NHL 13 Review

NHL 13 came out on September 11th, 2012 and for someone like me, I had high hopes for it. In the few hours I have played, everything seems great and it looks like this is going to be a great game I am going to keep playing for a while until NHL 14.

GRAPHICS: 9

Some of the most realistic graphics you will find in a sports game, NHL 13 makes changes to the players but great ones. Most of the players actually look like what they should compared to previous games in the series and it is great.

The environment looks and makes you feel as if you are in an actual hockey game from the reflection of light on the ice to the snow coming from players skates after a full stop.

The graphics seem to have a more cartoonish style which works great for the franchise and looks great in itself. Only problem is animations. That could go under the gameplay category but it does fit in fine here as well. So basically after a goal, your teammates like to skate in one direction and bump into things, but its barely noticeable because of what i will talk about later.

GAMEPLAY: 9.5

The new physics engine and the real life skating (or whatever its called) is a great change to the game which makes it feel more realistic and that's really what a sports game should feel like. You might have to get used to it and might have some trouble at first and i do recommend going into practice mode for 30-60 min.

 The hitting is the same as NHL 12 because there is not much they can do except for change some of the animations when getting hit but the physics engine makes the hits all realistic.

Gamers who liked doing easy moves on AI will not be satisfied because the CPU is one of the smartest I have seen. During online matches, i would think that my opponent was preventing me from a scoring chance only to recognize that it was really the computer. The game is harder than before but still a lot of fun.

Finally, NHL 13 adds a broadcasting perspective to the game where the cinematics feel like you are watching a real game on your TV. The little shots between puckdrops and whatnot have exactly that TV feel.

SOUND: 8.5

I love listening to Gary Thorne and Bill Clement, and Thorne as a commentator has called some big games in NHL history, but the matter of fact is, they have been saying the same things for the past few games. They have been recycling the same quotes so much I can tell what the two guys are going to say. Aside from that, the commentary is very good, but at times it can be delayed what they are talking about.

The only person I would put to do the play by play in the NHL series is Jim Hughson, who is my favorite commentator but that is a personal opinion.

From the sound of the players getting hit, to the stick hitting the puck, to the players skating around, it sound magnificent. From someone who plays hockey in real life, I can say first hand that the game sounds like the real thing.

OTHER:

the redesigned HUT looks great and it adds on to what was already a great game mode.

Be a GM and Be a Pro are great modes but what I think brings their quality down is the wait times during the season. You have to wait so long to simulate the off-season that it can get annoying and leads me to mainly play online.

Overall: 9

The game is great from what what I have played and it drastically improves the series. The changes are for the better and many NHL fans should like this game and should enjoy it if they enjoyed previous games.

Image belongs to EA Sports