NHL 2003 isn't horrible. But it's disappointing.
After I enjoyed NHL 2002 so much, I went out and bought 2003. When I brought it home and popped it in, I was excited, but my excitement faded when I started playing.
NHL 2003 is basically the exact same game. The controls are identical, there's no new modes to speak of, the NHL cards system works exactly the same. The only updates are the rosters and the very minor graphical upgrades.
But that's not the bad part. I don't have a problem with EA not wanting to mess with a winning formula. But there are two major, glaring problems with the gameplay that weren't present at all in 2002. The first one is the pace of the game. It feels much slower than 2002. And one of the reasons I liked NHL 2002 so much was because it was such a fast moving game.
The second problem is the camera. in NHL 2002, the default camera angle was perfect. It gave just the right view of the action while also zooming out far enough so you can see your teammates. In NHL 2003, the default camera angle zooms in way too far. The result is you get a better view of what's happening with the puck, but you can't see any of your teammates to make precision passes and set up one-timers.
Just like in 2002, there are a lot of different alternate camera angles to choose from, but none of them give you an angle as well as the one offered by NHL 2002's default camera angle.
One aspect that makes NHL 2003 better than 2002 is the graphics. They look cleaner and brighter than in 2002, but the player models look pretty much the same. NHL 2003 suffers from some slowdown as well that wasn't present in the 2002 version. The animation in 2003 is another improvement over last year, especially with the goalies, who move around in a lot more positions than last year.
The sound in NHL 2003 is just about as good as 2002. The normal hockey sounds like shooting, big hits, the puck hitting the post, etc, are all good, but sound recycled from last year. The same commentators from 2002, Don Taylor and Jim Hughson return for 2003. Which is good, because I liked their commentary from 2002 and it's pretty much the same in 2003.
"Pretty much the same" is a great way to describe NHL 2003. The graphics are slightly better, but the camera and pacing of the game completely ruin it for me. Without those problems, I would've scored gameplay and tilt much higher. But it's not to be. I still own NHL 2003, but when I look for my video game hockey fix, NHL 2003 stays on the shelf while NHL 2002 spins in my PS2. If you don't own any hockey games for the Playstation 2 but want to buy just one, get NHL 2002 even though it's old. 2003 is not worth the time or money.