NHL 12 Reviewer: Gameplay Impressions

[Revan30]

I don't understand why people loved NHL 11 so much. NHL 11 to me was one of the worst EA releases since the game was made for the 360--right up there with NHL 10. The AI was downright terrible and frustrating in 11. The CPU offense would always run what felt like the same exact 3 or 4 plays once in the offensive zone and would always shoot and score from the same areas. In the real NHL, no two goals are scored the same way. In NHL 11, I felt that it was all too easy for myself and for the AI to score goals from specific areas with specific plays. I'm going to get hammered for this, but despite some of it's major flaws, that was what made NHL 2k10 and NHL 2k8 and the modded NHL 04 some of the best hockey games of the 21st century--the unpredictability factor. No two goals were scored the same way. EA seems to fail to remember that the game is not played around taking the body--instead, the game should be played around the puck.

NHL 10 was the worst because all the CPU would do is one time the puck, your goalie would go down in that God awful eagle split and allow an easy goal. You could do this right back to the CPU time and time again. In NHL 11, the stale and unevolving AI led to rather dull gameplay. The hitting was completely out of control and it was far too easy to make a pass from behind your goal line to a man who was, of course, completely wide open deep in the neutral zone.

That's another thing that EA's NHL series has lacked. For the past 3 or 4 years or so EA has poured all of their resources into creating a game that looks cool and flashy, with cool scoreboards, flashy and so-called realistic looking hits, and with little completely unnecessary aesthetic additions such as custom goal celebrations and just slapped on a label that claims the game is realistic, when, in fact, it is far from being that. And somehow, God knows why, pretty much all of the world just blindly believed EA, simply because they advertised the game as a realistic hockey game.

I've played the NHL 12 demo quite a lot and have to say I am pretty impressed so far. The new skating animation makes the game feel so much more fluid. The way both your AI and the CPU AI transition from offensive to defensive play is a BIG STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION for EA. Gameplay should ALWAYS come first. Anyone who actually plays hockey can tell you that the transition game is quite possibly the most important part of winning the game. That's why every single hockey teams spends a lot of time in practice working on the break out. If this game is meant to simulate the NHL, you should NEVER EVER be able to produce any offense whatsoever if you don't have a good break out, or, at the very least, if you don't play dump and chase. I've noticed this year how much importance EA has placed on the transition game, and I'm glad to hear that in this review the reviewer noticed a difference, too.

Shattering glass, bone crushing hits, and goalie fights can get tossed out the window for all I care. I've been a fan of this series since my very first video game, NHL 97, and the series has most definitely come a long ways from those days. NHL 10 and NHL 11 were huge disappointments for me in terms of gameplay and realism. NHL 12, from what I've experienced, seen, and heard so far, will be a phenomenal way to spend my 15 year anniversary with the series. Thank you EA, for finally pulling your head out of the clouds and making what seems so far to be a spectacular hockey product.