NFL 2K2

Sega Sports/Visual Concepts
1-4 Player
Online play
NTSC Version

While the NFL holds a somewhat dubious reputation with mainstream Australian sports fans, gridiron is the most popular sport in America, drawing huge crowds to not only the NFL season games, but also to college football clashes. Its followers are fanatical, and demand excellence from their games, which the long standing superbowl champion, Madden, delivers. However, EA Sports decided to release one of their key players in the 2D era, in Visual Concepts, who were soon picked up from the free agency by Sega, and immediately injected into the starting lineup, developing a new series of sports games to challenge the might and dominance of the EA Sports franchises. NFL 2K2 is their third attempt at dethroning the reigning champion, can Sega Sports walk away with the victory this time?

The presentation of NFL 2K2 is a real mixed bag. The in game commentary is amazing, some of the best ever heard in a sports game. The two man announce team works a charm, bouncing one liners off of each other and following the play accurately. A few commentary bugs sneak in, but that is excusable considering the overall effort put into the audio. The graphics are also top quality, with detailed models and faces looking absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, the field itself is a little bland, with ugly 2D cutouts on the sidelines. There are a few clipping problems in there as well, which are especially evident on replays as the ball passes through a defenders arm or legs disappear into the tacklers midsections on defensive plays. The graphical package is still very good, however, it just lacks some slight polish.

This lack of attention to detail, however, is not continued in the animations, which are unmatched in any NFL game. The range of animations are huge, the linemen especially have a variety of moves, as do the players running the ball, who effectively juke, stiff arm and hurdle towards the endzone. The only complaint I have is with some of the tackling animations, there simply aren't enough big hits in this game. Most of the tackles look like the defenders are really struggling to pull the runner to the ground, despite having a full power bar and great position.

Where the presentation falls apart is the interface. Choosing a play involves a tricky system using the analogue joystick, resulting in the occasional wrong choice of play. Hiding what play you are choosing is also difficult, and multiplayer games suffer as your opponent can easily see what play you are choosing, and since the play diagrams overlap on the one screen, it makes it even easier to select an appropriate play to counter the other player.

Menus are also a little cumbersome to navigate, and more statistics recorded would be appreciated. A minor gripe is the apparent inability to change your kick returner on kickoffs, something that got to me just a little. The main interface is rather slick, if a little underpowered. The player creation tools are rather weak, and only 8 players can be created in one save game, which, by the way, will take up almost an entire VM if you wish to play a franchise.

Speaking of the franchise mode, it remains unchanged from NFL2K1, where it was criticised for lacking the depth of Madden. Player trades are difficult to use, the rookie draft is very simplified, and overall, it feels more like playing continual seasons rather than running a franchise through the years. Career stats being recorded is a much needed addition to this mode, as well as the ability to bring in custom players or a custom made team to challenge the NFL ranks.

The saving grace of NFL 2K2 is definitely the great game of football it plays. One of the reasons the debate between the 2K series and the Madden series is so fierce, is that both play near opposite games of football. NFL 2K2 is a real running game of gridiron, with the balance clearly in favour of the running backs and on the ground play. Running to the outside is very difficult in 2K2, but this is made up for in the relatively easy up the middle game. Toss plays are almost always a write off, being buried deep in the backfield by the defense is a regular occurrence on outside runs. Running backs are also very strong in this game, brushing off tackles and dragging defenders forward with them. This is countered with the difficult passing game, which can be rather infuriating. You are never punished severely with interceptions for bad throws (except for on All-Pro difficulty), but you will struggle to complete more than 50% of passes, thanks to the very tight coverage and inability of receivers to catch open passes. Many times you will see the ball bounce straight off a receivers hands, or sail right by them, as they don't even make an attempt for the ball. The best results are when the ball just bounces off the back of their heads, falling harmlessly to the ground.

This happens far too often to be put down to a simple 'well, they can't catch everything' logic. Sometimes it seems as if they can't catch ANYTHING. To top it all off, cornerbacks on your own team seem to make very risky plays regularly, jumping for an interception instead of covering the receiver, who bolts away from them, catches the pass and makes a big gain. This also happens far too often, and the cornerback AI could really use some work. The computer AI in general is pretty good, you'll find it very difficult to sack the computer quarterbacks, and they will mostly make intelligent decisions with their passing and play calling, although the occasional 3rd and long running play will slip in.

The gameplay itself is also run at a very fast pace, generally you do get a lot of time to throw, so picking out the open man becomes very important. The maximum passing feature, once mastered, is great in this sense, enabling you to lead a receiver away from the coverage and hopefully to a big gain. Taking manual control of a receiver, however, is not recommended, as their already shaky hands become even worse when they are controlled by the user. They generally stick to their routes pretty well anyway, but sometimes end up running away from the ball if you lead them too far with maximum passing. Still, the feature is a great innovation and one Madden would do well to 'borrow'.

One final gripe is that some of the player ratings are a little off. Michael Bennett is a real powerhouse in this game, despite having a very average rookie season. A lot of the unknown RB's will cause no end of grief to you, as will some of the lesser known receivers, who seem to catch just as well as many of the top names. Antonio Freeman's hands are notoriously poor in this game. Some players, especially fullbacks and tight-ends, are far too slow as well, there seems to be three speed settings for players, super fast, average and walking pace.

So, does NFL 2K2 finally go one step further and take its superbowl ring? Unfortunately, I don't think so. While it is an entertaining alternative to Madden, and indeed, many people would prefer this to the Madden series, EA Sports game just has a little more class and plays a more realistic game of football than Visual Concepts effort. The passing game in Madden is superior, despite the huge differences between both games, and while the Madden running game doesn't quite match NFL 2K2's great system, as a package, it edges out its competition once more.

Graphics: 88
+Excellent models and animation
-Some clipping problems and poor sideliines
Sound: 95
+Amazing commentary, dynamic crowd noise, trash talk
-PA music can be a little too loud
Gameplay: 85
+Excellent running game, maximum passing feature
-Receivers have trouble catching, questtionable coverage AI, poor franchise mode
Overall: 86
+A fun, arcade style NFL experience
-Niggling flaws hold it back