NHL 2K8 Review

297w ago - For years now, 2K Sports' NHL 2K series has been the gold standard for hockey games, both in gameplay and depth of content. But over the last couple of installments, a trend has been developing. While certain strides have been made to improve various aspects of the game in each installment, these changes have become less and less significant. Last year, most of the work went into the presentation, which left the fun yet aging gameplay engine much the same as it was in NHL 2K6. In NHL 2K8, the gameplay has been reworked in some key areas, but many of these changes don't really improve the gameplay so much as change it for the sake of changing it.

There isn't the feeling that 2K8 has really moved the series forward in any major capacity, and in some regards, it feels like a step backward. This is a good game of hockey that's jam-packed with features, but it's nowhere near the level of quality the series has previously set for itself.

Most people's first reaction to NHL 2K8 will probably be, "Wait, what the heck happened to the controls?" That's because the controls in 2K8 have been completely reworked, and not necessarily for the better. For example, shooting and passing have been mapped to the bumpers on the Xbox 360 controller, and to the R1 and L1 buttons on the PlayStation 3 controller. On top of that, the L2/left trigger buttons now act as a modifier for slap shots by default, so if you want to do one, you have to hold it down and press the shoot button. While this does make things a bit more involved than the age-old methodology of hammering on a shoot button until the puck goes in, it also makes the early hours of the game kind of a pain as you try to figure out how to effectively shoot the puck. You will get used to it, but even once you do, it never feels quite right.

The other big change to the game is the "pro-stick," otherwise known as 2K's attempt to rework the right analog stick into something more than just a way to pull off a preset deke. Essentially, you can now use the right analog stick to move the puck from side to side on offense, and to swipe and poke check on defense. Unfortunately, it isn't actually that useful in most situations. On the defensive side, the poke check feels very hit-or-miss, and it actually felt better last year when the poke check was just a button press. On offense, you get a decent range of motion when moving with the stick, but the responsiveness just isn't there. The stick isn't dynamic enough to really let you move the puck quickly, and for the most part it simply feels stiff. Given that EA pretty much set the hockey world on fire with its skill stick mechanic, it's understandable that 2K would want to come back with its own right-analog-stick innovation. It's too bad that this one feels more like a half-cocked knockoff than anything else. If you're going to try to match someone else's gameplay innovation, go all the way with it. Don't deliver something that's only half as useful.

The control goofiness doesn't end there. There are now two speed bursts in the game, one of which is the standard, sustained speed burst, and the other is a real quick burst that's supposed to push you past defenders for a breakaway. They don't really feel much different from one another, save for the fact that one ends sooner; you just end up feeling that the second speed-burst button could have been used for something more useful, like, say, icon passing. For some dopey reason, icon passing has now been mapped to the select button on the PS3, and the back button on the 360. Given that you can use this feature only when you're in the offensive zone and have control of the puck, you have a very narrow window of time to turn on icon passing and set up a play. Fumbling for the least accessible button on both controllers to engage icon passing is the opposite of fun, and often leads you to lose the puck when you get checked out of your skates.

Which brings up another issue with NHL 2K8: checking. Checking is always fun, especially when you knock a guy flat on his back, but the amount that you can check and the frequency of big hits in 2K8 is just crazy. Every check seems to knock a guy off his skates, regardless of size or strength. On harder difficulty settings, it seems as if the artificial intelligence is a bit better about avoiding your checks, but you can still lay out opponents in ridiculous fashion. Never, ever in a million, billion years should the 5'9", 165 pound Steve Sullivan be able to lay out the 6'9", 260 pound Zdeno Chara on the ice, short of putting rockets on his skates and holding his stick out like a lance in a jousting contest. But lo and behold, you can do it here. This is supposed to be a realistic simulation of hockey, but at times, 2K8 feels as if it has more in common with Midway's NHL Hitz series than the real-life sport.

Granted, that's a lot of negative talk for something that is, by and large, a good hockey game. For what it's worth, there is good to be found here, though a great deal of it is due to holdover mechanics from previous games. 2K8's method of goalie control is still the most enjoyable interpretation of the position to be found in any game, and the game still uses the best default camera angle in the business. Apart from the stiffness of the right-analog-stick controls, the rest of the controls are quite responsive. Moving up and down the ice feels great. You also have the option of switching to one of the older control schemes from previous years, though that essentially makes you feel like you're playing last year's game, instead of a new iteration.

There are also a couple of new things in this year's game that definitely benefit the overall experience. First are the superstar moves, which are a roster of maneuvers that only top-flight forwards are capable of pulling out. By holding down the left trigger/L2 button and pressing a combination of two of the controller's face buttons, your forward will go into some kind of ridiculous animation before shooting the puck in ridiculous fashion. Whether it's faking a whiff, spinning like a top, or pulling a Marek Malik-style through-the-legs shot, these moves are awesome. The only bummer about them is that their usefulness is so limited. They're absolutely great during shootouts because they let you get real fancy against opposing goalies. But in traffic, you're more likely to get slammed to the ice than you are to pull off a 360-degree spin before shooting the puck. There are also so many moves that it can be difficult to memorize all the different ones, meaning you might occasionally pull out the wrong moves at the wrong times.

Another useful change is faceoffs. You use the right analog stick to set where you want your stick to be prior to a faceoff, and release it the second the puck is dropped. If you and your opponent end up hitting at the same time, it will result in a tie-up, and another player will have to skate in and grab the puck. If you time it just right, you'll knock the puck back to one of your teammates. It's a neat system that feels much more like real faceoffs, though you do seem to end up in a few more tie-ups than is realistic.

Lastly, and perhaps most beneficial to the game overall, is scoring. Yes, the shooting controls are a bit of a pain, but by some miracle, the actual scoring in 2K8 feels much, much better than it has in previous years. This is specifically because the one-timer no longer feels like the only way to score. You can actually hit big slap shots from the point and get them redirected by your teammates into the net, or pull off quick wristers on the breakaway and actually have them go in with proper consistency. It's a shame that most people might not even really notice this, given the weird control scheme and silly amount of checking, but it is a big improvement.