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989 Sports’ NHL series returns, with Wayne Gretzky as the spokesman. The company decided to take last year off in order to develop a competitive product, and has recently done the same for its NFL Gameday and NBA ShootOut series, so I went into this game expecting it to go head to head against NHL 2005. While the game is solid, it can’t quite keep up.
Gretzky NHL 2005 includes a number of the expected game types. The game includes the expected Exhibition mode for those who simply want to play a quick game, there is the franchise mode where you act as the owner and manage the team and so forth. Theoretically unique to the series it the “Gretzky Challenge” which allows you to complete a number of simple objectives like winning a face-off or something to that extent. The Challenge is more useful in that it allows you unlock a number of jerseys, cheats and even different versions of Wayne Gretzky.
The game includes a rudimentary create-a-player mode, that doesn’t really do too much, on its own, to really involve you in the process. Thankfully, the EyeToy is supported to allow you to truly recreate yourself.
As expected with 989 Sports, the game’s online mode is excellent. The experience is largely lag free and you’ll be able to trash-talk during the game, as well as text chatting if voice isn’t an option. Aside from that, 989 Sports included fully-functional head to head play and you can partake in a 64-team tournament. Rankings and leaderboards are also included.
As for offline multiplayer, the game also includes a Rivalry mode where you can engage in countless games against a rival team and the game will keep track of an insane number of statistics. While a neat little feature, I’m not sure that all of those statistics are really necessary, but hey, they don’t hurt.
The actual hockey in the game is well-done. The game gives you much control over the characters and includes neat little tricks, like the ability to pass to someone and force that character to pass back to you, and being able to determine the power of your shots. Unfortunately, the controls aren’t the most responsive and will make a few moves a tad frustrating at first.
The game’s visuals are good. The rinks look fine and the player models are reasonably detailed. The animation on the ice is admirable and overall, the game looks natural in motion.
The game’s audio isn’t as impressive. The sound effects fail to evoke any emotion, and don’t really live up what is going on visually. The announcers do a decent job of portraying the game but don’t particularly stand out either.
Gretzky NHL 2005 is a solid, even good, hockey game. The game’s online support is excellent with no lag or visual problems (like the PS2 version of NHL 2005), but the actual gameplay could be more responsive, and the production values need to moved up a notch or two. -- Jake Wilson, PGNx Media
---- Nov 16, 2004
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