NHL 11 Review

A tagline like "Any moment can be a wow moment" just invites mockery. Splashing this catchphrase all over the back cover of NHL 11 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is certainly over the top and more than a bit cheesy. But it's also totally accurate. EA Sports has done a magnificent job with this year's take on the sport, improving it in every area with smarter on-ice AI, sharper controls, and a range of options that take the simulation deeper into the real hockey world, such as being able to start player careers in major junior. The number of refinements enhance the game across the board and take you right down to ice level. You'll soon find yourself talking to the TV and congratulating virtual linemates after great plays. All that's missing is dressing-room camaraderie and being able to head out for a few beers after the game with your buddies on the team.

Broken sticks are just one of the many ways that NHL 11 improves and deepens its simulation of pro hockey.

With all of those raves out of the way, here's a comment to bring things down to earth a little bit--NHL 11 is not a revolutionary advancement over NHL 10 and NHL 09. The three games are kissing cousins, with the new release looking and playing a lot like the last two iterations in the series. It's only when you go deeper into the game that you really take notice of the many improvements. First and foremost is markedly superior artificial intelligence. The game lives up to that "wow moment" promise on the packaging, with a ridiculously wide range of plays on the ice. It all flows very naturally and realistically, and you're constantly caught by surprise with new developments that mimic what takes place on the ice in real hockey games.

The only thing predictable is the sheer unpredictability of it all, as the physics engine lets just about anything happen that would be plausible in a real hockey game. Goals come from all over the ice. Point shots, tips from the slot, bouncing pucks behind the goal line, crazy deflections off a d-man's chest--you'll see it all. Offbeat stuff happens on a regular basis, too. Shots will carom off the goalie's mask, someone will lose an edge and go down awkwardly, shots will bounce off both posts and back out again, a defenseman will break a stick and get a helping hand from a forward coming back to lend him his (breaking sticks are a new addition this year), and so on. The result is a game that constantly reinvents itself. You could conceivably play a dozen games in a row and never see the same play twice.

Controls seem sharper, too. The right stick in particular affords more in-depth control of your stick when you're stickhandling, shooting, and hitting. Everything you do seems to produce an infinite variety of results on the ice, based on how you move the stick and the position that your player is in at the time. Sometimes you fire a laser beam or just crush an opponent with a spine-shaking check, and other times your timing or positioning are off and you let go a floater or slam yourself into the boards. New dekes allow for some crazy Ovechkin-like maneuvers, such as kicking the puck up to your stick and even hopping over opponents. Extra controls have been added for face-offs, too. You can now tie up opponents, shoot off the draw, or win draws to either your forehand or backhand. This comes in particularly handy when out on the power play or when killing penalties, because you can now tailor your face-off strategy accordingly and get the puck to the right d-man for the situation. Granted, this seems like a small addition to the game, but it really gets you involved in face-offs, which were always snoozers before.

With the tweaked physics engine, just about anything can happen at any time.

Artificial intelligence has also been noticeably ramped up in NHL 11. Players seem to know what they're doing this year. Positional play is still absolutely vital to cover attacking forwards. As in the previous two games, you have to have some working knowledge of hockey to play the game effectively at the default difficulty level. Get out of place by trying to throw big hits or by cherry-picking, and the computer-controlled squad will make you pay. Teammates are also smart. They set up good breakouts now, so you spend a lot less time bottled up in your own end than you did in last year's game. Power plays and penalty kills are also effectively run. You can play locked to a position as though you were playing real hockey and not be frustrated, because the AI passes the puck astutely and uses you most of the time when you get open. That said, it's not perfect. Computer players still hold onto the puck a little too long. So at times players don't shoot when they clearly should, they ignore a linemate in the open, or they stickhandle longer than would be advisable, causing them to miss out on great scoring chances. Don't let this scare you off, though. The issue isn't too bad, and players pull off at least three brilliant moves for every time they wreck a scoring chance by dithering.