NHL 2K7
Posted September 21, 2006
At the launch of the Xbox 360, Kush Games attempted to capture the interest of hockey fans with a barely upgraded port of NHL 2K6 from the Xbox. 360 owners balked at the bloated price of the 360 version and many passed on the token effort. This year, Kush Games responded in force with a version built to take advantage of the powerful 360 hardware and rival the presentation of its co-released adversary, NHL 07 by EA Sports. The presentation has fallen on the shoulders of a cinematic tool, called Cinemotion, designed to recreate the experience found when watching movies such as Miracle or Slap Shot. Aspects of the audio and video are intertwined into a filmic flow during actual gameplay and replays. The unique qualities of Cinemotion are a modernistic, media-influenced take which provides a fresh feel for a sports title. 
Gameplay:
Single player modes are pretty much identical to last year. Exhibition, Franchise, Season, and Mini-games are all included to delight the hockey fanatic. Franchise mode is still the king with its enormous amount of off-season decisions. Attempting to balance out player salaries becomes a tough task after a couple seasons into the franchise, particularly with an average team. Also, the developer has included a neat rival mode within Franchise that introduces complex consequences to winning/losing such as modifying team morale. The Mini-games include everything from playing arcade games in the Skybox to dishing out a little hockey action on a frozen pond. Playing ice bowling is a nice little diversion from the main game if you are so inclined.
Compared to NHL 07, control is much more fluid and distinct in 2K7. Reaction times are a split second faster and more realistic in terms of movement. Also, puck ownership is represented by a blue circle under a player which is much clearer than NHL 07 and its red triangle hovering above the player. Offensive controls really haven't changed much, although they did add a behind-the-back pass for a quick goalie fake-out. Defensively, the checking system still works quite well, but it may seem unrealistic to some players. Personally, I believe powerful checks increase the visceral nature of the game as well as the appeal.
The difficulty of the opposing A.I. has been increased exponentially over last year if you like to play realistic hockey. Setting up plays is easy, but knowing the exact moment to exploit the opposing defense is quite challenging. Also, goalies have received more fine tuning options in the roster menu to balance your skill level. Increasing certain goalie strengths will put an end to cheap one-timers and force your offense to create opportunities. It's a welcome, effective change from the 2K6 version which provided far too many chances to score silly goals. I advice folks to set the game on Hall of Fame to test out the best that the developer has to offer. Also, anyone that's having difficulty with the tough A.I. should investigate the vast quantity of sliders in the options menu for tweaking.
I'm surprised the developer kept the exact same menu system as last year. The convoluted mess makes saving your game quite tedious. In order to complete the save function, you have to traverse about 5 different screens back and forth. It's a tedious requirement that grows old after playing though much of a Franchise season. Even the occasional auto-save prompts are a pain to deal with. A save feature that's completely absent of player interaction definitely needs to added for next year's game.
The multiplayer is much more stable and expansive than its rival over at Electronic Arts. Matches are lag free and the lobby challenge system retains a bit of its uniqueness, although it's several years old at this point. The tournament system is still top notch and league play is just as addictive. Setting up a 30 team season with your hockey crazed Xbox Live buds is a recipe for continued success. Concerning additions, the developer upped the amount of online stats and tools for working through league play, but not much beyond that. It's still far beyond anything NHL 07 has to offer this year.
Arguably, the developer improved the difficulty of their achievements along with increasing creativity. While last year's version pathetically took a couple hours to complete, NHL 2K7 requires quite a bit more time and effort to finish. The achievements are broken into 17 tasks for a total of 1000 gamerscore points. Over 20% of those points have to be earning in multiplayer while the remainder are awarded for single player tasks. Achievements such as winning 100 games or becoming champion of an online tournament are significant time based tasks. While some achievements can still be garnered by modifying stats, the developer provided a basis structure to their set of achievements which outperforms their previous effort. Kudos for adding actual replay value with the achievement system.
Graphics:
Visually, the strides between the 2K6 and 2K7 version are very impressive. Most noticeably, the frame rate appears to be a rock solid 60 fps which creates the optimum environment for offline and online hockey. The animations are silky smooth and obviously more varies than 2K6. Sliding to block a slap shot, slamming goals off their mounts, and racing down the ice for a breakaway are all gorgeous. Also, ice tracks from the plethora of skate blades are much more defined than 2K6.
Introducing a new camera angle, Cinemotion is perhaps the most outstanding attempt at a moving overhead view I've seen in years. While not quite perfect, the angle usually switches at the correct cinematic moment and covers the action admirably. It really worked wonders on my passing game, even though I still relied on the overhead view for certain tense situations. In comparison to NHL 07, the facial and crowd detail in NHL 2K7 isn't to the same standard. Specifically, EA's effort seems more realistic looking while this game uses an overly colorful, almost slightly cartoonish look. Still, frame rate is king in sports games and NHL 2K6 is the undisputed winner in that category.
Audio:
Bob Cole and Harry Neale return to commentate the play-by-play for the 2K7 version. As much as I enjoyed the color commentary last year, EA has a more authentic team of announcers this year over in NHL 07. Interestingly, the developer introduced a new, dramatic auditory quality within Cinemotion as an option into the game. As the tension of the hockey game mounts, driving orchestral music plays in the background, wholly specific to the situation. For instance, winning a close match or a shootout will result in a moving piece similar to rousing military marches. The cinematic flair is certainly a fresh feel for sporting events and I certainly hope they continue the trend in their sports lineup. The sound effects are pretty much par for the course. There isn't much new material in relation to the previous version.
Conclusion:
For those burned by the lackadaisical effort that went into the 2K6 version, I can guarantee you won't feel the same way again. The exemplary multiplayer, the extensive single player action, and the overhauled graphical engine are just a few of the reasons NHL 2K7 is currently the best hockey title on the 360. NHL fanatics are going to have a field day with the depth of NHL 2K7 as well as anyone who likes worthwhile achievements. I highly recommend picking this up at a price point of $40 to $50 if you have any interest in hockey.
Gameplay:
Single player modes are pretty much identical to last year. Exhibition, Franchise, Season, and Mini-games are all included to delight the hockey fanatic. Franchise mode is still the king with its enormous amount of off-season decisions. Attempting to balance out player salaries becomes a tough task after a couple seasons into the franchise, particularly with an average team. Also, the developer has included a neat rival mode within Franchise that introduces complex consequences to winning/losing such as modifying team morale. The Mini-games include everything from playing arcade games in the Skybox to dishing out a little hockey action on a frozen pond. Playing ice bowling is a nice little diversion from the main game if you are so inclined.
Compared to NHL 07, control is much more fluid and distinct in 2K7. Reaction times are a split second faster and more realistic in terms of movement. Also, puck ownership is represented by a blue circle under a player which is much clearer than NHL 07 and its red triangle hovering above the player. Offensive controls really haven't changed much, although they did add a behind-the-back pass for a quick goalie fake-out. Defensively, the checking system still works quite well, but it may seem unrealistic to some players. Personally, I believe powerful checks increase the visceral nature of the game as well as the appeal.
The difficulty of the opposing A.I. has been increased exponentially over last year if you like to play realistic hockey. Setting up plays is easy, but knowing the exact moment to exploit the opposing defense is quite challenging. Also, goalies have received more fine tuning options in the roster menu to balance your skill level. Increasing certain goalie strengths will put an end to cheap one-timers and force your offense to create opportunities. It's a welcome, effective change from the 2K6 version which provided far too many chances to score silly goals. I advice folks to set the game on Hall of Fame to test out the best that the developer has to offer. Also, anyone that's having difficulty with the tough A.I. should investigate the vast quantity of sliders in the options menu for tweaking.
I'm surprised the developer kept the exact same menu system as last year. The convoluted mess makes saving your game quite tedious. In order to complete the save function, you have to traverse about 5 different screens back and forth. It's a tedious requirement that grows old after playing though much of a Franchise season. Even the occasional auto-save prompts are a pain to deal with. A save feature that's completely absent of player interaction definitely needs to added for next year's game.
The multiplayer is much more stable and expansive than its rival over at Electronic Arts. Matches are lag free and the lobby challenge system retains a bit of its uniqueness, although it's several years old at this point. The tournament system is still top notch and league play is just as addictive. Setting up a 30 team season with your hockey crazed Xbox Live buds is a recipe for continued success. Concerning additions, the developer upped the amount of online stats and tools for working through league play, but not much beyond that. It's still far beyond anything NHL 07 has to offer this year.
Arguably, the developer improved the difficulty of their achievements along with increasing creativity. While last year's version pathetically took a couple hours to complete, NHL 2K7 requires quite a bit more time and effort to finish. The achievements are broken into 17 tasks for a total of 1000 gamerscore points. Over 20% of those points have to be earning in multiplayer while the remainder are awarded for single player tasks. Achievements such as winning 100 games or becoming champion of an online tournament are significant time based tasks. While some achievements can still be garnered by modifying stats, the developer provided a basis structure to their set of achievements which outperforms their previous effort. Kudos for adding actual replay value with the achievement system.
Graphics:
Visually, the strides between the 2K6 and 2K7 version are very impressive. Most noticeably, the frame rate appears to be a rock solid 60 fps which creates the optimum environment for offline and online hockey. The animations are silky smooth and obviously more varies than 2K6. Sliding to block a slap shot, slamming goals off their mounts, and racing down the ice for a breakaway are all gorgeous. Also, ice tracks from the plethora of skate blades are much more defined than 2K6.
Introducing a new camera angle, Cinemotion is perhaps the most outstanding attempt at a moving overhead view I've seen in years. While not quite perfect, the angle usually switches at the correct cinematic moment and covers the action admirably. It really worked wonders on my passing game, even though I still relied on the overhead view for certain tense situations. In comparison to NHL 07, the facial and crowd detail in NHL 2K7 isn't to the same standard. Specifically, EA's effort seems more realistic looking while this game uses an overly colorful, almost slightly cartoonish look. Still, frame rate is king in sports games and NHL 2K6 is the undisputed winner in that category.
Audio:
Bob Cole and Harry Neale return to commentate the play-by-play for the 2K7 version. As much as I enjoyed the color commentary last year, EA has a more authentic team of announcers this year over in NHL 07. Interestingly, the developer introduced a new, dramatic auditory quality within Cinemotion as an option into the game. As the tension of the hockey game mounts, driving orchestral music plays in the background, wholly specific to the situation. For instance, winning a close match or a shootout will result in a moving piece similar to rousing military marches. The cinematic flair is certainly a fresh feel for sporting events and I certainly hope they continue the trend in their sports lineup. The sound effects are pretty much par for the course. There isn't much new material in relation to the previous version.
Conclusion:
For those burned by the lackadaisical effort that went into the 2K6 version, I can guarantee you won't feel the same way again. The exemplary multiplayer, the extensive single player action, and the overhauled graphical engine are just a few of the reasons NHL 2K7 is currently the best hockey title on the 360. NHL fanatics are going to have a field day with the depth of NHL 2K7 as well as anyone who likes worthwhile achievements. I highly recommend picking this up at a price point of $40 to $50 if you have any interest in hockey.