It seems like the goalie’s primary objective in the game is to leave the juiciest rebound possible. It doesn’t matter whether you shoot it at his pads or direct the shot at his glove, there’s a good chance that he’ll find a way to let the puck slip from his grasp. People who watch real hockey will know that the juiciest rebounds tend to come from shots that are directed towards the lower portions of the net. That’s because the goalie can’t react fast enough with his glove, forcing him to rely on his pads or stick for the save. On the flipside, fewer rebounds are derived from higher shots because the goalie is able to snatch the puck out of the air with his glove. Some might say “well, goalies give up rebounds in real life as well” and that’s true, but not rebounds like this. It’s not rare that you’ll see rebounds with enough air under them to make their way past the blue line and out of the defensive zone.
Realism isn’t a strong suit in this offering and it’s further personified by the lack of gameplay sliders. For years sports games have offered up adjustable sliders so that players can fine tune every single aspect of their game, WG2005 noticeably omits this feature. Had this feature been included it may have been able to save us from some of frustration. It would have been nice to have been able to change the speed of the game and the behavior associated with the goaltending.
Another aspect of the game that works against the game is the sloppy control. It’s kind of a double edged sword because the unrealistic gameplay actually makes this an easy game to pick-up-and-play, but the player never feels like he is in complete control of the action. Skaters are unresponsive and the controls are too jittery, causing players to over or underskate the puck far too often. The only strong suit I found in the controls comes in the form of an onscreen targeting system that helps reveal openings in the net. As you rear back to take a shot a little indicator will pop up on the goal to tell you where the netminder is most vulnerable. It’s a nice feature, but it’s overshadowed by the game’s sloppy and messy controls.
All of those screenshots that we showed you a couple of months ago weren’t fiction; this is one great looking game that takes full advantage of the PS2’s hardware. WG2005 crept up out of nowhere to really steal the crown when it comes to visuals in a hockey game this year. It has the most realistic looking faces, the most fluid animation and the best attention to detail in any hockey game this year. From the way the arena’s side scoreboards flash the name of a player as he scores to the way that the goalies take off their masks during play stoppages. It’s a great looking game all around that really took us by surprise. You even get real-time reflections of the players from the boards, that’s something I’ve never seen before in a hockey game. Furthermore, if you have an Eye Toy you will be able to put your own face onto your created player. I got a real kick out of seeing myself on the ice out there with my favorite players.
All of the action is accompanied by the two man team of Mike Emrick and Darren Pang. They’re a competent duo but they do very little to add more atmosphere to the action. I generally like Panger when he broadcasts on TV but this effort feels very phoned in. As is the case with most sports games, WG2005 features a licensed soundtrack featuring tracks from some of today’s most popular artists. All of the tracks fit into the Scream-Mo category that seems to be popular with today’s MTV-infused audiences. I’m not exactly crazy about these tracks but I feel that they will be a hit with the people who pick this game up. It would have been nice to see some generic sports tracks thrown in here as well. When I think of sports I think of the
Rocky soundtrack, not the Warped Tour.
When you get past the poor AI, the messy controls and the poor recreation of the sport, you have the foundation for a very decent hockey game. On paper the game looks great, if the designers can make those ideas a reality they’ll have a contender in next year’s market. As it stands though, the Gretzky name goes to waste here with a hockey game that simply isn’t fun to play.
D-
On paper the game looks good, but all of that goes completely out the window once you get on the ice. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a decent rebuilding year but it’s not as good as the competition. It’ll be interesting to see which direction 989 Sports decides to take the franchise next season.
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