As another September rolls around and everyone starts going back to school and college (yeah, I’m wondering where my Summer went too), so too do the sports seasons kick back into action. Soccer, American football, basketball, ice hockey, all getting the wheels back turning with the major leagues and cups beginning anew. This also means that the yearly sports games to match up with these new seasons are released, and among these is this one, EA’s NHL 14. Sporting legendary goalkeeper for the New Jersey Devils Martin Brodeur on the cover, this latest installment is everything we’ve come to expect, with some nice new improvements and tweaks in an attempt to get closer to creating the perfect ice hockey gaming experience.
Right off the bat, the first thing to notice is that this game looks great. The graphics are crisp and well defined, with the likenesses of the players being incredibly distinguishable, you can really recognize your favourite players and teams and jerseys from the sport, and the arenas look just as nice. In the intro video explaining some of the new features, I was actually surprised at how good it looked. The last NHL game I had played was NHL ’09 and I could really see a difference in the graphical quality and overall sheen of the game. The next thing you’ll notice is that this game has quite a few options for gameplay. There are the obvious choices, your standard quick match, training, and seasons and tournament modes are available, as well as returning favourites ‘Hockey Ultimate Team’ (a hybrid of fantasy hockey and the hockey trading cards of old) and ‘Be a GM’ and ‘Be a Legend’ mode. On top of these though, there are two new modes available. ‘Live the Life’ and ‘NHL ’94 Anniversary’, which are definitely the highlights of this game.
In the ‘Live the Life’ mode, you play as a player starting either in the CHL, the NHL Early Draft or the NHL itself. From here you literally manage your playing career in an effort to become an NHL legend. You select your player (you can create your own with a very complete creation mode), you select your position and how you like to play, and then you go for it. You play matches with your team, only ever playing your one player and being a part of the team. You do interviews, you take endorsements, you play for talent scouts and you try and rise to the top. If you’re good people notice and you start making headlines; if you’re bad you can be kicked off your team and have your career brought right back down to the bottom. It’s about as close as a simulation of having an NHL career gets and I loved it. It provides an insight into the inner happenings of the sport, without going into too much detail (read: boring) and it’s laid out really nicely so that you don’t need to be an NHL fan beforehand to understand and enjoy the gameplay.
The ‘NHL ’94 Anniversary’ is probably this game’s highlight though, at least in my view. It’s an updated version of the critically acclaimed NHL ’94, with the old-school gameplay and layout of the original, and the graphics and fighting of the update. For a retro fiend like me, I am in bliss playing this mode. Just good old fashioned fast paced Ice Hockey with no frills. Aim is to have fun and win. Nothing in between. This mode also highlights that when you take away all the new modes and gameplay expansions of the newer NHL titles, all of which are still good, you still have a very good basic gameplay mechanic. I’m a staunch believer that truly good games, and especially sports games, should be able to be broken down into really basic elements and still function as a game, and this proves that NHL series can do that, and do that very well.
Reviewing sports titles can be a tough difficult. With almost all of them having yearly releases, it can be hard to pick out elements that have changed enough to warrant anything more than ‘It looks a bit better and the offensive play system is a bit tighter’. NHL 14 is thankfully one of those yearly titles where enough has changed to warrant giving it some real attention. Whether you’re in it for the fist fights mid match (hit the Y button when a confrontation starts and you can have at) or the NHL ’94 mode or you want to become the greatest player the NHL has ever known and wish to experience the nuances of the sport while you’re at it, this is a game that can offer that, and very well too. About as good as sports titles get.
[easyreview title=”The Arcade Verdict” cat1title=”Gameplay” cat1detail=”Incredibly tight, very flowing and responsive.” cat1rating=”9″ cat2title=”Graphics” cat2detail=”As good as you would expect from an EA sports titles.” cat2rating=”9″ cat3title=”Sound” cat3detail=”Soundtrack contains tracks from artists such as Airbourne and Black Veil Brides, so some good, some bad.” cat3rating=”7″ overall=”true”]
