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REVIEW: GRETZKY NHL 2005
SYSTEM: PS2
PUBLISHER: SCEA
DEVELOPER: PAGE 44 STUDIOS
REVIEW BY: QUIETCOOL72

 

Sony’s 989 Sports branded titles have suffered from an identity crisis since the tail-end of the original “Playstation” days. Those of us old enough to remember the glory days of the 989 Sports branded products can recall the first three years of the NFL GameDay series, as well as some of the positive early achievements of the MLB, NBA Shootout, and NHL Faceoff games on PS2. However, with the advent of the Playstation 2, Sony lost considerable footing and credibility in terms of their own sports lineup. In recent years, the battle between EA Sports and the now-branded “2K” sports games has continually upped the ante in the market, while the Sony 989 branded sports games continued to flounder in mediocrity- or worse.

 

Thankfully, things change.

 

Gretzky NHL 2005 does a fine job of reversing that trend, and delivers a fine hockey experience on the ice. I was pleasantly surprised with much of what I found when playing the game. The game’s developer, Page 44 Studios, should be credited with breathing life into what used to be a horrid “NHL FACEOFF” series, and it appears that they went back to square one with a fresh new engine, as well as the new name and player endorsement. I’m quite impressed with just how solid this title is, and I’m also hopeful that titles such as this signal a resurgence of Sony’s own sports titles for the future.

 

Graphics:

The game delivers some excellent graphics and animation, while keeping things fast and flowing. The skaters move with realism and fluidity and the graphics take advantage of the PS2 hardware without any hit to the fast frame-rate. The arenas are well-rendered, with the banners, advertisements, etc. The fans are particularly well-rendered, not the lame 2D cutouts we’ve come to expect from many games on the market. The only knock on the game’s graphics that I would mention is that the player faces could have been dressed up a bit more, simply by comparison to those stellar faces that Sega’s ESPN NHL 2K5 uses. Overall, graphics are well-done in the sim, and quite attractive.

 

(For a complete tour of Gretzky NHL 2005’s graphics via screenshots, go HERE)

 

Presentation:

Gretzky NHL 2005 really shines in the area of presentation, and makes a very strong run at the type of presentation we’ve come to expect from 2K games. Much of what separates good presentation from average presentation is the “little stuff”. I’m talking about things after a play- like two players talking on the bench, or fade away cams showing rival players interacting and “giving each other the business”. Gretzky NHL has all of this, and its done with flair and style. Its quite an impressive first outing into this complete rebuild of what was the NHL FaceOff series from the ground up.

 

Audio:

 

The audio portion of the game is standard hockey fare, with the organ and rock music at various intervals between stoppages of play. Fans cheer, the skating sounds crisp, the puck hitting the boards is spot-on, you name it. Darren Pang and Mike Emrick give a decent performance in the booth. I would say their work is on a par with the hockey announcing team of EA Sports, yet still a bit lagging behind the fluidity and quality of the commentary in the ESPN NHL 2K5 game. That’s not to say that the commentary of Gretzky NHL 2005 is “bad”, but it doesn’t stand out significantly from the shadow of the other two games in the genre. It’s standard audio fare, but nothing detrimental to the solid product.

 

Gameplay & Realism:

This is where I feel Gretzky NHL 2005 does a fine job of differentiating itself from the competition. Gretzky’s controls are intuitive and easy to master. Line changes, strategy shifts (both offensive and defensive) checking, passing, deking, shooting, shot blocking- you name it. Page 44 Studios has done a fine job of smartly utilizing the PS2 controller’s layout to maximize the game experience. The game does carry-over one of my favorite things from the old NHL FaceOff series as well- and that’s “ICON PASSING”. Basically, by hitting L2, it will display all of your teammates with PS2 button icons above their heads. This allows for passing to any of those teammates on the fly. This is particularly useful for setting up intricate passing plays, particularly “no look” passes behind you to teammates that are trailing on a break. (I’m sure Wayne Gretzky would approve, being that he was the master of this art.) Also, while we are on the topic of setting up plays, this is another area where I feel the game excels. Those of you who played this year’s EA NHL 2005 know that it tends to greatly exaggerate the sport of hockey in terms of hitting. Huge, illegal cross-checks are the norm every several seconds, making the game more about creating scoring chances by constantly knocking down the opponent than it is about setting up plays. Well, thankfully, this is not the case with Gretzky NHL 2005. Plays must be set-up, and strategy must be executed (particularly at higher difficulty levels.) Checking is there, but its not overly effective, especially when a player not known to be a big checker (or a checker at all) tries to execute a big check. However, when a good hitter tries one, he gets realistic results- often knocking someone off-balance or pinning them against the glass. To me, that’s the way it should be.

 

One of the things that impressed me about the game was the play of goalies. On “PRO”, they were competent, but not unrealistically so. I’ve seen goalies not react to shots- or react late- due to screens set up in front of the net, as well as play brilliantly when their field-of-view was unobstructed. Its seems that Page 44 studios has endeavored to give goalies a more proper “line-of-site” simulation, instead of merely making them superhuman against the first shot they face before giving up a potential rebound. (And that has been the norm with many other hockey games on the market.) As for sim/realism, I can say that shot totals are a little high on the default game clock, but this can be adjusted.

 

I’ve also read some reviews that knock the game for a “delay” between pressing the button and actually shooting the puck. At first, I was in agreement with the critics, but the more I played the game, I realized that the shooting button is pressure sensitive to different types of shots requiring a double-tap, quick tap, and a slapshot (which involves holding the shooting button down as a shot-meter raises for the force of your shot. Sounds pretty standard, but depending on the shooter, the slapshot meter moves at differing speeds, and for players with bad to average slapshots, the meter goes up and back down with considerable speed, often causing a rather lame, slow slapshot to be released. I personally have no problem with this after some practice, but be warned if you are used to EA’s “Hold down slapshot till maximum power builds” type of thing, because the meter in this one goes back down again if you miss releasing at the meter’s apex. I tend to feel that this raises a realistic measure of risk vs. reward for those used to other hockey games where giant slapshots towards the top-shelf corners are the most common shot released. I know I was personally sick of constant over-use of the “big blast” by sub-par offensive players in other hockey video games. Gretzky NHL 2005 seems to have found an interesting way to bring this back to reality.

 

The best thing I can say is that on the ice, this game reminds me of some of the older EA NHL games, long before the artificial intelligence started to become “cheap”, goalies became “superhuman”, and the checking become downright exaggerated and overly-brutal. Again, I think this title is a very solid game, and this is also true in terms of gameplay and realism. It’s fast and addictive. Adjust the sliders to suit your skill, and have some fun.

 

Franchise:

If there’s a weakness in Gretzky NHL 2005’s armor, its in terms of franchise. Its not that its particularly bad, but it is lagging somewhat behind the franchise modes of its competition. Its solid, but the franchise bar has been raised so much lately by Sega/TakeTwo and Electronic Arts. Gretzky’s franchise is what I would call “Very Two Years Ago” by comparison to the competition. There’s some nagging things, such as poor free-agent implementation (where they just sign for whoever agrees to their price, without shopping themselves around or negotiating). There’s the standard stuff, such as trades, multiple seasons, and a bit of a financial model. Again, it has the basics, but not much the franchise flash and minute details of ESPN NHL 2K5. One interesting thing is that you CAN be fired for running your team poorly, which is something I’d like to see with more regularity in all games that franchise modes. Franchise needs some work, and simulated stats from around the league can often be a bit unrealistic, but overall it’s a good first effort to revitalize the NHL from Sony/989/Page 44 Studios. I’ll call Gretzky’s franchise a “good start”, with the hope that the leaps made in gameplay will also be attempted in franchise mode for next year.

 

Extras:

There’s also the “unlockables” you can open up by completing various challenges for purchasing points in the game. If you have played any of the 2K or EA games (Particularly the “Madden Challenge”, you know how this works. In this game, those unlockables are usually alternate jerseys, and four iterations of Wayne Gretzky himself. (With the Kings, Oilers, Rangers, and on Team Canada.)

 

Online:

Unfortunately, I’m not finding many people online playing this game. (I’ll get into more about that later). What is there is pretty standard. You can set up quick matches, games, and tourneys of up to 64 players. There’s also leaderboards and whatnot. There are no online franchises like with the 2K games by Take Two, and both Sony and EA will eventually have to realize that online franchises are the wave of the future. As it stands, Gretkzy NHL 2005’s seems to be very much like most of the online games by EA, but with far fewer players online.

 

Closing Comments:

Its good to see Sony’s “989 Sports” brand back in the mix with a solid game. I am enjoying Gretzky NHL 2005 and find it quite addictive. I personally like it better than EA’s NHL 2005 this year, but I feel it still lags behind Sega’s ESPN NHL 2005 in some key areas such as franchise, sounds, online play, and player faces, as well as some of the custom gameplay options that the 2K product offers. Still, I can’t ignore what a solid game of hockey it plays. The real shame of it all is the late release date. This game came out a good two months after the competition, and $10 more expensive than the ESPN game. So the hardcore audience had probably already made their choice about which game to get by this point, which may explain the very small online community playing this game. Unfortunately, that dynamic may be prohibiting fans from being willing to try this solid new entry from Sony. That said, I’m hopeful that Sony will stay the course, and continue to make more leaps in the sports realm and with the quality of their games. As it stands, Grezky NHL 2005 is a good way to start. I encourage all hockey fans to give it a try, and I hope Sony and Page 44 Studios keeps up the good work in their next NHL game.

 

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