"Hockey Revolution, in the last four years there has been more innovation in the sport of hockey than at any other time in recent history. Four years ago was the introduction of the composite one piece stick that has allowed for harder more accurate shots (like the pros need to shoot any harder).
Three years ago the lock out, us die hard fans had to endure the hockey lockout and we found out there was something other than Hockey Night in Canada to do on a Saturday Evening in Canada."
Overall: NHL 07 is the greatest hockey game ever made. I am willing to say that it is borderline best sports game ever. EA has done a great job with the skill stick control. Gameplay: Gameplay is great. The number of times i have been bored playing NHL 07... 0. The number of times i have found myself on the edge of my seat in the third period down by one with 2 minutes to go... 8329930573947939 (numbers estimated) Multiplayer is also good. When i get tired of spanking the computer in dynasty mode, I can stomp someone from canada on xbox live. Graphics: Visuals are awesome! From the scratches in the ice to the wave of the twine after a hard slapshot. You know the graphics are great if you can actually recognize your favorite players without looking at their numbers or names. My only complaint is fighting. It seems a little cheezy. Overall - Very good Sound: Sound is possibly the only fault to NHL 07. The announcers get a little repetitive. The soundtrack seems unfit for hockey, too. The noises of a hockey stop, hits, slapshots, and the crowd are great. Suggestions: Think about xbox live, being able to play 2 player with your friend against someone else.
Overall: It's not fast, it's not flashy... but it IS the most accurate hockey experience to be found on a console to date. The addition of the Skill Stick & the Dynasty feature with Salary Cap limitations improves on what was already a solid franchise.
Cheap goals are a thing of the past, you find yourself trying ANYTHING to get a goal, and that's how it should be, making it a truly rewarding experience when you light the lamp. This... is hockey at it's best. Gameplay: The 1st thing to tell you though is this edition of EA's hockey is much, much slower than rival franchises. The 2K series was like Sonic to EA's mario-slow hockey. This is not, I repeat not a bad thing though. No more one pass then gun it down the rink for a breakaway with the touch of a speed boost button. Now you must use passing and positioning to make your openings.
Now in terms of AI, this is what has truly endeared me to the EA franchise. We have proper hockey games here people! Put that game on Allstar, tie your skates and hit the ice. We find that no longer can you virtually kill players with each bodycheck, nope you have to find the right time and space, line it up and deliver it right. We have goalies that will save EVERYTHING to the point of hair pulling frustration when finally you slip one through the 5-hole and everything is right with the world once more. A typical game will finish with usually 30 to 21 shotcounts. We're talking stingy goalies here, we're talking 2-1, 3-2 games, score 5 in a game and you feel like a GOD!
Goals can come from anywhere on the ice. A slapshot from point, a deke on the breakaway, a wraparound, a cheap bounce off a defenceman, a bad rebound shovelled in by a hungry forward, there are a huge number of ways to score, but nothing is surefire successful.
For too long hockey franchises have made the one-timer a key to success. Fire in enough of them and you're going to be scoring in high numbers. Here you could shoot them all day long and come up with nothing. Defensemen actually block the passing lanes! (What a novel idea!)
I'm a defenseman, it used to drive me to game-rage when the puck would zip right past my players stick whilst he scratched his nuts. Now if you play the position, you block the pass. One-timers are no longer easy, and when they do get through, the goalie will almost always get there in time.
Now onto the most important new feature, the Skill Stick:
This is where it's at ladies and gentlegoons, what we have here is the equivalent of Fight Night's total punch control. We have total control over our hockey stick. We can deke, fake a deke, prolong a deke, we can shield the puck, we can pull the puck to our backhand with ease, we can recoil for a powered up wristshot or backhand, we can poke check, Slap Shot, Wrist Shot, Fake Shot, spinaround...
...it's simply a device that opens up the game from being a digital (I will perform a set special move deke by pressing this button) to a beautiful analogous (I will play with this goalie, enrage him with my deft dekeing skills until his ears bleed) feature.
It took me about 6 games to get to grips with the Skill Stick, and about 20+ games to begin to master it. Even after an 82 game Dynasty season I'm still pulling off new moves and drooling.
Negative comments from previous reviewers lead me to believe people are turned off by their initial efforts with the SS. I can only plead that you persevere for the rewards of getting to grips with it are immeasurable. Classic Controls?! Why, that's like giving the Pope a Devil horns salute! That's like using Dial-Up! It's... it's like watching films on videotape!
It' not all guid however... I don't want y'all to think this game is perfect. The netminder's ability to pass in this game is dire, often passing it directly to the opposition in the opposite direction you were pointing. You learn after 4 or 5 spew-inducing goals that result from such a pass that's it's usually best to freeze the puck at take the dang faceoff.
When you're on the PowerPlay opponent's will often lob the puck off the ice over the plexi 4 or 5 faceoffs in a row (If you're not winning them of course). In the real NHL that's now a 2 minute minor for delay of game, not so here. On the easier difficulties there are an unusual amount of goals that go in from a strange bounce up over the back of the goalie, but these are infrequent at Allstar or above (Which is the setting I would honestly suggest everyone plays)
The most disappointing feature for me, is the Instant Replay frontend, it's gash. Truly poor in comparison to it's 2k rival and even more disappointing is the lack of a save feature. (That's pish! I assume it's due to the smaller HD, but it sucks not getting to save your highlight reel goals.)
A lack of fights was noted in a previous review, this is true. I played a complete 82-game Dynasty and had 1 fight. That's simply unreal, even in today's 'New-NHL' era. But if fighting's your thing, probably best look elsewhere, it's rare and poorly implemented to be honest.
But none of these things can even dent what is a wonderful hockey game. The presentation is pretty decent, graphics are pretty !&%$@#* guid but not exceptional. The highlight reels at the end of each period are a nice touch and the Skill Stick is simply the future of hockey games. Graphics: The graphics are great, if only we could see them. Let me explain: A huge amount of detail has gone into the players, but the default camera setting puts you so far above the ice that you never get to appreciate it until replay time, intros, shootouts or cut sequences.
They could be better, sure, but they're still current gen worthy. Everything is detailed enough that it doesn't stand out as awful, but nothing is truly exceptional. There is a nice review/replay of your actions when you get called on a penalty, but then a generic cut scene where a guy gets stroppy in the Sin Bin, I'm sure it's the same character model in there each time! That's disappointing...
The animations used in this game are spot on however. It really does have nearly everything you'll see in a real hockey game. The hits look guid, the trips and hooks look guid, the goals look beautiful (Especially when they're so hard to come by) the players reactions are priceless. (The 'who me?' reaction to a tripping penalty being my favourite)
This isn't a game you'd use to showcase the power of the 360. This isn't a game you'd play to be wowed by the visuals on offer. This is simply a game that brings you an accurate & detailed hockey experience. Sound: This is hard for me to review fairly, mainly because I'm stuck somewhere in the mid-90's in terms of music taste and this game doesn't cater to people who don't move with the times. I can't fairly say if this playlist is representive of current tastes, but I can say there's a fair number of songs on offer & I switched off all of them. :P
The actual on ice sounds are great, specific arenas have their own custom noises. (Coyotes being the most notable) There really is nothing lacking or exceptional in this area.
My major gripe in this section is the commentary. It seems every player that gets tripped is diving according to these guys. It's infuriating when it rarely happens in the sport, but the 3 or 4 set piece commentaries that kick-in on the penalties nearly all suggest the player going down was diving. I've come close to muting the commentary on several occassions they do it so much.
For a sport that prides itself on the sportsmanship and honorable conduct of most of it's players (In comparison to something like Soccer where the fairies are all lying on the grass sobbing like little girls when a tackle gets even close to them) it's bloody sickening to hear the commentators suggest the player would take a dive. It tarnishes the sport and something I truly take issue with. For that reason alone I give the audio score a kick in the ass. Suggestions: Change your commentary team, or at least give them a better script.
It's a great game, but implement a better replay front end.
Also netminders need better passing skills.
Overall: Thought at first the game seems awkward and difficult to control, once one understands how the players move, and how the game works, the greatness of the realistic game play becomes evident. Overall, i would definately reccomend this game to any hockey fans. Gameplay: I've played many hockey games in the past, ranging from many of EA's old nhl titles to the great NHL Hitz series. NHL 07 comes off as more difficult, but also more realisitic. No longer can you depend solely on one timers to do all the scoring for you.
Firstly, the skill stick while good on some occassions, really sucks the other 90% of the time. Luckily, one can change the controls to classic controls, while still retaining the ability to use the skill stick when wanted. When relying solely on the skill stick the controls are awkward, the players are difficult to control, and shots and passes rarely work how you want them. However, when on breakaways or in shootouts the skill stick can be great once mastered. Overall though, the skill stick falls short of its desired 'must have in every NHL game' status.
Once one gets over the skill stick (or just changes the controls), NHL 07 has the ability to shine. The realism of the game is great. It is often hard to score, hard to retain the puck, and hard to make clean passes through defensemen, But, thats hockey. Once one fully understands how the game works, and doesnt expect to just be able to pick it up and slapshot their way through the competition, this game really is quite fun. The frustration you encounter while failing to score on 20 shots only leads to excitement when you do score. The player really gets drawn into the game, and thats why its great. Graphics: Cut scenes look fantastic. Gameplay looks good, although i always play with the camera relatively far from the ice so the detail kinda gets left out, but its a sacrafice for easier gameplay. Overall, though, the visuals are spectacular. Exactly what one should expect from the 360. Sound: The commentary is great, though a bit repetative. That can be expected though. The only thing about the commentary that truely disappoints is the lack of support for dynasty mode. It would be nice if the commentators discussed how the season was going or anything about the season at all, but they dont. On ice sounds are on par for a hockey game, and the soundtrack is good. Really, you're not looking for too much in sound in a hockey game. Suggestions: If EA could polish the skill stick controls so that it was relatively useable all the time then it would be great. Besides that, I dont have many complaints. I've played lots and lots of games, and havent yet gotten into a fight, even though i see it in the options. I know the new nhl is all about not fighting, but, come on. Its a hockey game, its kind of expected.
Overall: EA waited an extra year to release a 360 game and thier first attemt on the 360 is a half polished we kinda tried result. Gameplay: A bit jerky, not fluid. EA failed really bad at making the "feel" even if you change the controls to classic instead of skill stick. Graphics: Nothing to glorify here, Cut scenes were pretty but in-game was ok at best. The ice was the same as always were as NHL2k6's ice is very impressive. That's right, even last years 2k version had better graphics. Sound: They got this part right, but how do you really screw sound up. Suggestions: Do a better job. I am so happy I rented this piece of crap instead of buying. 2006 on the PC was way better when things were tuned correct. The game may have been playable if you could make it fluid and not so jerky.
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