NHL 2003 Review [PC] - IGN (2024)

While there are plenty of awesome features in this latest edition of NHL, the first thing you'll notice are the slick new menus. EA's really got it right here. The menus are all wonderfully accessible and put a ton of options right at your fingertips. It takes a few games to get used to where everything is located but once you have the hang of it, you can set up the game exactly the way you like it. A few interface decisions still puzzle me, however. Why, for instance, are things like game speed and puck performance listed under AI Options rather than under Game Options?

Whatever the reason, NHL 2003 has some of the best configurations options around. You can set nearly everything in the game to your liking -- skating, shooting, passing, checking and puck performance are the big categories here and there are numerous options within each group. You can set the accuracy of passes, the renewal rate for fatigue, the elasticity of the puck, etc. The one thing you can't set is the skill of the goalies. Each of the players have their own ratings but it would be nice to ramp up or tone down the rate at which the goalies can stop shots.

You may find it's necessary to boost the speed to better mesh with the overall relaxed style of play. Real hockey is slower than the more rewarding speeds offered in the game but it's a small concession to bump up the excitement level a bit. There are other "default" options that clearly indicate the arcade-style nature of the game. Things like icing, offsides and two-line passes are off by default and you'll have to enable them at the start of each game.

The AI in the game is quite good with a range of abilities that will challenge players of all skill levels. On the easy level, the game is ridiculously easy; on the hard level, it's ridiculously hard. There are numerous settings in between so you're sure to find the one that works best for you. Players stick to positions a bit better than in earlier versions and they try to set up scoring positions. One of the coolest (although marginal) features is that the players will sometimes lie down in front of shots headed for the goal.

The passing percentage seems unusually high, averaging in the 80-90% range as opposed to the 60-70% that you'd normally find in an actual game. There are really only three situations where you'll drop a pass. First, an opposing player can intercept it. Second, you can shot a pass in the wrong direction. Third, you can lob a pass at a teammate who's in the middle of a line change. I can handle the steals and the errant passes but the line changes really bother me. I've even seen the opposing team pass up a crash situation just to make a line change.

A whole new range of dekes have been added to the game, letting you get a little more control over your evasions. With eight total dekes, you can really start to psyche out your opponents, especially the human ones. Deking in particular directions or simply flipping the puck up over an opponent's stick can really give you an edge.

The game also includes a brand new Game Breaker feature. Perform enough dekes and make enough shots to build up your Game Breaker meter. Once it's full, you can enter Game Breaker time. The action slows down, the sounds around you are muffled and the camera zooms in on your player. It's supposed to give you an edge, somewhat like the bullet-time in Max Payne, but this winds up making things a bit more difficult for the breaking player.

The real problem with the feature is that it triggers the camera to move in too close on your player, making it too difficult to remain aware of who's around you. This is especially frustrating when you're heading down the screen rather than up. When you're going up at least you can see a bit further in front of you but when you're skating down you're much more likely to run in to defenders or find the goal too far to the right or left of your position. It also makes it hard to nab the rebound if you miss your shot.

There are other camera issues during regular play as well. I can't understand the Action camera being zoomed in so far. It really cuts down on your awareness and makes all but the shortest passes a bit of a hit-or-miss situation. Thankfully, there are plenty of other views to choose from including a "classic" view that opens the field up a lot more. The Breakaway cam is preserved here from the previous game and, while I respect the intentions behind its inclusion, it can be a bit distracting.

Visually the game is as good as it's ever been. The player models are fantastic, crisply rendered and full of detail. There are a few weak textures in the game and things like team logos on jerseys can look a little low-res, but otherwise the game presents hockey in a beautiful light. The animations are as good as they are varied (which is to say very) and the movements are very fluid. This isn't much of a bit change from last year, but the rinks look a bit better this time around and are lit in a more believable manner.

The Face-in-the-Game feature has mercifully been cut. While I'm a big advocate of including features to let you customize the game, this one never really worked as promised and, until it can be smoothed out a bit, it's better left out altogether.

Player fights are the weakest of the animations. While fighting the players are, for the most part, entirely motionless, holding each other's jerseys with one hand and throwing punches with the other. Apart from the stiffness of the players, the speed of the punches is far too unrealistic and makes the whole affair a real button masher. I appreciate the inclusion of fights, but there's got to be a more realistic (or at least clearer) way to handle it. I'm not asking for Knock-Out Kings necessarily, but the fights seem too arcadey.

The only other real problems with the graphics are the spectators. I applaud EA for making them such a part of the experience and they really add a lot to the believability of the game. But the flat 2D spectators are only ever rendered from the front, meaning that those sitting at the bottom of the rink seem to be facing the wrong way. There are a few dynamic cutscenes that play now and then and really add to the ambience but I'd have preferred to see a few more clothing and hair colors. As it is, there's a girl in a blue shirt that seems to be sitting next to everybody in the arena.

While we don't get the 5.1 audio offered in the Xbox version, we do get a rich and rewarding sound palette. The sounds of the game are all perfectly rendered, from the skates slicing across the ice, to the puck bouncing off of the boards. You'll also hear some great dynamic crowd sounds as well that respond to the action on the ice in an appropriate manner, cheering goals and booing penalty calls. Everything also echoes quite realistically adding to the impression that you're really playing in an actual arena.

As always the color commentary is a bit on the goofy side but we assume this is by design. Looking past the slightly silly tone of the color commentary, I noticed a few inconsistencies. At one point, they miscalculated the score difference, claiming one team was within two when the score difference was actually three. And while it might be a commentary on my performance, they've once labeled a game an upset when the teams were almost perfectly matched. At one point they even referred to a win as "unthinkable" even though the teams were evenly rated and the winning team held the lead throughout the whole game.

I have to complain a bit about the appropriateness of the music. It's not so much that I don't like Papa Roach (although I don't); it's more that the game throws these tracks in during the game and breaks up the rhythm and pacing somewhat. The fact that a pop-up window announces each new song is even more distracting unfortunately.

While the single-player, exhibition matches are fun, the real long-term enjoyment of the game is offered by the franchise and multiplayer modes. On the franchise side, you can create your own team or play as an existing one through an entire season. (You can simulate as many games as you'd like if you don't want to play through the whole schedule.) Player trades are a big part of this mode but you don't get the chance to really negotiate for or seduce players like you do in real life. The commentators also provide a bit of continuity between the games with the Game Story feature, highlighting a player's performance throughout the season.

With a nearly simultaneous release on all the consoles, the only thing that truly separates the PC NHL from other versions is its online play. EA's is pushing their EASO (EA Sports Online) service pretty hard with this game and it's a great fit. The new EA service lets you share a single profile across multiple games and gives you a ranking based on the number of wins and losses you've had. While we haven't seen more than a few dozen people playing online since the game has come out, there's never a shortage of challengers and I've never waited more than a minute or two for someone to join my game.

The service offers much more than just matchmaking. There are tons of in-game stats and you can create buddy lists a la Instant Messenger. An MP3 player and a few other additional features are included to make the service even more attractive. Last year's Game Card feature has been concentrated into the online and franchise modes as well.

	What did you think of NHL 2003?