NHL 10 Review

After a few years of questionable quality and lagging behind 2k Sports’ NHL series, the folks at EA Sports decided to do a huge revamp with NHL08 which was a big success, and with NHL09 they further established their dominance over competition. On the other hand the 2k series saw a decline and a move towards more of an arcade style of play which did not work out too well. Having said that, EA Sports had a lot to follow up on with NHL10, and I can’t say it would be fair to expect another breakthrough experience like NHL09 was. NHL10 as a whole goes back to the EA’s formula of yearly releases from the last generation of consoles - now that NHL09 has paved the way, the developers can tweak the gameplay, add a few new features and call it a day with the next installment. This is unfortunate but unavoidable when the series are on a strict yearly release cycle. So the big question is, does NHL10 warrant a purchase for those who own 09? The answer is maybe, and it all depends on what features you’d like to have in your hockey game.

The sales pitch for this year’s version of the game was filled with the usual huge number of promoted refinements and adjustments to the gameplay itself. While on the ice, the difference between NHL09 and 10 could be noticed immediately. There are tons of new difficulty sliders that let you tweak the game to completely fit your play style, and the different settings actually do make a big difference between Normal and Hardcore. The speed of the game has also been tweaked but it also remains completely customizable which is a very nice move. During the game you will see a lot of new animations, crowd behavior and great goalie saves – but the cutscenes between plays remain frustratingly identical to last year, and start repeating just after a few games. The AI has been tweaked a bit to prevent some of the glitch and cheese goals that plagued the series for a few years now, but with no surprise new issues emerged after just a few weeks and have remained without a fix. The biggest new game feature and the one with the most impact is board play, which changes the flow of the game quite a bit and adds a realistic feel to the ice. You can now pin players against the boards and try to scoop the puck from under them, while the pinned player tries to protect the puck and pass it to the nearest teammate. This feature works great and the AI uses it to its full potential. Granted, it is not perfect but EA has already released a few gameplay adjustment patches so things are more realistic and more fun to play. This is by far the biggest addition to the gameplay this year, and it works great. One last thing to mention is the controls, which thankfully still offer the option of Default, Classic and NHL94. One negative change this year though is the custom control feature, which does not work and you are no longer able to customize your gamepad.

For a lot of fans, Manager Mode (previously called Dynasty mode) is a big reason to play the game. Players can take control of any team in the game and bring them to glory. The big addition this year is the GM Tracker, which actually provides the player with points for various tasks they complete during their GM careers. Points range from signing new players, to winning a certain number of games per season, to making it all the way to the Finals. Points vary in their amount depending on the task, and after a certain number is acquired you are able to upgrade your staff members, which brings bonuses to areas such as scouting, training and medical. Total points acquired during your career are also tracked and used to determine your GM rank (Amateur, Pro, etc) but this rank does not have a great effect on gameplay. The GM AI is also improved this year, with the addition of player “value” meters that determine how valuable a player is based on his overall rating and age, rather than salary. This is a nice addition, but the AI still sometimes pulls off impossible trades amongst each other but hate you if you try to propose something they do not think is good enough. Your GM relationship with other teams is established by the quality of the trades you do and also propose, and the higher the relationship, the better chances you have of getting a good deal from that team. Free Agency still retains some issues, as top players in the game may often find themselves as free agents simply because their owners are out of budget space for next season. Overall though, the game’s simulation engine keeps the standings tight and interesting and AI GM relationships engaging.

The second big reason many fans of the series may want to pick up NHL10 is the Online modes. The famous EA Hockey league is based on monthly results this year, rather than running a long league that lasts over 6 months. This allows a lot more competition and a new champion every month, which is a smart move. The big issue last year though was the player glitching and the lag issues. While the player cheating was fairly quickly dealt with this year, the lag continued to be a big problem well into the first month of release. This is disappointing, but apparently not an isolated issue as folks over at FIFA 10 were also reporting huge connectivity issues and often inability to play during peak evening hours. This is not a knock against the game directly, but this still hampered the online play a fair bit. There were also many issues that remained from last year, including team/player dropping, 3-0 wins, and stats not recording on player’s profiles. There were also serious freezing issues reported early on that caused console resets and even CDs being damaged. In the overall package, the online mode is filled with features and fun folks to play against. But in reality so many issues with online games caused a lot of players to avoid this mode of play altogether until late into 2009 when a few patches were released. If you have not yet, it is probably time to give online play a try and see if it is fun again. And for those who are trying to stick with NHL09, don’t be too surprised if you aren’t able to play online within a few weeks from now.

New modes this year aren’t really that new, which goes back to my earlier suggestion of EA Sports now becoming into the old cycle of barely providing any new content for the next few years now that the franchise is back on its feet. The Season mode, GM Mode with Fantasy Draft, and some Be a Pro changes are only small refinements that have already been in the series in years prior, but only now got imported to the next-gen version. A truly original new mode is Battle for the Cup, which allows you to directly enter the Stanley Cup playoffs with any team and gameplay settings, to compete in a series of games to try to win the ultimate title. It makes for fun night with a few friends, but has little use for those who play singleplayer most of the time. Be a Pro mode also has not changed a lot, except for one controversial addition – the Pro Shop. As you may know, Be a Pro allows you to create a character and grow him over the years, increasing your attributes and getting promoted to the first line in the NHL team that drafted you. As your experience increases, you unlock new equipment that provides you with in-game boosts such as higher shot accuracy, speed and better puck handling. However this year, EA Sports has turned the tables on actually earning these rewards by grinding through the seasons by allowing you purchase all player boosts with real money. Not only is this insulting to players who want to earn their upgrades, it puts them into an unfair advantage because you can take all these attribute modifiers into online versus matches. So you can imagine that the first few weeks of online play was dominated by players who purchased rather than earned their boosts, and many hardcore players were simply offended to be defeated by folks who “purchased their victories”. The EA Sports’ need for players to buy boosts rather than earn them was further solidified by the ridiculous tasks that are required to be performed by the fans who wish to earn their equipment boosts legitimately. Some items require way too much grind and many hours of tedious play just to unlock new equipment – tasks such as winning a game with every team in Finnish league (20+ games need to be played), winning a Stanley Cup with a weak team against a strong CPU team on the hardest difficulty settings, etc. Sure, these are great as achievements, but instead they are tied to your Pro character’s ability to use new equipment while others conveniently purchase it in-game for $3.

Now that you’ve had a look at all the big new additions to the game, you can try and make up your mind about getting this year’s version. If board play and new Manager mode are important to you, or if you want to play Online, there is little choice but to upgrade. However if you are more of a casual player who just wants to play on occasion with a few friends, there is little reason to get NHL10. It is not nearly the same step up for the series as NHL09 was, so my advice would be to download some user-made rosters and import them into the game and begin your new GM season for 2009/2010.