NHL 13 Review

Say what you will about releasing sports video games every year, but there’s no question that fans keep buying them. Thankfully, gone are the days when most titles were considered to be an expensive roster update, as now with each new iteration the push is on to add more features and make the experience better. Such is the case with NHL 13, the yearly hockey sim release from EA Sports, which hopes to change the way you play through a new skating engine and various other tweaks and additions. With the real NHL being locked out, is this a suitable replacement for fans craving their hockey fix?

That’s a tough question to answer this year. But let’s start with the basics. Like the NHL games before it, NHL 13 comes with a simply overwhelming variety of modes – so much so, that the game needs a separate sub menu to list all the available options. You have the usual season mode, battle for the Cup, Winter Classic, Be a GM, Be a Pro, and Legends modes. All of these remain largely unchanged from previous years, though of course some have received tweaks which we’ll mention later on. Online play with Versus and EASHL is also here in full force.

A brand new mode to the franchise this year is titled GM Connected. Seen in other EA Sports titles, the mode has finally arrived in NHL and offers the chance to (in theory) have up to 750 players competing in the same online dynasty. It’s Be a GM, tweaked and taken into the online space. Players can take on a variety of roles, from actually being on the ice to performing GM, and coach duties for their teams or even be the Commissioner for the whole league. Users can either play other human opponents as in Versus, play cooperatively like EASHL, or simply take on the AI; the option to simply simulate games also available. There’s nothing wrong with GM Connected, in theory – there is extensive league customization and flexibility, the coaching and GM control is satisfying and overall the game does a great job at offering a vast online game mode.

The problems begin when you realize that somewhere along the line, things went wrong on the technical spec. Well over a week after launch, GM Connected remains an extremely frustrating experience due to a single problem – the loading times. Imagine playing your usual offline Be a GM, but with every single menu selection to enter a new screen, you’re left waiting as the mode loads. And waiting, and waiting. From looking at your team roster to attempting to bring up the calendar, the loading times are simply unbearable – sometimes as much as a minute long. You might say a minute isn’t that long, but go ahead and try to stare at your clock for a full minute. Imagine having to do that each time you want to enter and leave every room in your house. There are no problems once you actually get a game/simulation started, but just getting there is frustrating. Heck, just trying to choose what GM Connected game you want to join, it takes seconds to scroll from one search result to the next. As potentially expansive and fun this new online mode may be for NHL fans, its current technical state is simply too much of a deterrent to even try.

Another addition is called NHL Moments Live. Once again previously seen in other EA Sports games and finally making its way to the hockey franchise, this mode lets players relive and recreate some iconic moments from NHL history. These range from personal bests to team moments, and span a number of years. Though perhaps some will claim that the last hockey season wasn’t particularly memorable, there are still a few interesting events to live through. Some classic moments are included as well, but they take place with the modern NHL rosters, so seeing Gretzky attempt to complete his best one-game points total on the same line as Ales Hemsky and other Oilers may come across as odd. Although new moments were supposed to appear as the current NHL season began, since there is a lockout, it’s likely no new content will be added for a while. NHL Moments Live is a neat mode, but like last year’s Legends, it feels mostly superficial.

Returning modes have also been tweaked to offer better experiences across the board, as mentioned earlier. Hockey Ultimate Team, which lets you put together a custom roster of players and manage them based on line chemistry, makes a return. This year’s changes are welcome ones, including removal of career length so that your team doesn’t “expire” after a few games, training has been tweaked to only apply for the single game and not carry over, and users will need to play through three different skill brackets in HUT Tournaments to get to the top. The main interface has also been redesigned, making it easier to navigate. All in all, HUT remains the same but with some welcome tweaks that will likely make your experience with the mode a bit more enjoyable.

Be a Pro has probably seen the fewest tweaks out of any major gameplay mode. Players still have the option to create their own Pro and take them through an NHL career, playing games by calling your own shifts or in authentic mode, where your ice time is determined by the coach. An issue this year seems to be that the coach never wants you to play. It seems that there is a bug where after any whistle with you on the ice, you’re placed back on the bench. This results in amusing shifts that last about a second after jumping over the boards. Needless to say, this seriously hampers your gameplay time and is an issue that should be addressed by the developers soon. Otherwise, your NHL career dreams will be limited by your ice time, not your skills. One good addition to Be a Pro is the ability to request to be traded, though the game first decides on your value and if it’s low, you’re not likely to get offers.

Finally, the other big offline mode Be a GM also returns with a few tweaks. Primarily, players will notice a new trading system which now utilizes a much expanded arsenal of tools. CPU teams will now analyze their rosters and more accurately offer their skaters on the trading block, letting you easily see which players can be traded for more easily. Sadly, this hasn’t stopped the CPU from trying to make ridiculous trades and getting upset when rejected. New this year, when offering trades to the AI the teams will respond with their reasoning and how close you are to getting a deal. Sadly, these canned messages are often cryptic and conflicting with each other. “Yes we are very close on this trade… but we feel the deal you are offering is terrible”. What EA Sports has called GM Brain, a new AI system is used in Be a GM to produce a more realistic management experience. This includes things like better roster management with introduction of player roles that dictate if this is a promising prospect, and established first liner, etc. It’s an addition that plays nicely into the expanded trading. Overall though, Be a GM feels quite familiar and the new trading and roster changes don’t exactly revolutionize the AI that still makes poor decisions.

Having spent so much time on the game modes, of which there are tons, it’s probably time to hit the ice. Unfortunately, NHL 13 runs into further bumps along this road as well. The main big change this year is the new skating engine. What this means, in a nutshell, is that players behave much more realistically now. You can skate with full speed, but taking turns, shooting, or even passing is more difficult to do unless you slow down and go into a glide. Players now have specific attributes such as momentum and explosiveness, which dictate how fast they can skate, turn, and accelerate. So most forwards are quick to skate by defenders if they got caught up the ice, which actually introduces some breakaway problems. It would be understandable if a first line NHL forward was able to outskate third line defenders. But in the game, it’s nigh impossible for defenders to keep up unless they are in the ranks of Chara or Weber, even with third line forwards. More balancing was probably needed to ensure fairness between attack in defense in regards of speed. The skating also feels rough in spots – for example, skating full speed into the boards and then trying to turn still results in an slow-moving turning animation when in fact the player is no longer moving at all. Overall, the new skating engine has a great idea behind it, but the executions falters a bit due to lack of polish and balancing. Though this may seem like not giving the engine full credit, but it has to be said that this type of gameplay was possible to achieve in previous games with some setting slider adjustments.

It also doesn’t help that the hitting physics this year feel quite terrible and glitchy. It’s not clear what happened – NHL 11 hits were overpowered but very satisfying, NHL 12 scaled things back, but NHL 13 simply removes any fun and functionality out of it. Hit a player, regardless of your and his size, and you’ll both bounce off each other in an awkward animation, and the forward might not even lose the puck (or if he does, he’ll get to it again before you can recover from your own hit). When playing against AI, the defenders have been ramped up to have great position, which is fine, but they are also super human at intersecting every pass possible. So forget about trying to run a passing game anywhere but the outside, as all lanes are taken away with unrealistic pass intercepting ability.

Further, the goalies also saw a revamp. It seems everyone is now ready to pull off Ryan Miller desperation saves all day long, even in AHL. It’s a change that is most likely a strong-fisted approach to the complaints from previous years about goals on rushes and cross-crease. If about 75-80% of cross-crease goals worked in NHL 12, in NHL 13 that chance drops well below 20%. Add the super desperation goalies to the fact that the defenders have been beefed up, and the end result is garbage goals. Forget attempting to score on odd-man rushes as the defender will likely intercept, and if he somehow doesn’t, the goalie will make a diving save, almost every time. Most of the time, you’ll be scoring on AI through rebounds, deflections, and the odd snapshot when there is a mess in front of the net. Making pretty passing plays is a thing of the past in NHL 13, and it’s a disappointment. There’s no argument that a change to defense and goalies was needed, but this is going too far the other way.

These AI strategies come courtesy of Hockey IQ, a new feature that expands on the options available to the player. You can now select various team strategies, use the forecheck systems, and generally control your team’s behavior on a whole new level. This adds a new layer of depth to the game on the ice, and your teammates generally follow the instructions set. This doesn’t mean you can sit back and watch because poor decisions are still being made by your defenders, while AI attackers now use the new skating engine to blow past your D.

Online play – shootouts, versus, and EASHL – are pretty much untouched. As before, you create your player, join clubs or play drop-in games, and level up. The experience levels have been expanded to include a total of 18 ranks to further boost your progress. Team versus play is the same as always, but thanks to the new skating engine players will need to adjust their habits and tactics. But here again, technical problems crop up. Playing in EASHL causes a large amount of lag throughout the game, to the point of the players on the ice looking like a slideshow. This occurred across a couple of different consoles running on different internet providers, so the issue is somewhere on the server end. It’s playable, but not very enjoyable and in stark contrast to the usually well-performing online play from past NHL games.

When it comes to presentation, the biggest problem area of the series, the news isn’t good. It’s pointless to repeat that, yet again, commentary remains untouched and repetitive. The soundtrack again feels short and begins to wear thin within just a few play sessions. On-ice visuals do look a little sharper, with new shadows and visual effects like skate spray adding further realism. Player models look sharp in cutscenes, which are now entirely in-game. Some players will also appreciate new camera angles for both cutscenes and gameplay. While some of the revamped skating animations look great and fit well with the new engine, hitting and other player interactions look odd and unrealistic. Main menu of the game can now be outfitted with real video clips and a style based on your selected favorite team. On the technical front, the game feels quite snappy in loading times for menus and saves.

In a year when real hockey is on hiatus, NHL 13 has a chance to capture a larger audience than ever before. As a somewhat of a misstep, however, the series has decided to up the realism and with that it actually loses some of the most basic fun from previous years. There’s huge value here if you’ve not owned the series in the past few years, but the action on the ice has changed, and this year it’s for the worse. A realistic approach to skating will perhaps be hailed by the hardcore online community to prevent figure skating, but for the majority of players it will be less enjoyable to simply pick up and play. NHL 13 is a good that game is full of modes, but it’s bogged down under lack of polish, technical issues, and the new skating engine not feeling quite as robust or fun as it should.