mostly random events, not specific harassments, and players who would never fight in real-life still wind up scrapping quite frequently. Why can’t we have an immediate brawl erupt if you run a goaltender or throw a brutal hit on their star player? Now that would feel like real hockey. I know you’re reading guys, so next year… make it happen!

The realism of the A.I. does seem to be improved in other respects though. Offensively, CPU controlled players make some very intelligent passing plays, and on defense they clog the front of the net and hound you tirelessly as you try to stickhandle around them. This year’s game is so much more balanced than last year, where it was either way too easy to score or next to impossible. There’s a ton of different ways to score this year, it’s not just about one-timers and the good ol’ S-deke. There does seem to be a little too much shot blocking going on from the players though.

The biggest disappointment about ESPN NHL 2K5 is probably the presentation in general. Compared to NFL 2K5, this hockey game is way behind in terms of both graphics and animations. They’ve added some new 3D crowd cutscenes that are kind of amusing, but a lot of stuff just looks the same as last year. They even seem to have recycled a lot of the animations and some of the play-by-play commentary. The players look stiff and unnatural in the replays… then again, simple animations might be part of the trade-off for smooth controls. I was also hoping for some of the cool new features that they had in the ESPN football game, such as simulated highlights from other games in the league if you’re playing a season. Not there, unfortunately. Another minor complaint about the game is that after every faceoff there is a temporary frame rate drop while the picture-in-picture window is still active.

Other than the visual gripes, the only problem with this game is that it feels like it was rushed to stores. There are a lot of little glitches you will find throughout the game… nothing major, but it definitely lacks polish. Playing online games has been troublesome for some, and although they finally came up with true soundtrack customization options, you can’t randomize your selections… and during the mini-games it will actually play your custom songs simultaneously over top of the default ones!

Even despite its flaws, the thing that really makes me recommend this year’s ESPN hockey game is the sheer amount of value you get for the money. The franchise mode this year is incredibly deep… to the point where you are hiring coaches and scouts for your team, and even playing games with your minor league teams to see which players you want to draft. They’ve also added a ton of new game modes, such as the Party Mode (over 15 wacky mini-games that can be played with 4 players like keep away, tag, and lots of obstacle course type things), a dream team challenge mode (where you play against teams that were handpicked by various hockey stars and personalities), an unlockable Heritage Classic game mode, all in addition to the pond hockey, skills competition, and other stuff they had last year. There even added some new mini-games in the Skybox… you can now play shuffleboard and trivia too! And of course, just about every setting in the game is customizable with a slider. Months later you’ll still be finding new things to try out in NHL 2K5, I can guarantee it.

Sega’s presence in the sports market is definitely something EA needs to get used to. As long as they keep making games like this, they’re going to be competitive with them for a long time to come. If you like hockey, this is a game you can’t pass up. Even if you’re an EA fan, the price is right, and once you try it you just might find it plays smoother and more open-ended than EA’s games. One things for sure — with the impending NHL lockout weeks away, we can certainly all use as much virtual hockey as we can get this year. Check it. — Sean