PlayStation 3
Released in 2011 by EA Sports
Grade: A+
Damn this game is exciting, blending chaos and control in a way that feels just like NHL hockey. It refines the gameplay from previous editions to make for a great time without any problems.
Where it falls in the series
It’s the fifth of nine installments on PS3. I can’t quite decide which game I like most in this generation, this or NHL Legacy Edition.
Notable note: The game contains a demo of NHL 3-on-3 Arcade, a cute download-only game on a tiny rink with silly powerups and slick controls ripped from the sim NHL series. This is notable because you can’t get the full game anymore due to licensing laws.
Praises and gripes
I almost wrote this game off right away. The skating control feels a bit different than in the other games in the series, almost too smooth when your player gets going on a sprint. But, like most everything else in the game, I adjusted without even realizing it and it felt completely natural in no time.
The last couple NHL games were impressive, with good speed, clear graphics, fluid controls, and realistic AI coming together into an exciting hockey sim … but with the annoyance of a puck that fluttered around the crease and caused more fluky goals than you see in real hockey. This year, it’s fixed. Goalies steer the puck aside or gobble it up. There are still some ugly goals, especially on the “hardcore” setting, but they’re usually well-earned and feel like a natural occurrence.
The game provides three main gameplay settings: casual, normal, and hardcore. Casual is like most hockey games over the past many years, allowing snappy passes and straightforward scoring chances. For me, the game really comes alive on hardcore, where there’s better goaltending, more deflections, more blocked shots, some errant passes, players poking the puck free more often, and more pileups in the corners. I found myself employing genuine strategies — dumping and chasing, clearing the puck to get it out of harm’s way, and passing backwards — stuff you see in real hockey but is rarely useful in a video game.
The game is also equipped with more options than you’ll know what to do with. You can tweak things like passing accuracy, frequency of deflections, faceoff ease, the CPU’s ability to learn your tendencies, all kinds of stuff. You’re probably fine just choosing a setting and making tweaks if anything feels out of balance. My ideal setting is hardcore with penalties dialed down a bit and with “pass assist” dialed up, because I find true “manual passing” nearly impossible.
I like how the AI is smart and tenacious. Players don’t usually hold the puck for more than a couple seconds. You need to move it around. I noticed AI improvements like players cleverly intercepting passes and crowding the middle of the ice. The game has hockey-like flow and hockey-like moments. I like how the strategy settings can affect the game but aren’t overwhelming. The CPU opponent is impressively human-like, and you can dial up the difficulty inch by inch in the settings.
The controls are so well engineered. You skate with the left stick and deke and shoot with the right stick. The right stick is also for body checks, and there are realistic physics and collision detection between players. You’ll need to get used to not having a turbo button, although you can press L2 to push the puck ahead for a few strides if you have room. Later versions added turbo by clicking down on L3.
I love the do-everything poke check button, R1. You can poke at the puck when the opponent has it, but it also comes in handy to dislodge the puck from a scrum or to reach out and stop a pass. R1 does a saucer pass on offense, so if you happen to be smashing the button to steal the puck when you’re actually in possession of it, you’ll just tap it forward or toward a teammate, which seems like a fair and realistic result of smashing the button. Similarly, if you’re moving the right stick for body check and get the puck unexpectedly, you’ll harmlessly deke or maybe dump the puck. Once you get the hang of the game, you almost never do something you didn’t mean to do, and when you do, the result is fair. Many other hockey games got these details wrong and subjected gamers to some wacky sights.
The game’s marketing makes a big deal of the first-person-view fighting engine, but it’s honestly dumb and hard to control. The post-whistle skirmishes that lead to them are also goofy, so I happily turn them both off.
Let’s see, what else? There’s now a “Be a Pro” mode and you can play the outdoor Winter Classic game. There are minor league and European pro teams to choose from. The sound is strong but has the usual “gets old fast” commentary, which I turn off. The menus aren’t the best … but whatever, this game rocks, simple as that.
Other reviewers complained about stuttering animations (I don’t see them) and the fact that the puck rarely goes out of play (that’s actually true but I don’t care). You need to look hard for nitpicks on this one. If you want your hockey video game to play like real hockey, you’re not going to do much better than this.