Puckheads everywhere for many years have celebrated 2K Sports’ NHL 2K series as the king of the virtual ice.  Last year however, EA got back into contention with a suddenly competitive NHL 07 product.  Everyone wondered how 2K Sports would respond with their new NHL 2K8 product.

I’m happy to report that hardcore NHL sim gamers should be very pleased.  This game is chock-full of hockey goodness, options, controls, strategy, and authenticity.  Like many 2K Sports games, the game is totally adjustable via tons of sliders for just about every facet of puck control, player control, aggressiveness, goalie AI…. you name it.   2K Sports delivers a pretty rich, customizable hockey sandbox for us to play in and tweak to our liking.

But lets get one thing straight:

There’s a new default control scheme that utilizes the Right Stick for puck handling.  (2K Sports calls this the Pro-Stick).  There are some fundamental differences, one of which is that the R-stick cannot shoot, only stick-handle.  Shooting is accomplished with the right bumper button, passing with the left bumper button.  At first it feels awkward, but you pick it up if you are willing to invest a small bit of time. There are some very nice in-depth tutorials for each and every control in the game. Its probably the best in game control training I've ever seen in a game. And- yes- you need it, because this game has some detailed controls.  Some may find these controls daunting, particularly if you are used to the more simplified control scheme from the competition.

However- and let me emphasize this- the game lets you customize all controls..and you can also go back to the classic NHL 2K control scheme.

I REALLY appreciate these controls on defense. Its nice to be able to put your player's stick on the ice to take away a passing lane by getting in position and clicking in the R-stick. Its nice to give a subtle hook to slow a streaking offensive player, its good to have push and elbow commands on board scrums, its nice to be able to hit the Y button to take your selected defender and get him in a context sensitive block-shot stance in front of a given shooter.

Speaking of defense, it’s nice to be able to check someone and see an attempt at a check... even if it is varying degrees of effectiveness. They aren't all big booming checks...some of them -if done right- just knock a guy off balance and cause him to lose the puck...or not. Or the attempted check might just graze the player and cause him to alter his skating trajectory.  I can definitely say that NHL 2K8 – with the right difficulty settings- plays the most realistic game of sim-style NHL defense of any product available.  Again, this game is 100% adjustable to your liking as well.

 Offensively, you can always jump into practice mode to get things down and run your plays against a set number of AI defenders.  Its nice to see the practice modes so you can drill to your liking.  That’s something that should be the norm in all sports video games, and it’s quite refreshing to see.  I also have to mention the “Pro Control” option on offense.  Here's how it works... to go into "Pro Control" mode on offense, hit the "Back" button on the 360 controller. This will immediately put controller button icons above all of your players... to attempt a pass to that player, you need only hit the button that corresponds to the appropriate player you want to try to hit. It really promotes good puck movement on offense. Now- in this mode, to shoot, you still have pro-stick controls on the R-stick, but the shoot button then becomes the players assigned button (makes sense, because the player can't really pass to himself..)

This is VERY nice, because in other games, you might have two guys on one side of the goalie on an overload play, and other games use the AI to decipher which one you want to throw to if they are in the same general area. So the AI would "think" for you in those games, and sometimes "think" wrong... because all you can do is push the stick in the general direction in which you want to slide the pass. When you bring up the "Pro Control" icons, this problem is immediately remedied, and promotes a heck of a lot of offensive creativity.  Those of us who are veterans of the original Playstation 1 days of NHL Face Off might recall Sony doing something similar with icon passing, but for whatever reason it never caught on back then.  Well, it’s a good idea then, and a good idea now.  This is THE way to run a power play.

The offensive quick-plays are nice too..and the "On the Fly Coaching" with the D-pad works real nice. 

There’s also player-specific combo moves on offense.  I’ll be honest though… I play on a difficulty level that leaves very little time for me to fumble with a combo, so I’m not at that level yet, but it’s nice to know that 2K Sports has included the individual “Signature Styles” that we have come to expect from their sports games.  The new face-off system is also worth mentioning.  It’s not merely using the Pro-Stick to be the first guy to touch the puck as it drops, there’s also tie-ups and various ways to move your body position for leverage.

Also, kudos to 2K Sports for still being the game that realistically handles NHL line-changes.  You can sub in just your defensive paring, or just your forwards, on demand.  Wholesale line changes with all five players would often be suicidal in the real NHL, so it’s good to see that NHL 2K8 allows for two-tiered line-changes, which is more the norm for the real NHL. 

As for the goalies, I find myself enjoying their more “human” nature in NHL 2K8 than in other NHL games.  They dive for loose pucks, go butterfly, flop, come out of the crease, lay across the ice to try to secure a loose puck.  Pressure them with a ton of shots, and they will start to make more dramatic, desperate saves.  They also play better with increased difficulty levels.  (Again, someone tell that to 1up’s Brian Intihar, who criticized in his NHL 2K8 review how the goalies play on DEFAULT difficulty.  My question is how did Mr. Intihar not score 65 points per game on Madden’s default difficulty, or any other sports game’s default difficulty and not be so alarmed?)

So, yes folks, -this just in- if you find you score too much on the default difficulty, feel free to move it up from Rookie, to Pro, to All-Pro or higher.  Then you’ll start to see your guys getting knocked off the puck, the other goalie make key saves, etc.  This public service message brought to you by Consolesports.net.  ;)

Now, lets talk Franchise Mode.  NHL 2K8 claims to have the deepest franchise mode in the business, now complete with realistic CBA features such as waivers, two-way contracts, restricted and unrestricted free agents, and salary cap management. NHL 2K8 also includes a revamped off-season that boasts a brand new negotiation system, an improved draft, refurbished free agent signing, and an all new player progression system with dynamic player types.  I can tell you that from sitting in on the NBA 2K8 developer conference call last week, 2K Sports has really been fleshing out franchise in all of their games, particularly focusing on player personalities, negotiations, player progression, and player types.  This is good to see, because its no longer about trading and picking up the highest numerically rated players, now you have to think chemistry, roles, player type, contract desired…and all the dynamics that real GM’s have to concern themselves with.  Remember when I said that this game was “chock-full” of authenticity?  Well, this really plays out in Franchise Mode.

And, oh by the way, you want Online Franchise?- you got it- and you know 2K Sports’ online season modes are the best around.  You have player stat tracking, trading online, picking up free-agents, web component, etc.  You’ve got the whole boatload of online goodness you’ve come to expect from 2K Sports, and to this day, you still don’t get those features from anyone else’s next-gen sports games.

Graphically, I'm playing on a Samsung 32 inch LCD on 1080i , and I'm very impressed with the player faces, arenas, animations, presentation- you name it.  Looks darn good, moves darn good.  The player faces are particularly well done, and the animations of the various types of checks, trips, saves, dives, shot-blocks, etc. are incredibly well done.  The arenas look darn good, and the uniforms look spot-on. (Be sure to check out our front page for the Reebok unlock-code for the 2007-08 season jerseys, by the way).

As for sound, the on-ice sounds are top notch.  I’m sporting a Sony surround sound system and the feeling of being on the ice is great.  You have players calling for the puck, yelling out to one another, fans cheering, refs blowing whistles, etc.  My only gripe here has to do with the use of Bob Cole and Harry Neal as the commentators.  Look, I know these guys are the Hockey Night In Canada team, but their work seems so flat at times, and so understated that it doesn’t really seem to fit the tempo.  I know Canadian friends of mine would disagree because these guys are legends in Canada, and their style isn’t the overstated “Marv Albert” type of commentary that we get down here in the States from most announcers.  Perhaps it’s a regional thing that I just don’t get.  In fairness to Bob and Harry, its not that the commentary is “off” or that there’s not enough lines of dialogue, That’s not the issue at all.  It’s just that they don’t seem to scale to the tempo of the game at key moments when excitement seems like it would be merited by the crew.  Still, my friends tell me that this is the way Bob and Harry are on Hockey Night In Canada, and that 2K Sports has captured their style accurately.  I know I’d personally prefer a more lively announcing crew, but that’s just me.

At the end of the day, you have what I consider to be the most complete hockey sim around both offline and online.  I know this game has some detractors, particularly when it comes to the learning curve on the control scheme, but after 25 minutes of running the in-depth control drills, I was competent and good to go in terms of upping the difficulty.  Still, I do think there’s some simplification that 2K might consider for next year, particularly when it comes to shooting.  I think they might want to give-in to the masses and map shooting to the Pro-Stick (R-Stick) itself.  And I do also think that being asked to hold left trigger and RB, while aiming with the R-stick is too much to do when it comes to performing a slapshot.  I think if 2K adopted the same R-stick shooting as the competition, that alone might make a big difference when it comes to enticing the casual fans who want to pick up and play while still playing with the Pro-stick.  Again, classic controls are available, as well as control customization based on user preference, you just have to know to look for it, and realize it is available.  NHL 2K’s design team did answer some of the questions about the controls in a recent developer blog posted HERE , so be sure to check it out.

NHL 2K8 is an extremely solid hockey game on both ends of the ice, and particularly with online season/franchise features.  I strongly recommend it, particularly if you are a hardcore hockey fan.  The game gives you a completely user-adjustable experience that delivers some of the best hockey around- IF you are willing to toy with the difficultly settings and adjust the controls to your liking.  I would like to see the new controls be a bit simpler myself, and I’d also like to see a more lively brand of commentary out of the announcing booth.  The bottom line is that once you get past the new control learning curve (or change it to classic or user-defined) then this game is an excellent sim of the game of hockey, and I especially like it’s defensive realism as you raise the difficulty level.

I’m giving it a solid 8.5 out of 10.

Reviewed on XBOX 360 by Scott Hemphill, aka “Quietcool72”

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