The Lowdown: Fantastic visuals coupled with an intuitive AI make for a solid Hockey gaming experience.  Whether you are a seasoned veteran or newcomer, the game and controls are very easy to adapt to.  Expect hard hitting matches as you battle for supremacy on the ice.  However, don’t expect simulation realism, at least not out of the box.

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE:  September 15, 2009
PUBLISHERS:   Visual Concepts
DEVELOPER:  2K Sports
ESRB RATING:  “E-10+” for Everyone 10+
GENRE:  Sports Simulation
PRICE: $49.99

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:
Featuring 2009 Hart Memorial Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Award winner Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals as its cover athlete and spokesman, NHL 2K10 brings the fast-paced action and fun of the NHL right to your living room while staying true to the sport.  NHL 2K10’s improved A.I. creates realistic plays and brings out the best in multi-player gameplay. Brighter arenas, accurate players and faces all running at a smooth 60 frames per second means the most realistic looking hockey!

PRODUCT FEATURES:

• Rewritten AI, enhanced defensive controls and stick lifts, stumble shots, a new defensive skating model and new incidental contact and small animation systems.
• Rink intros for each arena, improved goal celebrations, enhanced visuals, and greatly improved, true-to-life character models, with San Jose Sharks commentators Randy Hahn and Drew Remenda returning with new broadcast commentary.
• NHL 2K10 features a contract/free agency system, improved roster management, an updated financial model, dynamic player progression, and fantasy drafts.
• Publish your franchise stats and standings, and upload game highlights and screenshots to your personal page at 2KSports.com.
• Online integration connects players in Team Up games, tracks your progress with My Player Card, and offers full league, leaderboard, tournament and 2K Share support.

Now as you read through this article, keep in mind that I haven’t played a Hockey game in years.  However, that’s not to say I haven’t kept up with the sport.  You may go as far as saying that I am a ‘virgin’ when it comes to next-gen Hockey games.  At least this way you know you will get an unbiased perspective without all that fanboy nonsense when it comes to taking sides between the 2K and EA war.

That being said, the game has easy pick up and play controls that makes the game accessible to a large audience.  A run through of the tutorial got me quickly on track to faking out defenders and leaving goalies scratching their heads.  Granted, I am not on an advanced difficulty yet, but I believe that transition will come fairly quickly.  However, the skating seemed a bit rigid and slow.  I saw myself constantly abusing the speed burst on breakaways, which I feel is a mechanic that should be toned down on all sports games.  Still, it wasn’t that difficult to weave between defenders to set up shots, but everything just didn’t appear to flow very well together.  One has to wonder if the easy pick up and play mechanic was taken a bit too far.  If you like simulation hockey, the default sliders are definitely not for you.  I found myself scoring at a pretty regular clip, racking up scores of up to 8 in a single game.  Sidney Crosby was piling up a ton of hat tricks.  Luckily 2K has included a wide array of custom sliders for you to adjust to your hearts content.  And trust me on this, you will want to adjust the sliders.

Franchise mode is fairly deep with so many options, you feel as if you have the full power of a true GM.  Everything from contracts to trades are easily manipulated along with a host of coaching options to customize.  There’s also dynamic player progression that happens between seasons.  It’s nice to see hard work on the ice pay off with stat boosts, granted it doesn’t come until after a season ends.  Something that’s largely missing is the ability to scout up and comers.  Personally, I love scouting prospects and building up a team through solid drafting.  So it was quite disappointing to see this not included.

When it comes to sports titles, I believe that multi-player is one of the most important aspects.  2K delivers, as usual, with a robust set of online gaming modes.   They also make gaming with friends very easy with the option to invite others into a multitude of gaming sets.  Pond Hockey turns off the rules and lets you run wild as you play against other teams.  This, along with 2-on-2 sets are quite amusing to play, especially with friends.  With the new emphasis on social gaming, 2K allows you to share stats and standings, game sliders, created teams, and custom made highlight reels.

It’s pretty hard to not be impressed with the level of quality in graphics these days, particularly in sports titles.  NHL 2K10 certainly does not disappoint in this area.  Each of the player models are spot on.  You’ll even recognize the ugly mug of the cover athlete, Alexander Ovechkin, from miles away.  The super shiny ice looks great with the way light and shadows come off of it.  From time to time you’ll see minor clipping occur in the jerseys and helmet straps, but really only when you’re looking for these things.

Playing at a constant 60 FPS insures a smooth experience.  There are no slow downs or lag at any point during gameplay, which is paramount in Sports gaming.  The animations look great whether you’re pulling off a deke or slamming someone into the glass.  I absolutely love the way the Goalie moves, you can see a lot of polish went into his movements.  While all that looks good, a problem comes up when you’re pulling off say a 1-on-1 move.  You get stuck in that animation set.  It’s not very smooth chaining different moves together and I’d like the option, to readjust to whoever I’m facing off against, on the fly.  This has led to many breakaways being broken up by a simple stick poke because I was stuck in an animation, which led to some minor frustration.

Staying in line with a typical 2K release, presentation is at the top of its game.  You get nice Picture In Picture screens to show you when players are coming out of the penalty box.  Highlights are replayed in a timely fashion.  End of quarter recaps are pieced together well (Yes, you can still race the Zamboni during stoppages).  Even the commentators, Drew Remenda and Randy Hahn, are pretty accurate with their play by play calls and analysis.  While I have not played any previous NHL releases, being familiar with the 2K Sports line, I can see that the menu system has been completely revamped.  This will probably divide some of you, but it makes navigation quick and easy.  It looks very sleek, separated into 9 boxes that bring up a video overlay on some instances when you highlight a particular menu.  Optimizing speed was clearly the intent here, as you don’t have to scroll through a variety of menu options to get where you want.

Conclusion: I enjoyed my foray back into Hockey gaming.  The simple controls made it an easy adaptation.  However, the at times sluggish movement and arcade like gameplay will probably keep me from playing deep into my Franchise.  The emphasis on social gaming certainly lives up to its billing with easy use of online modes.  Curiously enough, the starting price is at $49.99, $10 below most new retail releases.  Perhaps that will be the final selling point for you.

Single Player: 7/10 | Multi-Player: 8/10

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