NHL 12 Review - cursive's Blog

cursive's Blog

NHL 12 Review

Posted on January 13, 2012 at 08:57 PM.

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I have to start my review by letting you know I do not follow the game of Hockey and the last Hockey video game I played was �Ice Hockey� for the original Nintendo. So going into the game I had a huge learning curve ahead of me, but felt like I could get a good perspective with some fresh eyes. The first couple games I played versus the Computer and spent the majority of my time trying to get into fights, instead of working on my offensive and defensive skills. Even though I enjoyed the fight controls I was missing out on some of the great New Features added to NHL 2012, and you�ll soon find out why.

The Breakdown:

Once we sat down to learn all of the controls to NHL 12, we went through the Tutorial Mode and took turns getting each feature down. We also wanted to work on our shooting technique and jumped into a NHL Shootout to learn not only how to Deke and Shoot, but how to direct our shots to either side of the net. Once we felt comfortable with the controls, we played a few games and loved the control we had over the puck. Whether we wanted to put our all into a Pass or Shot on goal, or be able to put some touch and glide it across the ice we felt we could do both with ease.

This however isn�t the first year of the new physics engine in NHL, and not where you are going to see the biggest improvements. Even though we were impressed, new to NHL 12 are the game physics that were added to Player and Stick collisions. We really enjoyed seeing a hard collision against the glass and seeing a player�s helmet fly off, which would remain that way until the next stoppage. Also seeing players go for a slap shot and break their stick; to not only have to see them have to swing by the bench to grab and new one, but also see the broken stick remain until picked up. We have yet to see a play were we get shattered glass, but we have seen goals were the puck banks off one post and then around the net and hit the other post.

To go into a little more detail on player collisions, depending on momentum and direction we saw plenty of collisions that looked and felt different every time. We love a full body check that would send the opponent flying to the ground, but also when not making good contact seeing an opponent get spun around and try to maintain his balance. While the CPU AI doesn�t go for a many big hits as you might, they will retaliate and start a fight you might not want. This got us to learn very quickly to 1, only start a fight with someone you don�t mind losing and 2, if you want to take out an opponent pick the fight during stoppage time and not during playtime. We found ourselves getting taken advantage of when trying to pick a fight during the course of the game, and the CPU took advantage almost every time with a breakaway score. Another nice addition is letting the Goalies in on the action this year, for the first time in NHL 12 you can now have your Goalie throw down his gloves and try to teach someone a lesson.

One mode we did give a shot was Be a Pro Mode, we did want to use a NHL Legend but unfortunately you will have to progress your created player to great heights before you unlock the likes of Lemieux and Gretzky. We did like the starting options in Be a Pro Mode to either start in the CHL, NHL Draft, or pick our Favorite Team. Progressions was fun, but we started out as a Goalie and quickly learned that even though the game play seemed easy enough we were giving up 3-4 goals per game. Luckily we were rewarded for the goals we blocked and not for the ones we gave up.

Final Note:

We had plenty of fun learning the basics and some of the more advance controls of NHL 12, and felt the tutorial did a great job getting us started. Turning on the game a jumping right into the Winter Classic at Heinz field also was a great way to just hit the Ice at full speed and get excited for the realistic atmosphere NHL 12 brings. We came away impressed with the Presentation as well as the licensing that allowed for realistic teams from more leagues we even thought existed. But what really sold us on this great game was the addition of the Action Tracker which will allow you replay every score after each game as well as bring a new element to simulated games. EA Sports and NHL 12 have truly captured the game of Hockey for a novice like myself or a Hardcore fan alike.