Ah, those crafty Canadians and their hockey (wait, I Am Canadian!), they always find a way to make a sports game better every year. Last year EA Sports didn’t’ release a hockey title for the next-generation console and let 2k Games take the center stage. Now, after a long grueling year of waiting, we get a true next-generation hockey title (as thousands of Canadians jump for joy). With new controls, game mechanics and of course crisp graphics, how will the game hold up as a sports and ‘next-generation’ title?
Like every year EA Games releases an NHL title into the video game market and goes head to head with 2k games’, NHL 2K series. Each title they’ve released has basically had the same maneuvers when looking at controls, A to pass and X to shoot, and so on. But what no one expected them to do something quite unique as this. Instead of plugging in the regular controls, they’ve reinvented the idea of taking control of your hockey stick. The new anticipated system is probably the only major innovative upgrade in 07, but it definitely isn’t the only next-generation tool used. The game looks beautiful as helmets never shine so brightly and players look so realistic to their real life counter partners it’s almost as if you were really playing as a professional hockey player. Other than graphics and the new mechanics, the game is pretty much the same as the older installments of the NHL franchise but it’s all up to how well these new mechanics work to make a good game.
Gameplay
Gameplay has done a massive 180 to create a more realistic and, I guess you can say a more enjoyable entertainment experience. Previous titles of EA’s NHL series were really easy, you could score seven goals within 2 periods of the game but now I’m having trouble even scoring 2 in one game. This is good to sports simulator fans because it’s more realistic and you get a better grip on a true hockey experience rather than a ‘fake’ game. Said before, the game features an all new control scheme. Rather than the traditional X to shoot and A to pass, the game features the right analog stick to control your hockey stick simply named, Skill Stick. Very similar to this years EA title, Fight Night Round 3, you will use the right analog stick to maneuver your shots and surprisingly it’s very easy. At first the new system does take awhile to adjust to but after a few games you’ll be able to master the basics behind shooting.
You simply move the right analog stick left or right to deke your character around and while doing this you can quickly switch to a wrist shot by positioning your thumb down and swinging it forward to shoot, this is one of the better techniques. Slap shots make sense both in the real and video game world, you swing back the stick which takes a wind up and then you swinging it forward and take your 100 mile hour slap shot. Those are pretty much what you’ll need to learn if you want to score, but there are always other moves like spinning your analog stick around you can spin your character in order to get around a player or just confuse the goalie. There isn’t that many different moves but the number that EA put in the game was enough as you might have a slip second to two seconds to think before you shoot. This new control scheme is very useful and helps distinguishes the use of both analog sticks. It worked extremely well on EA Games’ Fight Night Round 3 that was released earlier this year and it works exceptionally well on their first NHL next generation title. Of course this is a bit of a steep learning curve to regulars to the series, so EA does offer an option to switch the controls back to the original settings put in the previous titles, but it’s a better experience if you leave it as the default, it makes it feel like you really are in control of the hockey stick.
Timonen never shows any emotions.
What’s weird when using the right analog stick to shoot, you use the left one to both skate and aim at the same time. You think this would be hard to do, and it is a bit difficult when you have a split second to decide but it actually works well. It’s always nice to think about shooting a puck up high in the right pocket, and now you can do it with a two flicks of the wrist. Since they’re not using the button pads as actions (other than Y being start a fight), there isn’t much they can do to pass, they created a new system to allow you to shoot with your right analog stick but it didn’t look like they knew where to put the pass button, instead of one of buttons, they made it the right trigger, which actually feels very awkward for along time (as everything does have a point you get use to it).
Another new controllable feature in NHL 07 is during face-offs. In previous titles you would just press one button and you would hack and hack till you the ref drop’s the puck and see who gets it, now you have to time it right. The referee in the game can now bluff on when he’s going to drop the puck and you are only allowed to sweep a couple times and if you don’t time it right, the opponent team will win the face-off. This is another interesting new control setting, not needed but still fine, I do think the old slash at the puck system is more affective but this is more realistic. Other than that, the only other feature they put into a combination of buttons is pressing both the left bumper and the back button on the controller to pull the goalie. It isn’t that useful of a technique but it is there to serve you if you ever need to do a quick pull without pressing start and going through the menu. Controls in NHL 07 have drastically changed, they still have the original/classic setting but the new system is more enjoyable and more advanced to the player, this is the innovation we need in more next-generation titles.
Now that we’re past the basic control feature, NHL 07 only includes a variety of unique modes. First is the quick match. This is basically what most sports titles have on the main menu screen where you’re able to randomize the teams to put yourself in a battle just for the hell of it. This isn’t a season mode, or any long term investment, it’s just a quick game to test your skills. This year they have put the default teams who pop up first when you select this selection as last years Stanley Cup finalists, the Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes (if you missed who won it was the Canes). This mode isn’t anything new but I do like sports games who add this if we just want to jump into a quick game.
The second experience is the shootout mode. This is mainly an eight man game where you choose three players and one goalie and the other team does the same to go one-on-one. With the new control scheme the game definitely really needed this as you can deke out the goalie with the right moves, but other than that, this is just a really quick… I guess you can call it mini-game.
The big new aspects that NHL 07 features is its Dynasty mode, the mode that puts you in the shoes of the coach and general manager, you call the shots, you work out your teams finances. At first glance, Dynasty mode sounds like your traditional season mode that is placed in every NHL EA title, but Dynasty mode is a whole new creation to help the player become immersed in the hockey team. Like I said before, you will be playing as a general manager of the team; you will have the responsibility of organizing trades and looking through free agents. With this you will have to keep track of your salary cap. A realistic and interactive money organizer is based on each team’s success. The more they win the more fans will come with money! And with this you can raise the price of tickets to earn enough money to buy Paul Kariya! But you have to keep your fans happy, and you can do this by spending money on fan give-a-ways or lowering the price of tickets (price of admission equals more people). This is a second style of gameplay in this one game, both hockey and financial strategies. Since you have to balance your team’s salary cap, it means you can’t have an entire team of power soldiers, this adds a bit of difficulty to anyone who just wants to power ride through the season. Free agents are always being dropped off, depending on what they do during a game; their team may rip up their contract and through them out to be a free agent for anyone to sign. Mostly you’ll never find big names like Eric Lindros or Jarome Iginla in the Free agents bin only because there are too many teams who want them as it is.
The Senators goalie proudly shows off how polished his helmet is.
Being the general manager of a team also means you have access to injury reports, not only based on your team but you can view others as well, it comes in handy if you want to know your chances in the next match to see if one of their top players is out. It also informs you on the type of injury they’ve sustained such as a sprained ankle or broken neck and has a body indicator to help the viewer understand where exactly they have damaged their body. You also have access to staff and equipment to upgrades. Under one of the selections you are able to upgrade your current staff or equipment statuses based on a couple million dollars in order to increase your teams’ status.
Other than the general manager you are given coach navigation during the Dynasty mode. Here you are able to edit your lines, put in who you during the game and make it so you have the ultimate line, edit jersey numbers, team strategies (create something so your AI doesn’t always screw up), view your teams’ progress, team reports and team development. Its good they’re adding all these status’ to keep track on how well your team and players are doing but there are so many you barely can keep track of.
Presentation in Dynasty mode is high; it has an angled schedules and navigation for a cool clean look. A season schedule is displayed in seven months like a calendar, from October to April and after that it goes into Playoffs. On screen it’ll show each month and your current teams’ game schedule with the logo of the team you will be facing in the box/date. There will also be a red tick on the top right of the box to indicate whether it’s a home game. There is of course an option which will allow you to skip these games and randomize that game, but why would you do that? You will also have access to email that is sent to you from higher ups such as the NHL board, with information about current status’, latest free agents who were picked up, or who’s on a hot streak. As well you will be handed a monthly financial report indicating your total profit and revenue and basically everything that can be found in your GM’s financial menu.
Just like the Dynasty season, the World Tournament is displayed in the same way. It has the schedules on a calendar and all the GM and Coach’s features such as injury report and line changes. But the big difference between the two is that the World Tournament has all of the national teams such as Canada, United States and Russia instead of the NHL teams. To anyone who doesn’t what the Hockey World Tournament is, its combines the best hockey players in the NHL separated in their nation team. Since this is a tournament, it bases all its team standings on points and when it gets father into the tournament it goes into the quarter, semi and finals. There will also be a bronze medal game between the two losers of the semi-finals. This is a nice little additional to the NHL series and keeps you playing even more.
Lastly, online gameplay has been becoming one of the biggest upgrades in sports titles, heck in most games now a days. For the past couple years, few sports titles have really mastered the online gameplay, and for the NHL series, EA Games has only been supporting online for the last two titles. Since this is EA Games’ first NHL title for a next generation system, they really used to use the full extent of Xbox Live. You are able to join or create a ranked match and… that’s about it. You are able to check your or others current standings in the leaderboards. This is a bit of disappointment, I would have liked to seen a tournament online battle where eight different people go head to head with one another and only one victor is crowned! I guess this is just something they can add in NHL 08. There is also an updater to the roster so in the future when hockey starts later next month EA Games will update the rosters in each team. Other than the online mode 07 allows up to four players through one Xbox 360.
There is big concern I want to address. Each team in NHL 07 seems to be nearly the same when it comes down to overall power. When you are in the team selection menu, every team seems to be between 81 and 87 overall status (with Washington at 79). This is kind of a disappointment because there isn’t that much difficulty as each team is about the same core power as one another. One team usually has a few attributes more than another such as better offence or better defense but overall they’re all basically the same, each team feels like their normal, no one better or worse which isn’t very true (although Western and Eastern All Stars of course are listed in the 90’s).
Now let’s talk about the Artificial intelligence in this game. It’s not great, that’s mostly sums it up. You will find your allied teammates do not so bright things over and over again. One problem I had was they would go offside all the time and I rarely could get into the opponents side of the rink. And when you do turn off your offside rule they will act as if it’s still in force and run or stop at the blue line. Also various times they will be locked on something and slowly change to another thing. Such as If they were standing right beside one player who just received the puck, your teammate I found will skate the opposite direction like he was assigned to another player on the team and then two seconds later when the puck is at the half line he will race to it. This also happens to pucks as well, if it’s floating down the rink you will have to switch to a character to get it, do not rely on the computer to get it for you. This is one of the bigger disappointments in the game, but the game is still plenty of fun even with this negative gameplay aspect.
Deking in 07 is more enjoyable than ever!
Now a new feature EA added was that the puck itself has its own physics and dimensions so if you shoot it down the rink it can roll on its side and go even farther. Also the puck reacts with everything, so if it hits a players skate it’ll bounce off and go into the opposite direction, this same goes with the goalie. When the puck is shot at him, he will react where the puck hit, so if you shoot it low it will bounce off hit pads, or if you shoot it at his blocker or stick it’ll bounce off. Same goes with his head. It also allows the goalie to catch the puck with his glove showing off a more realistic animation. Sometimes though, the camera can get in the way of the puck, meaning since it’s so small you can loose it depending on what camera angle you set the game to. Action you can loose it behind the net, even though there is a cursor that indicates where the puck is, it really doesn’t help. The puck feature is very useful and helps bring a more realistic hockey experience.
NHL 07 also displays a ‘create your own character’ selection where you can choose from fifteen different faces and edit his personal information and attributes. You can edit his name, origin, weight, height and so on, and you can also give him the strongest attributes such as speed, accuracy and toughness. There are a lot of features here but this can make an unfair team. As much as the game bases a team on their salary cap, you are able to set the characters salary here, it wont be based on his skills but what you think he is worth, so you can a million a year and still have the best character on the team. Of course other teams can always try to trade or offer him better contracts, this still doesn’t feel as if they’re really establishing the salary cap to the fullest.
Graphics
Graphics are a big deal in the next generation of gameplay and there have been only a few titles that really captured the essence of this. NHL truly looks stunning, character models are highly detailed while their helmets shine with a great reflection of light. Clothing in NHL 07 looks fabulous, the textures in this game are some of the best, and you can see stitches and the seams of clothing while the fabric stands out stunningly. While playing one period your players will skate around the rink over and over and the skate marks will show and stay there until the zamboni comes by. There are hundreds if not thousands of crowd members at a game at once who are all modeled in 3D (which we would expect form a next-generation title), although they aren’t that detailed close up, from a distance and with a couple coats of special effects they looks realistic. The only thing about the crowd that doesn’t feel real is the animation. Its not that they feel stiff, it’s just that they look like they run at 10fps, it’s very choppy. The rink has a unique shine to it and reflects all the lights that would be in the arena. The best thing about the rink is its updated progress.
Animation on the rink on the other hand is probably the best you’ll see from any sports title. The game is packed with a ton of fluently animated players. The goalie, like in the other games would quickly get to his feet and put his head down if a goal was scored on him. That was last generation, now the goalie reacts on how you score, and where you shoot, if you shoot a pie hole shot, he’ll cover his legs and quickly turn to cover up the puck if it slipped by, and if you get by he’ll stay on his legs and sigh with disbelief. Also whenever a player scores, players on the other team, around the net will also put their heads down in disappointment and slowly skate around. And like before, since the puck has its own dynamics and physics other things can interact with it causing numerous animations such as a glove or blocker save by the goaltender. Skating around the rink never looked so good and deking feels so realistic. Although at the end of the game, you will see your team mate pat your goalie, it really reminds me of a dog.
Jager never looked so good
Cameras are on another big deal in video games, if the camera is positioned wrong you could receive a poor experience in the game. Luckily NHL 07 has various camera modes to your disposal. Unfortunately since this is a hockey game the only time you will notice most of a graphic detail is during the in-game cutscenes or during the shoot out when it zooms right behind your player. It’s similar to a game like Fifa where the camera is positioned so high you cannot see most of the detail on the character or field but in 07 there will be different cameras to help you pick your true experience.
After everything, EA games’ NHL 07 is beautiful, high pixel models, sharp reflections off the ice and helmets and the excellent textures put into the character makes it one of the best looking games out. It’s not quite as pretty as Fight Night, but it does include lots of a same ideas such as sweat and excellent physics, but this is a game with twelve high modeled characters on screen, plus a referee and hundreds of crowd members so it’s all fair. Players in 07 don’t look exactly like their realistic counter partners but they’re getting there.
Audio
This is hard to talk about because in game there isn’t that much music, mostly just the commentary. But like mostly every sports and even racing game EA releases, the game includes a wide soundtrack of ‘punk’ rock music, no ACDC for you. The only time you will ever here any music is during a replay or during your time in the menu navigations. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of variety of music so you might want to hook up your iPod. Now the sound effects in the game are done extremely well and accurate. Stick slashing never sounded so real and slap shots have a great crunch to them and hitting the post never sounded so exciting, although I would have liked to hear a pin if you hit someone’s helmet. Crowd cheering on the other hand kind of sounds fixed, but does vary from time to time. They’ll boo the visitors and cheer the home team from time to time and depending on how well your team is performing they might even chant. It’s very refreshing.
Commentary is also done decently. It’s definitely an improvement over other games of the series but still kind of choppy and at times will sound fake. They have some good opinions when something occurs but what will really annoy you is that most of their comments and stories will repeat over and over again so it does get repetitive. And I really wish they would get Don Cherry on the commentary that would be dynamite.
Conclusion
After all the work from building the game from, basically the ground up, NHL 07 is a huge success. The game features lots of new and improved gameplay aspects along with some interesting physics and animations. Graphics never looked so good and the game has a deep Dynasty mode. With lots of modes such as shootouts, world tournaments and most importantly online, the game will last you for quite some time. The only thing that could have been worked on is adding tournaments in the online mode and upgrading the Artificial Intelligence in the game. The game will also feature 26 achievements to unlock spanning from easy ones such as obtain a victory in easy mode, to hard and long ones like playing 10 dynasty seasons. After everything that EA offers in their new installment to the NHL franchise, they did a great job recreating the true hockey experience. With great graphics and new and interactive gameplay, this will sure to please all the hockey fans out there.
