ESPN NHL Hockey could have been a near perfect simulation of ice hockey, but hockey fans will be satisfied nonetheless.
The first improvement you'll notice are the graphics. The graphics have been given a facelift, and everything about the game looks better than last year's edition. From the player models, to the rink, to the ice, which loses its shininess over the course of a period, to the specular reflections off player helmets, the graphics are remarkably improved, and I will go as far to say that this game looks just as good as EA's NHL 2004. The cutscenes in between plays and after goals showcase player animations, which are more varied than EA's game. However, facial expressions could have been more pronounced.
The heart of this game is its gameplay, and fortunately, things haven't changed much since NHL 2K3 in this regard. Goals remain hard to score, and this game only rewards players who have put in the time and effort. The learning curve is pretty steep, and this game will take a lot of practice to fully enjoy. Once you discover that taking hard slapshots will almost never result in a goal, and try to be more creative with your passing plays, you'll find that you too have to be selective when trying one timers, as there won't always be a computer teammate in position, and even if there is, sometimes your teammate won't be ready to receive a pass because they're being tied up by an opponent. But assuming that your teammate is ready for a pass, most likely your pass will get picked off or hit a defender, botching up the one-timer chance.
The presentation of the game complements the gameplay well. Puck physics look impressive in cutscenes, and pucks will flip, spin, and bounce off goalies. Player animations are impressive too. Specifically, when I watched a replay of a goal, my player caught the puck with his skate, knocked it to the ground, and then shot it. Commentary is excellent for the most part. It's varied enough to be interesting, but it'd be nice to hear more player specific remarks from the announcers. The ESPN theme works fantastically, as the overlays look authentic, and the ESPN Hockey Night music adds to the mood of the game.
New this year are the extra game modes, which include the skills competitions, such as fastest skater, and hardest shot, along with the Skybox feature, which allows access to unlockables, such as classic jerseys and teams, your profile stats, and a built in air hockey game. You gain points to unlock things through Challenge Mode, which keeps track of accomplishments, such as getting a hat trick or scoring a goal with a defenseman, or accomplishing different tasks in the skills competitions. The skills competitions are fun for a while, but once you've completed them, there's no incentive to go back.
For the most part, ESPN NHL Hockey does things right, but there are a few shortcomings, and a few severe flaws. There are the minor annoyances that you learn to overcome. A couple of things I would have liked to see are the ability to execute drop passes, and a better way of handling breakaways, which are difficult to score on. Goalies also have problems passing and clearing the puck, and if you're not careful, you'll end up passing the puck to an opposing player, who'll promptly put it in the back of your net. ESPN NHL Hockey is an extremely hard game, and it's not any easier with what appears to be some degree of rubber band AI. Your goaltender may play an extraordinary game for two periods, only to allow goals on seemingly easy save opportunities late in the game. I think a great addition to this game would be the ability to control a teammate who's not the puckhandler with the right thumbstick, so that you can place him in an ideal scoring position.
Then there are the truly ugly things, most prominently atrocious is the way the game handles injuries. Injuries happen too frequently, and players will get injured for no reason in between games during a season. In the playoffs, if a player is injured, he will not recover regardless of how many games you play, and thus, you will lose that player for the rest of the playoffs. It was unfortunate that I had 14 injured players in the second round of the playoffs. What this essentially means is that most, if not all, of your star players are unavailable, putting you at a severe disadvantage. Perhaps the most damning thing is that you can't even see the injuries your players have sustained, for if you try to scroll the injury report screen, the game locks up.
If you play the game long enough, you'll notice the glaring bugs in the commentary. Announcing wrong names, especially goalies, and inappropriate commentary, i.e. ("shorthanded" in a power play situation), happen too frequently.
As it stands, ESPN NHL Hockey is definitely not a game for novices or anyone who gets frustrated easily. It's an extremely difficult game, and will take time to master. But if you take the time to set up good scoring opportunities, you will be rewarded immensely, as this is perhaps the most realistic simulation of hockey available. Between EA's 2004 and this game, you really can't lose, as the gap between both games has shrunk, with ESPN NHL Hockey overhauling its graphics and presentation, and NHL 2004 going for a realistic feel rather than EA's traditional arcade-like hockey games. ESPN NHL Hockey could have been a near perfect simulation of ice hockey, but nonetheless, hockey fans will be satisfied with this installment.