"...The game falls short of being great, but nonetheless is a very solid hockey game..."
I think some of the player's faces are mapped in the game, but there are generally four or five generic faces that are used, which is not a problem for me because the player's bodies are very smooth. The game keeps up to par with the other Sega Sports Dreamcast games.
NHL 2K2 treats you to a number of little, cool effects. You can see the ice marks that the hockey players leave when they are skating and the plexi-glass shakes when you knock an opponent or a hockey puck into it.
One of the areas that Visual Concepts hoped to improve upon from last year's game was the speed and number of gameplay animations. I didn't play last year's game, but I like what the game has to offer.
I noticed that the passing in the game was very smooth. You have the ability to pass the puck not only to your teammate, but aim it. What I mean is that not only can you pass the puck to player A, but you can pass it a little in front or behind him. I love passing the puck in this game and it is taken to another level when you use a great passing team like the Colorado
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Avalanche. If you need to stall because you are trying to kill a power play, you actually feel like you have the opportunity to do it because of the great passing engine.
There is much more to love about the gameplay. Unlike in EA's NHL 2002 or Midway's NHL Hitz, 2k2 implements a bit of a momentum factor that is seen in EA's football games. In other hockey games I have found that you can turn on a dime anytime you want with any player. While it helps in scoring goals and dominating the CPU, it's not very realistic.