NHL FaceOff 2001
- November 24, 2000 14:47 PM PST
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Sony's NHL FaceOff 2001 takes center ice for this year's hockey season. Developer SolWorks has added a lot to this sports sim, and it makes a difference.
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Ice Gladiators
Sony and EA have traditionally fought it out in all the professional sports simulations for PlayStation. Generally, EA has remained a few steps ahead, but Sony continues to build all its sports games into contenders. This year's FaceOff has a host of new features and modes. You can pick from the traditional season, playoffs, or exhibition game; take on goalies one-on-one in a new shootout game; or play a tournament, in which up to eight teams can compete in two separate pools for the championship. The new practice mode is just like a regular exhibition game, except you can set the number of skaters on each team. All the new teams and rosters for this year's season are included, and the new Draft is straightforward, but you can cheat a bit by gradually trading up against the computer once the draft is over to build a much better team. Menu navigation is done well, but you'll have to refer to the manual to get around some areas.
On the ice, the game plays well. Icon Passing makes setting up plays straightforward, and the controls are simple but effective. There's just one check button, and you can't select a poke check with your stick, so the bodies go flying with a ton of open ice hits that just wouldn't happen in a real game. Still, there are a ton of other options like give-and-go passing, drop passes, and fake shots. The AI is pretty tough as well. On the higher levels of difficulty, the defense will clog the slot in front of the goal, and your opponent is much more aggressive with checking and shooting. Still, your goalie may put the puck into his own net from time to time when you just want him to pass to a teammate. You can pick between Normal, Aggressive, and Conservative settings for offense, breakout, defense, and forechecking, but you can change them on the fly as well to adjust to game situations. The manual does a good job explaining the differences between the various settings.
Puckheads
Mike Emrick and Darren Pang return again to give the play by play and commentary, which seems about the same as last year. The banter from the broadcast booth lags a bit too far behind the action at times, and there is a good amount of repetition, but that's par for a fast action game on the PlayStation. On the other hand, Emrick and Pang have a good feel for the game and it shows through in their analysis.
The graphics are almost as good as they're going to get for a PlayStation hockey game. The skating, shooting, and checking animations are great. There's also a nice replay on penalties to round out the game's replays and overlay graphics. A good selection of camera angles complements the action, but there's no reverse angle to flip the camera for a better perspective.
Smooth As Ice
FaceOff 2001 is a genuine contender for the PlayStation Stanley Cup this year. It shows a lot more polish and precision than previous versions, and will give you hours of hard checking NHL and international team competition.
