NHL 2001
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Article Published: Tuesday, November
14, 2000 (Vol. 6 No. 221)
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Game Review By Alex Dennis
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| Publisher: Electronic Arts |
| Developer: EA Sports |
| Minimum System Requirements: P200, 32 MB Ram, Win 9x |
| Category: Sports - Hockey |
| ESRB Rating: Everyone (E) |
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It's very likely that at some point
during your lifetime you'll play, or attempt to play a sport.
In Jamaica, most go for what's popular: soccer (football), cricket,
track & field, basketball and the list goes on. But what about
ice hockey! The problem: "It seldom, if ever, snows in Jamaica,
so we never see much ice" The solution: "NHL 2001"
The latest in EA Sports' NHL series, NHL 2001
brings the excitement of ice hockey straight to your desktop.
It includes all 30 NHL teams (inclusive of the two new franchises:
Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild) and also features
20 international teams, with big names like Latvia and the Ukraine
present. All of the rosters are up-to-date, with retired players
omitted and the rookies added. You may assume the role of any
of the available teams or better yet, build your own! The new
Create-a-Team option doesn't just allow you to specify your
new team's name or hometown but also allows you to create a
whole new look. To do this you may import your own designs (images
created outside of NHL 2001) to create team jerseys and franchise
logos. Your custom team may comprise of players taken from the
established teams or, you've guessed it, players that you've
created yourself. The player creation feature will allow you
to specify a player's nationality, birth date, skill level,
position and jersey number. Physical features may also be changed.
An interesting feature of this section is the Face in the Game
feature.This allows you to map a face from a photo unto your
custom player. This feature is a bit complicated, and it may
take you quite a number of tries to get it right. When you do
get it right, however, or when you're at least satisfied with
results, you'll be skating with the pros. There's an added bonus
in this area if you have an "easy to pronounce" name (e.g. John),
as the software is designed to recognize most first names. This
will allow the commentators to audibly refer to your name when
you've done something (whether bad or good) worthy of mention.
One major enhancement to this title is the addition
of a momentum meter. This tracks the momentum of a team, which
is in essence the level of overall team morale. Teams that post
high readings on this meter will experience an increase in ability,
just as in real life. For example, after a major achievement
such as a three-goal scoring streak, the reading on the momentum
meter will soar as the players increase in confidence. Similarly,
when trailing by a number of goals with the time running out,
this reading will fall, as some of your players would have begun
to give up hope. NHL 2001 gives you the whole hockey experience.
You may play as the team, the coach or even the general manager.
As either the team or the coach, you may stage quick match-ups
with any other team, enter a tournament, play through one or
more seasons, engage in shootouts, or instead of playing a whole
season you can simply jump to the playoffs. Coaching responsibilities
include deciding who's playing and also drawing up plays (strategic
plans) for your team to follow. The General Manager is the person
responsible for the business choices of the franchise, as it
relates to recruiting new players. As GM, it will be your responsibility
to trade with other teams, draft rookies, and negotiate with
free agents (experienced players that can sign new contracts
without their team's consent). Negotiating with free agents
means you'll have to propose to them a contract for X amount
of money. The free agents will then display a happy face or
frown indicating whether they like your offer or not. All of
this is done while keeping in mind the franchise budget.
Ratings (on a scale of one to five)
Graphics (*****): EA Sports must have done
some meticulous research for this title. I found it very realistic.
Great attention was paid to even the very minute of details.
I was very surprised when the camera focused on the coach's
disgusted face after I made a couple mistakes.
Interface (****): EA is well known for
it's great designing capabilities. And it was no surprise to
see that this title's menus were nicely done. I found them very
easy to understand and think you will too.
Game play (****): Fun! Fun! Fun! Fast-passed
and full of laughs! Also the fact that I could see myself (my
face that is) and hear my name being called while I played really
did something to boost my ego.
Multiplayer (****): This is arguably the
most important part of this game or any sporting simulation
for that matter. NHL 2001 allows you to take on opponents locally
(two people at the same computer) or globally (up to four players
on a LAN or the Internet)
Sound FX (****): As I said earlier, the
developers of this game did an extremely good job getting this
game to resemble "the real thing". This also extends to the
sound effects. The crowd responded appropriately to the action
presented to them and if you listened closely you could hear
special events being announced over the PA System at periodic
intervals. Commentators Jim Hughston and Bill Clement added
great flavor to the matches, even though some of their remarks
were a bit repetitive.
Musical Score (*****): This section I really
loved. The music that came bundled with the software was pretty
decent, but got monotonous after a while. But the developers
were smart, to compensate for varying tastes in music, a utility
is obtainable from the Internet that will allow you to import
your own music (in wav or mpeg format) into to the game.
Intelligence & Difficulty (****): Difficulty
levels span from Beginner to All-Star. And you can choose any
one of these levels in accordance to your skill. The AI is impressive
and the players move in unpredictable patterns as if they had
a mind of their own.
Overall (****): Even if you're not a diehard
hockey fan, this game is definitely worth playing. Your first
thought of an ice-hockey game may be negative, but I guarantee
all that will change after you've played NHL 2001.
