Best 2K in recent years but can't recommend simply because with yearly releases the previous game dies out, the game is never actually good but being someone that understands the cheese in 2K this years cheese was really fun for me. MyTeam (gamemode where you open packs) was actually good this year, you really didn't have to spend any money to have a stacked team I think people that don't actually play the game don't understand that. 2K released a bunch of locker codes and released cards that were so broken that everyone could enjoy them for cheap in game currency. If you are playing offline just get NBA 2K16 since 2K shuts their servers down 3 years post launch.

We know the reputation 2K's servers have for their NBA franchise, but it's fair to say that things are more stable in the 2019 iteration: what I was particularly interested in was the career mode – as with the rest of the sports games, anyway. The polished gameplay is effective, obviously, and betrays a real concern for kinetics and staging, so I have no complaints, given my basketball inexperience. The main problem with the story is that it is absolutely disjointed. The decisions you can make are inconsistent and the player will spend more time listening to dirty pitches about shoes than seeing interesting scenes. The Draft Combine mini-games break the pace of the story, especially as the off-field controls are miserable. As usual, female representation is reduced to its minimum element, with the WNBA seemingly there for the sake of being here. As such, I imagine the game will appeal to the casual basketball fan, but will upset the true NBA 2K gamer, due to too many approximations in its gameplay.

Confesso que nas minhas primeiras horas de jogo fiquei com um grande pé atrás do NBA 2K20, talvez devido ao nível tão massivo das durações das partidas que um simples jogo da NBA tem e para alguém que não é tão familiarizado nisso foi um tanto quanto desconfortável e cansativo de primeira, mas após começar a me dedicar de verdade e entendê-lo (seja do Universo da NBA até as mecânicas do jogo) acabei me apaixonando. O que mais me surpreendeu em todo o jogo foi o seu Modo Carreira que realmente faz jus ao nome NBA, algo de fato incrível que faz você construir toda a caminhada do seu personagem com qual time você irá entrar, quais decisões você irá fazer diante de várias situações totalmente diversas uma das outras e o mais interessante é os contratos que você irá fazer com as tantas empresas reais do jogo. Além disso, o que mais me assustou de verdade foi a customização do seu personagem te dar a opção de realmente colocar o seu rosto dentro do game por meio de um aplicativo do jogo que para mim funcionou tão bem que realmente eu mergulhei dentro do universo dele. Resumindo, é um jogo que me surpreendeu demais pelo nível de detalhes que foi introduzido com tanto carinho no seu modo carreira trazendo assim uma experiência completa (de uma Temporada) perfeita para nenhum fã botar defeito, por isso, definitivamente eu recomendaria para qualquer fã ou entusiasta do gênero jogá-lo...

I was asked to write this review by a friend, and I figured it would be a fitting first one on this website. As a bit of an author's note, this is moreso a review of the entire NBA 2k franchise as a whole, as opposed to this specific game. I intend to look at gameplay as its developed over the yearly release model, as well as the trends these games represent in both the technological, and economical sides of the video game industry.

I suppose to begin with, yes, these are mildly competent basketball games. You can perform a variety of flashy and fun dribble moves, layups, dunks and shots that all Feel nice to play. The systems at the very basis of the game are all sound and a genuinely enjoyable couch basketball experience. That's why the rest of what I'm about to say feels so tragic as both a basketball fan, and someone who plays a lot of video games.

For better, and certainly for worse, the NBA 2K games have genuinely been on the cutting edge of the industry for some time, despite maybe falling off through the pandemic.

Graphically, when these games try, few games look better. This, of course, is funded by both the yearly release model, and microtransaction HELL.

One of the first experiences regarding microtransactions in gaming i personally remember comes with NBA 2k's Virtual Currency model, and later their own loot box system within the MyTeam game mode.

There is hardly anything besides a basic game you can do within 2k that doesn't involve spending vc, drip feeding it out as gameplay rewards and offering it in multitudes for packages that look quite cheap. Looking cheap Every Time they shove them in your face. Expecting $5 here, $5 there, until ultimately a $60 game has become an $80 dollar one, and so on up the price ladder.

Say what you will about the morality of the model, but it at one point had fully become the industry standard, showing that in the mid2010's the folks at 2k had their finger on the pulse, yet that's not quite the only thing needed to make a good game, is it?

For as good as 2k's finance department is, the execution of plans by their game development department leaves a lot to be desired. Between 2k18, and 2k22, not a single mode in the game has been altered or added outside of MyTeam or MyCareer, the two game modes which require you to spend the most VC in order to progress through the ranks and ultimately create a better roster, or player, respectively. If 2k cannot monetize it, they do not care about it.

Despite what seems to be a genuinely forward thinking dev team with a solid foundation based in basketball and significant technological acheivement, the NBA 2k franchise, even with its massive pool of resources and ideas, has failed to innovate on anything besides it pricing model in a decade and a half, and ultimately, isn't worth more than 2 stars in any iteration.