With its impressive number of game modes, its hard to imagine you'll be tired of ESPN NHL 2K5 for quite some time.
NHL 2K5 is a surprisingly deep and complex game. The advanced control scheme allows you to perform more moves than you ever thought possible in a hockey game. Using the left trigger as a modifier, you can control pinning, puck clearing, checks, hooks, dekes, pokes, dives, and different types of passes and shots. On offense, the right thumbstick performs dekes, and on defense, it's for what the developers call Intense Contact. But if you don't want to deal with the complexity of the game, you can set the control to Intermediate.
The new features the game touts include Defensive Skating, in which holding down the left trigger allows your players to skate backwards on defense, Total Stick Control, which you can use the right thumbstick while holding left trigger to sweep your stick, Pass and Go, which is NHL 2K5's answer to EA Sports' Open Ice Control and finally allows for some control over off the puck players, and Pressure Sensitive Dumps. The fighting system has also been refined, and in addition to throwing basic jabs and uppercuts, you can move around, taunt, fake punches, and grab with the left and right triggers.
Last year's game showcased the best graphics so far in the 2K series, and this year's graphics are just as good. There's very little clipping of players and equipment, player models are great looking, and arenas have team specific details like championship banners. As usual for hockey games nowadays, the ice starts smooth and gets rough over the course of the period. Player animations are great, and there are plenty of them, from the common occurrences like goal celebrations and penalty box cutscenes to stuff like players diving for pucks in the air. Extra touches include occasional broken glass when a hard slapshot goes awry, and hats on the ice a hat trick is scored in front of a home crowd. It's worth mentioning that ESPN NHL 2K5 has the best crowd graphics and cutscenes in any sports game, something that other sports games still haven't really given much attention to.
Bill Clement and Gary Thorne do the commentary, which is awesome, as there are recorded lines for just about every situation, and even after playing nearly a hundred games, there'll still be new lines for uncommon scenarios.
For the most part, the gameplay remains the same as last year's game. You'll still have to make sure that your teammates are ready to receive passes, as they will be frequently tied up by the defense. The impressive puck physics from last year's game return. The puck will bounce off goalies, flip into the air and into the goal, bounce off defensemen, and so on. Unlike NHL 2005, it's not impossible to score in NHL 2K5. You'll score if you shoot enough, and you'll score on all kinds of shots, from wrap arounds to slapshots from the blue line to backhand shots from the slot, and occasionally wrist shots will bounce off an opposing player and end up past the goalie. And just for laughs, occasionally you'll score on a shot between your legs, facing away from the goal. The scores will more closely resemble real life NHL scores than in NHL 2005.
NHL 2K5 contains an impressive selection of additional game play modes and extras in addition to the exhibition, franchise, playoffs, and season modes, so it's like getting another game for the same price. You can set up a tournaments with NHL or international teams, and there's Dream Team mode, in which you try to move up a ladder consisting of teams picked by ESPN personalities and other NHL players, such as Team Turco or Roenick's team. There's also shootout, pond hockey, and mini rink, which is 2 on 2 hockey. The Skills Challenge in last year's game returns, which includes puck control, hardest shot, and accuracy shooting. You can even play the Heritage Classic.
There's also a whole bunch of minigames. In the Skybox, where you can view accumulated rewards, you can access air hockey, and two new games, shuffleboard and trivia. From the main menu, under Party Mode, there's Battle mode, which features 15 minigames, which run the gamut from keeping the puck on your side of the ice to racing through obstacle courses. You can also play Arcade style hockey under Party mode. NHL 2K5's party mode variety puts EA Sports' NHL 2005 party mode to shame.
Just like in last year's game, there are a series of challenges you can complete in game or during a season in order to earn points that you can apply towards unlockables, like historic and all-time teams, classic jerseys, bonus rinks, and extra play modes.
For some unknown reason, the huge problems with last year's game remain unresolved, and it's hard to believe that the developers aren't aware of them. Just like last year's game, the frequency of injuries is absurd. During a season, in just about every game you'll suffer an injury to a player, whether it's in game or in between games. The commentator bug when you're on a power play is still there; he'll always announce that your shots are "shorthanded". And finally, the most fatal bug is one related to injuries that can freeze your franchise mode saved game if you or another team doesn't have enough players dressed. It's probably best to turn off injuries when playing NHL 2K5.
Still, ESPN NHL 2K5 is an improvement over last year's ESPN NHL Hockey, and is a dream package for any hockey fan. With its impressive number of game modes, its hard to imagine you'll be tired of it for quite some time.