Intelligent Game Reviews

As a Canadian I was born with hockey in my blood. I grew up playing in the streets, and in the schoolyard and at the local rink (frozen ponds were hard to come by here). My heroes wore the numbers 99 and 66 and the best time of the year was late in the spring during the Stanley Cup play-offs. When we weren’t playing or watching hockey on TV we were playing tabletop hockey or trying our luck with hockey video games.

Another Year Another EA Sports Installment

Video game hockey is always improving, sometimes in leaps and strides. From the old Atari 2600 Ice hockey game, later to the early Nintendo/Sega consoles, then to Wayne Gretzky Hockey and Hockey League Simulator and finally to the current series offered by EA Sports. I’ve played them all and with each new release the bar is raised another notch or two or three. Some aspects of the game, like graphics and sound improve faster than other aspects, AI for instance. The AI has gotten better than it has in the past but totally pales in comparison to the advances in sound and graphics.

NHL 2000 can be a great game depending on what you want out of it. Simply put, if you want something that looks and sounds like NHL or International hockey and provides hours of thumb-numbing fun sitting around with your friends, then this is the game for you. Do not expect a simulation of hockey. The AI simply can’t reproduce the product you see on the ice.

User Interface

NHL 2000 scores low on the user-interface scale for the reason that there are many variables that need to be set and sliders to be moved in order to find a setting that is challenging and yet prevents the AI from scoring off a slap shot from center ice. While everything you need is only a couple of clicks away there are dozens of variables that can be adjusted on sliding bars to customize game play. I found I spend a lot of time fooling around with settings and exploring various options.

The in-game user interface is much better. If you have ever played one of these before you know what it is like. I use a gamepad to play and found the action to be fast and furious. A four-button pad will give you most options available immediately to your fingers. An eight-button pad will take care of the rest. Line changes are simple to do on the fly and button layouts are all adjustable.

Computer AI

While not atrocious it does seem that AI is not improving as fast other aspects of this game and really looks bad because of it. There are some positives to report here. Goalies play smarter than they did before and the frequency of players going in offside is down too. Your AI teammates will more than likely be at the point to receive your pass from down low. Positioning is better and is customizable so you can instruct your players to play a weak-side lock or wide-open.

On the downside the default settings for this game totally give the user an advantage. The AI will not pressure, check, or score many goals. If settings are bumped up too high we don’t see an improvement in AI, but the AI scores at will and generally leaves you feeling ripped off. There is a happy medium that is achievable if you change the settings to give the computer enough skill and deteriorate the ability and skating of your own team. This requires a lot of tweaking to achieve a decent level of competition without getting the feeling that you are being cheated.

Game Play

Nothing beats four grown men huddling around the computer, thumbs merging with D-pads, shouting for a pass, and I haven’t even got to the verbal taunts yet. NHL 2000 is great arcade style hockey. This is what real hockey would be like if it were up to the FOX Network. What I did like was that the game played really fast. Sure this is a tad unrealistic but it was fun for the most part once the proper settings were adjusted.

I found that many of the default settings needed to be changed so that things like my defensemen being caught-up ice (leading to breakaways for the other team) could be fixed. I also noticed problems when switching between players. When you switch to another player, that player tends to lose a step or become momentarily disoriented, allowing the opposing team a break. I did not like this transition and often had to decide between taking over on defense or letting my computer teammate handle it. Either way had its drawbacks.

I also did not like the number of injuries that occurred in the game. While ironically this may be the most realistic feature of the game it still isn’t something I like to see. This can be attributed to the big hit key that lets you really lay down the lumber on your opponent. In addition, the fighting in NHL 2000 is just silly looking. It’s comical but sad to see such a farce and it doesn’t even fit in to the arcade style. In real NHL fights and skirmishes there is a lot of sweater pulling, clutching and grabbing. Occasionally punches are thrown but they are generally few and the fight usually ends with a tackle, not a knock-out blow.

Playing With Actual Humans

Multiplayer, for me, is the most important feature of this game. In this year’s release NHL 2000 officially supports internet play for up to 4 players (yourself plus 3 remote). The game lobby is usually full of people typing in CAPS and taunting others. All in good fun! Successful play over the internet requires a fairly fast, stable connection in order to work well. I prefer having my opponents and teammates sitting around the same monitor or TV screen (there’s more seating around my TV than my computer desk. This works well if you happen to have a TV-out capable graphics card).

Once all the players are in the game it’s pretty simple to allocate players to teams and player’s can be handicapped depending on their skill levels. Rookie players will have some advantages over All-Stars for example. This lets dad (Rookie) play against little-Johnny-thumb-warrior (All-Star) and might even allow for a close game! Overall this tends to work well as the game is more balanced allowing expert gamers to play fair matches against the casual or newbie gamer.

Graphics, Sounds, etc.

This is where NHL 2000 truly shines. The graphics are fabulous and the look just keeps getting better with every version. The models are more detailed, as are the textures, than ever before. The opening cut-scene is the traditional highlight reel coupled together with “Push It” performed by Garbage. This is their best opening since Blur’s “Song 2″ in ‘98.

In game it gets even better. From the National Anthems to the 3-star selections it’s like you’re watching a televised broadcast. Jim Hughson, an EA Sports and TV broadcast veteran, does play-by-play commentary. ESPN’s Bill Clement does the color. Aside from the occasional gaffe (see below) the commentary is incredibly smooth and follows the play closer than ever before. The color is good too, bringing up real stats as well as having the ability to analyze your in-game career stats as well.

Player faces are mapped onto 3D models, and EA Sports gives you the option of being in the game. You can import your face and map it to a custom created player. Player faces and expressions are delightful to watch as mouths move when players protest a referee’s call. Little details like the home team’s logo on the puck and the ability to knock the goalie’s water bottle off its perch on top of the net make for some great new additions in this edition.

I played the game for the most part at a resolution of 1024 x 768 and the game ran smoothly and everything just looked terrific. There are also some great reflective effects and some colored lighting effects too.

With all the data and information contained in this game it is not too surprising to hear some goofs coming from the game announcers. T
he canned commentary for Claude Lemieux (cheap shot artist) is obviously mixed up with Mario (the Magnificent) Lemieux (who has retired and is not even on the roster). They also refer to (defenseman) Chris Joseph’s previous season with him being “between the pipes” an obvious reference to Curtis Joseph. Stuff like this should have been caught in quality control.

There is also this nasty “Invalid Chunk” error that persistently appears on average every two or three games that unceremoniously dumps you out of the game. This is bearable when playing around with your buddies but a serious PITA when playing season or play-off mode against the computer. I probably would not have let this bug influence this review but every EA Sports NHL game I’ve had for the PC (and I’ve had them all) has a similar problem. Once you go through several generations of the game and several hardware configurations you eventually figure out that the problem is not on your end.

The Verdict

Definitely worth picking up if you are a hockey fan or a fan of EA Sports’ Hockey games, especially if you haven’t picked up a new version in awhile. If you are a hockey purist and are looking for a simulation you will not find it here. This game was a lot of fun to play multiplayer but gets easy to beat in single player mode and will not likely present a long term challenge.

There’s always the option of picking up NHL 99 in the discount bin if you’re unsure about this latest release. If a new version of this game is released every year and they expect the consumer to buy a new version every year then they had better concentrate on improving the AI and quashing bugs.

NHL 2000 Hockey Screenshots

Play International style for even faster action and a bigger ice surface.	Detroit scores! An odd defensive configuration for the Leafs.
Mike Richter stacks the pads but can’t stop this shot to the top shelf (where Kerbe keeps the milk-bones.)	Big Hits!

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