Sports games go hand in hand with console versions like LeBron James and retweets. Except it hasn’t been a year at all – the basketball season just ended after being played in an empty gym in front of virtual crowds and NBA 2K21 is the only sports simulation available on PlayStation 5 for the moment. That will change on December 4th when FIFA 21 and Madden NFL 21 are due to launch, but thanks to 2K Sports for preparing on time.
In fact, we have to take our New York Knicks branded baseball cap off the publisher, because this is not your average new generation of up-res. The next-gen version of the famous b-ball brand from Visual Concepts shares some similarities with its current-gen counterpart, but overall it’s a whole new game. Considering the strength of the PlayStation 4 version during of its launch earlier in the year is an impressive achievement.
So what is different? Well, where do you start? The movement mechanic has been completely rewritten, meaning that players will now plant their feet exactly as you expect; It is not possible to get into pos ition and awkwardly enter animations as everyone on the pitch will take the necessary steps to get you to where they need to be. It may sound minor, but it gives you a better connection between the DualSense and the star it controls.
The game is also more physical. Trying to make your way through the paint when a 7’0 “beast like Nikola Jokic grabs you is like trying to break through a brick wall, whereas now you get a much more realistic touch during dunk opportunities. and plateau when you’re on the cutting edge. While the simulation was by no means weak on the PS4, it looks a bit more polished on the PS5; the result of a seemingly endless list of tweaks and improvements. under the hood.
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All we’ll say is that some of the animations in the game are starting to show their age, and there is still work 2K Sports can do to mimic real basketball here. It’s obviously already a very smooth game, but the improved visuals highlight some weird or unusual animation transitions that take away from the overall illusion. In fact, these issues are just as prevalent outside of the game, during downtime, and at halftime, when players gaze lifeless into the Aether with dead eyes.
The Oscar-worthy story of Junior, the son of a former high school leader played by Jesse Williams, returns, with a whole new branch of storytelling to explore. While you can still choose to go to college like in the PS4 game, now you can also choose to play 10 G-League games before hitting the NBA. You’ll get more CV, the in-game virtual currency, if you go this route, but the matches are obviously harder for your low spec avatar.
Although the story is silly, with one of his teammates wearing a suit with dollar signs sewn into it and calling himself an ATM, you can tell Visual Concepts is having a lot of fun. In fact, there’s an entire streak where you’ll take on the protagonists from past NBA 2K stories, which is the kind of fan service we can support. There are times when the plot seems to drag on, like a random encounter with Zion Williamson, but overall it’s pretty entertaining.
Of course, everything paves the way for The City, which is the evolution of Neighborhood’s next-gen game. It’s a sprawling, PlayStation Home-style metropolis where you can join factions, collect missions, and shoot hoops. Its scale is impressive, but feels lifeless due to the limited number of people on each server, and unless you’re using VC for a skateboard or a bike, the navigation is terribly slow to the point where you’ll forget where. you were going and why.
In fact, The City only serves to highlight some of the franchise’s weaker elements. Everything costs VC, so if you want to practice free throws on your own you will have to buy a basketball or if you want to rent a court to play nonstop with your friends, you will have to pay. You can earn virtual currency by doing just about anything in the game, but as this is also necessary to level up your player, you will find yourself in this constant moral dilemma of where to invest the money.
It doesn’t help that the game itself is lazy when playing online. We’ve felt this for NBA 2K for a while, but there is a distinct difference between playing online and experiencing offline; you lose a lot of the stiffness the game is built on, and it ends up feeling a bit sloppy. We like to build in an onboarding path for newcomers, but it always feels like if you don’t devote your life to gambling, you’re going to smoke.
However, you can devote your life to this game; there is simply so much to do. MyTeam, the franchise’s card-collecting mode, is back with virtually no change, but the WNBA has received a massive overhaul, with the addition of its own campaign called The W. ‘a light version of MyPlayer mode, but it has many features. the basic elements of a traditional sports game career mode, while trying to improve your player and at the same time raise the profile of the female game.
Meanwhile, Franchise Mode has had a complete overhaul, merging the MyLeague and MyGM modes of yesteryear to let you fully customize the kind of experience you want. You can activate RPG elements from the main desktop, shorten the season, import your own draft class; How much or how little you want to do is entirely up to you, and we really appreciate how all of the PS4’s features and game modes have been streamlined.
Obviously, the experience is completely transformed with the speed of the PS5, as games take just over three seconds to load, meaning you’re quickly in the middle of the action. The DualSense also benefits, although we think it makes the controller run a little too loud, as it’s the only track where we can really hear the mechanics of how the pads work. You get a floating feel when posting against big opponents, while the speed button is pressed when you’re tired.