Hockey perfection, almost...
- The gameplay is there, as usual, and gives you full control over all your players. The different variations of difficulty is superb. Everything from a rookie player to hall-of-famer, you can change everything. Completion comes near, but, due to one minor flaw, the perfection is not reached..
Everything plays as is should, except for the computer penalty AI. If you happen to lead a game by no more than 1 goal (or more), the computer controlled team starts to play dirty. And I mean really inhumane dirty. Computer players start spearing, slashing, checking and boarding your players, until someone on your team gets hurt, bad.
After a game you end up looking at an injury list where at least 5 of your more or less important players suffer from various injuries. If the best player of your team gets injured, you can count on a long term vacation for him, since the computer is prone to injure the top ranked players the hardest.
But anyways, back to the review.
- Graphics?...Well, can you press more out of the PS2? I don't think so.
Players look realistic sometimes, and tend to seem a bit robotic in their moves on the ice.
But, don't get me wrong. I couldn't ask for more graphics on the PS2 version, since the console has started to get "old", and therefore delivers functional visuals for all hockey fans.
- Sound. The in-game sounds are good, but the music could have been chosen with more focus at hand. So, it's pretty basic for a hockey game.
- Value. This game has lots of value. Lots of REPLAY value. All-stars skills competition, no argument there. Only 2K are smart enough to include this superb mode into a hockey game, and hope that they keep doing so in the future. You can play classic games, party games, and much other modes that give full value for the $. Value goes through the roof. I bought this game over a year ago, and have played through so many seasons, that I've lost count...
As a conclusion, this game is great. Minor bugs here and there don't matter, when you grasp the true feel of hockey, playing this game.