Sports games used to be simple to differentiate. EA made the games that were all flash and little strategy, and everyone else made the simulations. You knew what you were getting into when you took that white, EA branded box to the checkout line. That paradigm doesn’t seem to hold water anymore with the release of NHL 08. EA has retooled their hockey franchise, requiring gamers to put in a little more thought in their game play, yet all the eye candy gamers expect is still there. All in all, NHL 08 delivers a well-rounded hockey experience that sim fans can appreciate.
The revamping of EA’s NHL franchise goes against the grain of previous installments. Up to this point, EA’s games had a simple arcade like “run and gun” approach. Offense boiled down to fast breaks and setting up one-timers, while playing defense simply meant body checking anyone and everyone you could. These tactics don’t play out in NHL 08. The A.I. now adapts to the gamer’s style of play, forcing you to change up your game plan. If you continually run the same offensive set, the CPU will react and make changes in how they play defense. If you try to set up one-timers every time you are in the attacking zone, you’ll find the A.I. adjusting and playing your passing and shooting lanes. If you frequently try to set up fast breaks, you’ll notice more defenders playing back, and keeping themselves between the puck and the goal.
In previous NHL games, playing defense was merely a matter of chasing the puck carrier until you could throw a teeth-rattling body check. If you’ve ever watched or played hockey in real life, you know that this is not how it’s done. Fortunately for gamers that prefer a more realistic experience, you can no longer get away with this hard-hitting style of defense. Body checks are still there, to be certain, but if the gamer elects to chase the puck, he will find his defense out of position and susceptible to giving up the easy goals. The gamer’s best bet is to play smart and with patience. Play the passing lanes, use your poke checks, and wait for that perfect opportunity to lay an opponent out with the body check. Between periods, you’ll be given a report telling you what your team is doing right, and what they need to do differently. Pay attention to these suggestions. They will not only give the gamer advice for the next period, but they will also give the gamer clues on what the other team may try to do.
The skating physics have been polished and made a little more realistic as well. The skater’s inertia, as well as that of the puck, seem to play out much more accurately than prior EA titles. EA has provided the player a few tools to make the skating top-notch. Moving the right thumbstick left or right performs a basic deke. A more sophisticated deke, the one-on-one, is done by holding a modifier button and using both thumbsticks. It’s used to get around a defender by sending the puck in a direction, while you skate around your opponent. When the one-on-one deke is initiated, the left thumbstick controls where the gamer skates, while the right thumbstick controls the direction of the puck. Because the skater is in actuality giving up possession of the puck briefly, this method should be used only in true one-on-one situations. This is a difficult move to pull off, and the vast majority of the time I found myself merely giving up the puck to my opponent. For this reason, the one-on-one deke is all but worthless most of the time.
NHL 08’s Dynasty Mode relies on the same basic framework as before, but has added a few welcome enhancements to make the experience a little deeper. Free agents no longer look only at the money you’re offering, but they now also evaluate the success of the team, their playing time potential and the average age of the other players on the team. Each team has a minor league AHL affiliate from which you can call up new talent, or send a rookie down for more seasoning. While this is a great feature, NHL 08 will prompt you constantly to confirm whether you want to play the AHL affiliate’s game. While this is just a minor inconvenience, I’m sure most gamers will pass on playing minor league games, so these matches should have been set to “Sim” by default.
EA Sport’s trend of late is to focus on Dynasty and Franchise modes, while ignoring the segment of the gaming public that doesn’t want to be bothered with salary caps, free agent signings, scouting talent and setting ticket prices. Whatever happened to simple Season modes, where a gamer could pick a team and play out a full season, without all the added complexities? Some gamers just want to play without extra hassles, and I was disappointed to see that NHL 08 continues the trend of ignoring these gamers.
