NHL 11 Review

Great core gameplay changes and enough new content mostly overshadow the lingering issues that still remain

Posted by Alex V on September 15, 2010 - 5:07pm EST

The NHL series from EA Sports is one of those titles that releases a few long weeks before the actual season of the sport begins. As such, for the majority of the month in September, the early adopters cling to get their copies and build their anticipation for the real sport to kick off. As every year, NHL 11 is an annual iteration of hockey that seeks to improve on last year’s version while adding some new content to attract buyers. The big question is usually weather or not its worth upgrading each year, and the answer tends to vary. Last year, NHL 10 introduced various new gameplay features such as boardplay and post-whistle scrums, and added improvements to Be a GM and online game modes. With that, we couldn’t whole-heartedly recommend that everyone jump on the new version, as some issues remained from previous year and new features didn’t offer enough value for a lot of players. With NHL 11, things are different.

Probably the most promising changes this year occurred in the core gameplay, which many will be happy to hear. EA Sports has introduced a physics engine into the game, thus making the players and the puck behave much more realistically. Instead of animation-based gameplay, the hockey now takes to the ice with a whole new sense of realism and fluidity. Probably the most standout result of the new engine is the hitting and body checking. Players now have a very wide range of hits and hipchecks, and the resulting animations are generated thanks to the new engine. This means that very, very few hits will ever look the same on the ice, and there is a ton of satisfaction from landing a great bodycheck. Hits now look and feel more dynamic and punishing than ever before, and depending on the direction and location of the hit, players fall and bounce off the boards in a realistic fashion. The puck also behaves more realistically, resulting in better plays and more opportune goals.

Another core gameplay change introduced is manual passing. Now, depending on how long you hold the pass button, the strength of the pass is adjusted. This means that tapping the pass button will no longer perform perfect long-range cross, but instead just weakly send it into the general direction of the player. Charging the pass for too long results in a very strong pass, and the receiving player can have trouble controlling the puck entirely. This new system is required for all online play, and can be turned off in single player. However, even with it off, the passes now feel sluggish and unresponsive. So, while the new system is definitely not perfect and takes time to get used to, players are better off adjusting to it than trying to play with assists offline. A new system for faceoffs is also in the game, which now lets you position the player and tie up or push the opponent off the puck, and let a winger scoop it out. This adds a new layer of strategy to the faceoffs, and removes the simple mashing of the stick.

The gameplay has certainly seen some great changes this year, and not the least of which is broken sticks. Players can now snap and break their sticks, as well as drop them, over the course of the match. It thankfully happens only occasionally, though still more than in real life, it never becomes an annoyance. This mechanic adds a whole new dynamic to the game, much like board play did last year. Sticks can snap from blocking a shot, trying to do a onetimer or slapshot. Players can drop their sticks if they get tangled up in your opponent, or if they receive a significant body check. From there, the players will attempt to play the puck without a stick if they are in a crucial defensive zone. Otherwise, they will skate to the bench and get a new stick right away. AI will also call for a new stick from forwards in the defensive zone, where the defenders are crucial to be in the play. The puck also occasionally interacts with the sticks on the ice, bouncing off them and potentially breaking up play, but this rarely occurs.