 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | Visual Concepts |
| Publisher: | 2K Sports | |
| Genre: | Sports | |
| ESRB: | Everyone 10+ | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 (2-8 online) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (online play, leaderboards, content DL), Custom Soundtracks, In-game Dolby Digital |
Line changes are better made manually. The automatic line-changes format is horrible, and you’ll see players left on the ice for almost an entire period. The automatic line-changes also tend to occur at the most inopportune times, such as a 3-1 breakaway. Once again, you shift off defenders and forwards separately, which can make managing them a bit overwhelming at first.
The on-the-fly coaching system is mostly ineffective. In fact, the lack of set plays can hurt the game offensively on any setting. While you can adjust the team strategy sliders in the pause menu, I often found my players inexplicably running plays that didn't fit the moment, or just plain out ignoring them. If you can get a play set up, they can be quite effective. However, until they get an actual play-calling system similar to the one seen in NBA games, they’re going to be an unimportant footnote to the game.
The franchise mode is a shining beacon for sports games on the Xbox 360, especially in the face of the deplorably base offerings by EA Sports. While the series still doesn't have a salary cap and instead gives you an owner-set limit (which is close enough to the cap), and they don’t begin to get into waivers, NHL 2K7 does so much right that it’s really easy to ignore those missing features. You have a fully functional minor league with a roster, lines, and schedule. Sadly, these games aren’t playable. You can practice during your off days. You can run individual workouts on your entire team (minors included), and you can run a scrimmage between your various lines to boost line chemistry. The one knock on the scrimmage is you can’t do situational scrimmages, so your special teams work has to come in game. Practices and games add fatigue, which can be reduced by running a bonus drill. The bonus drills are awarded once you complete a scrimmage, and you’re dropped into a skating drill, accuracy drill, or power-shot drill. Successfully completing this gives you a -25% to fatigue bonus, so it is in your best interests to work on that line chemistry after a long road trip.
Player contracts are once again performed masterfully. You have various ways of distributing the money, and you can give incentive bonuses. It is entirely possible to sign a free agent with a low base salary, a medium bonus and massive amounts of incentive bonuses. My biggest issue with the contracts is the lack of a renegotiation feature. You can’t sign players in the middle of the year, and you can’t renegotiate contracts to lock down younger players who are performing well.
Trading is rampant, and you see a flurry of CPU trading as you get closer to the deadline. They use the trading block often, and you’ll see offers for players you place on the block. While the CPU tends to put aging players with bloated contracts on the block, this tends to be the reality. The offseason draft and free agent period is standard fare, and you can scout through numerous players to get grades and ratings on them before the draft. The one problem you may find with the draft is that you will be tempted to trade off all of your draft picks to get a player. This says more about the trade system than anything. In order to get a player the CPU put on the trading block, you may have to give up two or three players AND a draft pick. When they bring offers to you, they rarely offer more than one player. Sometimes the CPU will make a realistic move (older, higher rated player for NHL ready prospects), but they mostly ask too much for what you get.
The email system provides various messages from the owner, scout, and other team officials. The hotline feature is interesting. The owner will call you and inform you of some bonus event. Sometimes this can be good, like a chemistry boost or a player getting ratings boosts, and sometimes this can be bad, like a drop in funds or attributes. Every so often, you’ll find a trade through this feature which allows you to get a player for almost nothing.
Line chemistry is an important aspect that factors into how your team plays on the ice. Higher chemistry levels gives you smoother passes and better scoring opportunities because your line works together. Bad chemistry gives you sloppy passes and almost no chance at nailing a one-timer or a set play, so it pays to keep a consistent lineup. Shuffling lines when your team struggles can work, and the AI will suggest a variety of line suggestions during the matchup screen. There are a few kinks in setting lines though. There is no easy way to give players an off night without completely reworking your lines. On the same note, there is no easy way to give your starting goalie a night off to rest in favor of the backup without reordering the depth chart.
Online play is a mixed bag. The game offers a variety of lobbies, providing sim games, regular games, skill contests, and other types of gameplay. You’re generally only going to see people in the general ranked lobbies. My biggest problem with this is the game is set to the standard bar settings, meaning fast paced, overhitting, no penalties, and rampant scoring. This is awesome if its your game-type, but it doesn’t suit mine so I’m not exactly a fan. I am, however, a fan of 2k’s rating system. You get the opportunity to leave feedback on players after a game, and it’s a blind system. If you have all positive feedbacks, you have 100%. Each negative knocks out some of those points based on how many games you’ve played and what feedback you’ve received. Generally, anyone rated 70% or above (after at least ten games) is a good opponent who won’t be a jerk, cheat, or leave negative feedback. There is a huge opportunity for abuse, and the system is abused by sore losers (and winners). Take this guy who took me out back and worked me over with the Buffalo Saber crowbar. He beats me 10-2, with me getting 2 goals in the 3rd and blowing his shutout. He leaves me negative feedback for “abusing exploits.” Yeah, I guess allowing 10 goals means I put in the “My Goalie Sucks” cheat. Generally, this type of jerkholishness is only seen from people with low feedback, although some people will slap you with it if you blow them out. Overall, the system works. I’ve encountered far more reasonable players than jerks, and quite frankly I’ve learned to avoid the jerks.
The online roster updates are a mixed bag. As of press time, 2k has released three updates, and they’ve added in rookies and assigned free agents to teams. This is a good thing overall. However, I have a massive problem with some of the finer details with the update. First, rookies were essentially painted over a retiring veteran. When you click on the player card, it shows a pictureless player who’s the correct age, height, and weight, but has 12 years of stats behind him. To further frustrate players, many of the lines are not accurate by default. For example, the Pittsburgh Penguins have Malkin as a Center on the second line instead of being a winger on the first line with Crosby. While this isn’t a problem in franchise mode, it does effect quick games and online play since you have to manually edit lines every time you play.
Bottom Line:
NHL 2K7 provides the best video game hockey experience on the Xbox 360. The franchise mode provides an insane amount of depth, and the game is just fun. You can tailor it to suit whatever style of video game hockey you like, and 2k is keeping the rosters updated. While EA’s game does bring in the shot-stick, NHL 2K7 is a fundamentally better and complete game.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 8.6 |
Posted: 2006-11-08 21:34:57 PST