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PC | Sports | NHL 2001

There is no Boxart for - NHL 2001
NHL 2001 9 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.5
  • SOUND: 4.5
  • CONTROL: 5.0
  • FUN FACTOR 5.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 3.5
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.7
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: NHL 2001

Review by John Marrin | 11/24/2000 | 14:47:41 PM PST

EA Sports comes through with a cup winner on the PC. NHL 2001 is the proof in the pudding.

Without any competition on the PC, it would be easy for EA to get lazy and give gamers another rehash of last year's NHL hockey game. If that's what you expected, think again. NHL 2001 is a distinct improvement that builds on the success of previous NHL games, but it also throws enough new features and tweaks into the mix to make it a very worthwhile purchase for the hockey fan.

The PC version of NHL 2001 looks and plays a lot like the PS2 version of the game, but with some exclusive features. First off is the create-a-player option that lets you map your face (or anyone else's face, for that matter) onto a player by importing a digital picture and stretching it over a blank 3D model. You can also build a custom team jersey, picking from a selection of pre-made styles, and choosing or importing a logo graphic.

Standard single game, season, playoffs, and tournament modes let you pick the kind of game you want to play, and online multiplayer games are a snap with EA's new online service which lets you easily hook up with other hockey players from around the world. However, your mileage will vary severely depending on the speed of your connection. At 56K, the gameplay can get very choppy at times. In addition, there is a fantasy draft and a rookie draft in season mode. There's even an expansion draft so you can fill the rosters for the new Columbus and Minnesota teams.

The game customization options in NHL 2001 are excellent, and aside from picking the basic Simulation or Arcade modes of play, slider bars let you tweak things like the level of puck friction and game speed. Other options let you set the speed burst level, check recovery time and other nuances of the game to your liking.

The gameplay in NHL 2001 is excellent, though there is a tendency to abuse the "Big Hit" button to lay some pain on your opponent. Skating momentum is realistic, and although the game plays a bit faster than the real thing on the default setting, you can easily adjust this in the game options. Computer AI controlled teammates follow your coaching strategies to the letter, letting you play a sort of chess game with opposing coaches. The playbook for offense, defense, forecheck, penalty kill, and powerplay sets is very complete, with every kind of play used in the NHL today. A really handy animated illustration helps out gamers who want to see the how the play they've picked will work in action out on the ice.

The graphics in NHL 2001 are absolutely spectacular. The motion captured player animations are linked together smoothly, and the detail on the player models is incredible. Of course, for gamers with not-so-hot machines, the level of detail is completely adjustable. The player faces, which use real player photos bitmapped onto the 3D models, are so lifelike that?s it's creepy, in a very cool way. Maxed out with the highest level of detail and complete with animated 2D crowds, NHL 2001 will push the limits of even the fastest system. Even with the detail level toned down a bit, the game did stutter on occasion on a PIII 700 with 128MB of RAM, but this is minor in the scope of things.

The audio in the game is solid as well. The play-by-play and color commentary match the action as well as can be expected, but like the graphics, there were occasional glitches and stutters. One cool feature lets you import your own music to play during stoppages in play, however, the manual doesn't tell you how to import files. As it turns out, you need to go to EA's website and download a conversion utility.

NHL 2001 isn't perfect, but it's about as close as EA has come in the past. The coaching strategies, gameplay options, and superb graphics make this one sports experience that PC gamers should be thankful for.