NFL 2K1 is a huge improvement over last year's NFL 2K, but it's also the best football game released so far this year. Tremendously improved gameplay and state of the art online capabilities combine to make NFL 2K1 everything the first one should have been and just that much much, much more.
The question at the forefront of any gamer's mind is, "Has Sega delivered on its promise of smooth online gameplay?" The answer is sort of a yes and no. Playing NFL 2K1 with people in your own state will result in lag free gaming and very smooth, but outside of your state it will slow down a bit.
While it would certainly be great to play against people throughout the country, it's a very good achievement in that you can have a mostly lag-free game against anyone in your state and surrounding states. I wish
The great factor of playing an online football game is huge enough that you will probably be up until 2:00 AM playing the game a vast amount times.
Of course, none of the online capabilities would mean anything without great gameplay to back it up, and this is where NFL 2K1 really comes through. The only complaint I have with the gameplay is that fatigue doesn't play
a big enough role in the game, so you're able to run the ball way too many times in a row without your player slowing daown at all.
It is amazing how the developers were able to transform the running game from one of the worst in any football game to one of the best in any football game. Finding spaces to run through and crunching tackles is now a much more
realistic scene. It makes sense to do a hurdle if there's a player on the ground in front of you, or a stiff-arm if there's a player to your side, or a spin around move if there's a player coming towards you head-on. As a result, the use of special moves is much more logical rather than
random and luck-based.
When you're controlling the quarterback, it's a much more realistic and natural process. Find an open man and deliver the ball to him. Interceptions are now usually the work of the player rather than strangely random
occurrences. The Artificial Intelligence has been improved in a way that makes choosing defensive positions much more important, and this makes the game as a lot more strategic.
Overall, everything that was wrong with last year's game has been fixed, and everything that was good about last year's game has been made even that much better. NFL 2K1's Franchise Mode is better than Madden's in a few key areas and worse in most. Still, I suppose that a poorly-constructed Franchise Mode with a couple of good ideas is better than no Franchise Mode at all. The multi-season stats add a lot to the game, with information like the
cumulative records of every team and the number of Super Bowl wins for every team. In terms of a good thing, it makes a big difference to be able to see your roster on the same screen as free agents so that you can quickly
compare your roster to what's available on the open market.
The problem is that the free agent market is a little bit too "open." There's no time-based interface that causes you to make some big free agent signings and miss out on others. You can sign as many free agents as you
want without any competing offers from other teams. There's also a bad lack of annual awards, realistic stats, all-time records, and a lot of other small but important touches.
Another thing that brings down the entertainment value of the Franchise Mode is that players often retire when they are still young with no career-ending injuries
or explanations of any kind. No matter how good of a team you've assembled, you better not get too attached to it, because the game could decide at any time that a big group of under-30 players are going to retire for no
apparent reason.
Inspite the fac of the Franchise Mode's error, NFL 2K1 is still an amazingly fun and addictive game both online and off. It's a better overall game than Madden 2001 for the PS1. I think any fan of football would really enjoy this game as much as I did and other people that have played this.
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