EA Sports has released the newest game in its NHL series, which dates back to their first game, NHL Hockey (1991) and has continued yearly since 1993. While EA released some fantastic NHL games in the mid-90’s, the NHL series has recently taken a back seat to the more simulation-like gameplay of the 2K series, but NHL 08 may be the start of EA’s return to dominance. Through vast modifications to the general gameplay of NHL 08, EA has chosen to attempt to create a more realistic hockey simulation.
The “Skill Stick”, the defining feature of last year’s output, has been updated, along with new skating and AI systems. Speed is no longer determined by both button pressing and Analog Stick direction. With the all new skating engine, speed is determined completely by the Analog Stick. Pushing all the way up on the Left Analog Stick will cause your player to skate at maximum speed. If you let up on the thumbstick, you can adjust player speed; a tool that is very useful on both sides of the puck. If your player is moving forward and you release the Analog Stick to a neutral position, your player will begin to glide. Moving the stick in the opposite direction that your player is moving will allow you to stop your player quickly, a useful way of creating space between yourself and an oncoming defender.
The improvement in AI quality for this year’s iteration is astounding. For the first time in a hockey game, the teams no longer feel like they are running a pre-programmed set of moves, but actually respond to how the play is unfolding around them. Defensive players will muscle guys out in front of the crease, cut off passing lanes, even dump the puck out of the zone when the pressure gets too hot. On the other end of the ice, players will attempt to set screens in front of the goalie, making it harder for him to see the action. Players will charge the net in attempts to put home rebounds. EA has even added a setting to make the AI even more dynamic; adjusting to your style of play throughout the game in an attempt to shut down your offense.
There are, however, a few issues that EA will need to address before next year’s game. There are many ways to exploit the goalie AI that will lead to easy goal scoring, and those who choose to play online may see many of these at work. On the defensive end of the ice there is an abundance of hits and hip checks per game. The players on the user’s team don’t seem nearly as smart as the CPU’s. Players will sometimes stand and watch plays go by, or allow one-timers instead of going for the puck. EA has announced that they have been working on fixes for all of these problems for next year’s game.
The “Skill Stick” feature that debuted in last year’s game has been vastly improved in NHL 08. The Right Analog Stick now controls the player’s stick movement on offense and can be paired with both the Left Trigger and Left Bumper to create some amazing plays with the puck. By holding down the Left Bumper and moving the Right Analog Stick in any direction, the player can activate one-on-one dekes, useful for beating that defender who always attempts to go for the crushing hits rather than playing the puck. After pressing the Left Bumper, the movement of the Right Analog Stick controls the direction in which the player will release the puck. At the same time, the Left Analog Stick is used to determine which direction the player will deke. The Left Trigger is used for Vision Control on both offense and defense, which basically means your player will face up ice (towards the goal you are attempting to score on) when it is held down. When put together with the Right Analog Stick on offense, you can do various effective dekes, such as the Spin-O-Rama, that will have you looking like Pavel Datsyuk in no time. The Skill Stick doesn’t always work as intended; sometimes clipping issues will occur. Collision detection seems to be affected during the Skill Stick moves, allowing for players to glide through or bounce off from players during checks. The Skill Stick can also be exploited in a way that your players can seemingly score goals from anywhere inside the blue lines (sometimes even outside).
Returning to the game this year are Sweden’s Elitserien and Finland’s SM-liiga. NHL 08 features, for the first time, the full AHL license, allowing for the development of draft picks and young players. All 29 teams are included with full rosters, allowing for call-ups and send-downs during dynasty mode. The dynasty mode; however, is slightly lacking again. The EA crew has straightened out some of the problems that have plagued previous versions, but are still working on problems that remain. When a player is not re-signed during the off-season, the AI will automatically fill the rosters, sometimes signing the same player for ¼ of the salary they had originally asked for.
When trading players, it is possible to have the CPU accept unreasonable trades just by pressing the “Execute Trade” button repeatedly. This does not work in all cases, but some very lopsided trades have been accepted (Andrew Peters for Alexander Ovechkin?!). In the finances screen, the Front Office, On Ice, and Off Ice Expenses are all $0.000 and there is no way to change this. The scouting system, however, is deep. Select a position, location, and projected draft location, and after a few weeks you will have scouting reports for players from that group. Sometimes these reports can be accurate (green bar) sometimes they can be way off (red is unreliable and a question mark means the stat is unknown). With the AHL license, your draft picks can be sent to the minor league affiliate of your team if they need work before they become a star. The ability to create plays and the experience system are also good improvement to what is essentially an average dynasty mode. The game also includes a World Tournament mode where you attempt to guide your chosen country to international victory. This mode is very bare-bones; it’s basically pick a team, play the games and you’re done.
The game plays like a true NHL game, but the presentation is not up to par with what the 2K series has been putting out for years (It should be noted that 2K has the ESPN license, allowing them to create more realistic presentation styles). Bill Clement and Gary Thorne provide decent commentary, but eventually it sounds recycled. The same information about the same players is presented much too often. The score and time overlay fades in and out, which can be quite annoying when you are attempting to view how much time is left in the game. Another new addition is “Goalie Mode” in which the player controls only the goaltender. The camera view is shifted to one behind the goaltender. The player then controls only the goalie for the entire game, either making incredible saves or letting the team down. This mode is one of the more difficult ones in the game, but is also very rewarding.
Online modes in this game are deep. The game has two different options for ranked online play, regular game and Shootout modes. Ranked regular games consist of three 5-minute periods with an overtime period and, if needed, a penalty shootout to determine ties. Shootout mode cuts directly to the chase, allowing players to control both their offensive players and their goalie. Players alternate until 5 players from both teams have shot; whichever team is winning at this point wins the game. If the game is tied, the shootout continues into sudden-death mode, in which the teams alternate until one team scores and the other cannot.
All stats from your online games are tracked and recorded. NHL 08 also offers Online Team Play, in which up to 4 people can be on a team against up to 4 other online players. This mode allows players to play only a certain position (C, LW, RW, RD, LD, or G) or any open player. NHL online also includes online leagues with many options for how the league can be run, such as length, rules, etc. The EA servers can be somewhat unreliable (surprise?), but most of the time someone with a good connection should have no problems with the online modes. To play online, you must download the roster update, but the downloaded ratings are more accurate than the original ratings, so there is a positive to the wait times.
Even though there are many improvements to the control scheme, NHL 08 is not a hard game to pick up and learn. The intuitive control scheme does not have a steep learning curve, but if you just cannot master the new controls or don’t want to change the way you have been playing NHL for years, the game does also feature classic controls. All things considered, the gameplay and multiplayer aspects of this game are what make it one of the greatest hockey games of all time. The game won numerous gaming awards, including Gamespot’s “Best Sports Game of 2007”. Casual players and hardcore NHL fans will both enjoy this game; EA has really nailed down the simulation style gameplay without creating a boring experience. Even though there are still a few things to work on, the areas that are lacking are overshadowed by excellent gameplay and features, making NHL 08 a great overall experience.
