NBA 2K19 review: Virtual currency hinders an otherwise awesome basketball game

2K Sports and Visual Concepts are back with another installment in their long-running NBA 2K series. The series has earned itself a reputation as the gold standard in sports gaming, but are we moving in the correct direction with the release of NBA 2K19?

Xbox ballin'

NBA 2K19

Gameplay good; virtual currency bad.

Bottom line: NBA 2K19 gets basketball correct, but an exorbitant monetization model has the potential to ruin it.

Pros

Authentic NBA gameplay
True-to-life presentation
Riveting MyCareer story
Vastly-improved online modes

Cons

Virtual Currency still sucks

2K'due south reputation precedes itself

Visual Concepts' basketball game developmental prowess is best summed up with two words: perennially awesome. It always begins with the gameplay, and that'southward where NBA 2K19 lives upwards to the reputation through and through.

Admittedly, in that location was a short stretch of time in the serial'southward history where things seemed to begin falling off the rails. Animations overpower user control, causing for situations where your players often did things that you didn't desire them to do.

I'g happy to say NBA 2K19 has reeled it in a little chip. The trip the light fantastic between accurate basketball game animations and user-controlled action is a delicate one, and it's never felt amend. Players move where and when you tell them to move. Y'all don't get sucked into game-breaking pick-and-roll animations unless you actually collide with the pick setter. The transference of weight and other physics-based movement don't brand you feel helpless unless the actor you're decision-making has bricks for feet and pans for hands.

NBA 2K19 is as good, and as deep, equally it gets.

And while I've never had a problem with spring shot control in these games, post moves and layups are a different story. There used to exist inconsistencies with the shot push button timing and it sometimes felt like you never knew when the ball would roll off your thespian's fingers, nor was it like shooting fish in a barrel to determine when, exactly, y'all'd make a double motion. Cheers to the new shot meter, however, you can attack the paint and the rim exactly how you lot want to.

The effect is a more heady game overall. That feeling yous get when you're driving to the pigsty for a shot and yous meet your player contort his body in society to get the all-time angle is but sublime. Frustration is a feeling I've oft been imbued with in years by, but it was more similar elation in NBA 2K19 because I knew that the corking plays I fabricated were because I fabricated the play, and the bad plays I made were because I did make a boneheaded mistake.

At that place are still some areas of business for me. Namely, defense seems to be a bit "overtuned." Driving to the hole with Lebron James should be something I tin can pull off with ease, but even on the game'southward default Pro difficulty I am being stonewalled a scrap too much. The lateral quickness of fifty-fifty below-average players is just a chip too tight and flawless for my taste. This can be a flake of a sour experience for folks who similar doing most of their piece of work in the key. This is an area 2K has confirmed they will monitor and things may improve with future updates.

I didn't know the Lakers were playing

As is commonly the case, 2K is unmatched when it comes to presentation. I wouldn't fault someone for walking into the room every bit I'm playing and asking if an actual NBA game was underway.

Information technology begins with the unmistakable likenesses of all the NBA stars and coaches. The company goes to great lengths to browse player faces in using their multi-camera capture technology, and the results speak for themselves. Player models are authentic and true to life, down to the wrinkles and blemishes on Russell Westbrook's face.

Seeing players walk out of the locker room, through the tunnel, and into the arena is also awe-inspiring. From the shimmering of low-cal bouncing off the wooden floors to the technology work on display in the rafters, you'll feel similar you're right inside the venue or watching everything unfold live on Tv set. Information technology'due south a niggling cliche to say, but you lot can't foul me if information technology'south true.

This is an area where 2K has never struggled.

I only hate that 2K seems to darken the upper portions of the arena while the game is ongoing, especially since it dulls the random oversupply movements and the reactions they have when big plays are fabricated. Seeing thousands of people slapping their knee along to the cheer vocal is something you just can't unsee.

All of it is wrapped in a broadcast presentation that puts virtually other sports games to shame. It starts with seeing Shaq, Kenny, and Ernie in the pre-game testify offer analysis and telling the very sort of dry jokes that we've come up to love. The personalities touch on league trends and offer insight into teams, players, and matchups in strikingly accurate detail. That level of item extends well into tipoff, with Kevin Harlan leading the manner for authentic play-past-play, and stars like Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, and Bill Simmons offering the flavorful bits.

2K has a number of authentic broadcast-style angles to choose from if you want to feel like y'all're watching an actual competition, and you'll see broadcast graphics swoop, swipe, and swing in to offering relevant data at key moments. And the audio package, from shoes squeaking on the floor to the reverberation of the defense chant, ultimately help recreate that center-pumping feeling that just NBA basketball can provide.

This is an area where 2K has never struggled. It's a level of mastery and artistry only possible thanks to years of feel in the basketball game genre that Visual Concepts has, and it goes a long way to keeping me engaged. And yes, playing on the Xbox One X in native 4K with HDR looks simply as amazing as y'all'd think it would.

Become an NBA star

MyCareer has become the style past which NBA 2K lives and dies. Who wouldn't want a virtual version of themselves playing in the NBA as a globe-class athlete?

The fashion is meliorate than ever. You truly create the character you desire to make. There are tons of visual options, including a face scan characteristic that, although sometimes wonky, allows yous to create your virtual doppelganger.

You lot also take most-limitless options on how your character plays thanks to 2K'southward archetype system. Are you more than of a signal guard guy throwing effectually flashy passes and aisle-oops? Do you lot desire to exist a 7-pes monster who tin drain 3-point shots? Perhaps you want to be the defensive monstrosity everyone fears in the paint? Pick two archetypes that fit your preferred playstyle and you lot'll be able to accept the relevant attributes to great heights.

At that place'south too an embarrassment of animations to customize. You tin can cull your dunk and layup packages, your various shot animations, your dribble moves. Hell, you can fifty-fifty change nuances like the way y'all stride upwardly to have a free throw or your pre-game ritual. Some are based on real NBA players, merely there'due south besides an assortment of original ones. I spent a good 30 minutes alone choosing the dunks and layups I wanted, and I didn't have the patience to view every single option.

As has been the example lately, NBA 2K19's MyCareer mode is propped upward by an original story, complete with actual Hollywood actors and voiced NBA stars. While the story hasn't always been great, this year's tale is told very well. It's your typical rags to riches affair, though information technology shows some of the lass glamorous paths some players accept to take to the NBA.

From China through the developmental D-League, all the manner upwardly to the elite of the elite and into the hall of fame, it's a story that emphasizes the importance of humility, hard work, patience, and determination. Information technology'southward also the start story in an NBA 2K game that genuinely made me express joy. Character evolution was a big issue for previous titles, merely I find myself really caring about the folks and their goings-on hither. Information technology's something we accept for granted in many other types of games, but NBA 2K19 proves it works only also in the earth of sports.

You have a lot of other stuff going on outside of the dramatics, also. Yous'll go in and play your weekly games as normal with practices in-between. Those practices mean more than they ever have now that each drill y'all can do will requite you direct progress toward earning and upgrading specific badges. It takes the guesswork and grind out of building the exact sort of grapheme y'all desire, and that'south always something I'll welcome. Betwixt games, y'all'll negotiate sponsorship and team contracts, deal with injuries, purchase new gear for your actor, deport interviews, bargain with locker room antics, and build your fanbase.

All of these elements come together in a big melting pot designed to fuel the Virtual Currency organization 2K has become infamous for, as you can't build your character upward without earning it. We'll have more than on that later in this review.

At that place goes The Neighborhood

Y'all'll find that MyCareer blends seamlessly into The Neighborhood, the new shared globe online hub for NBA 2K19. This is where you take your character online to compete with others for rewards and fun. For the uninitiated, The Neighborhood — previously known equally The Park — lets you walk around a collection of courts to compete in blacktop-manner basketball. Merits a spot on the courtroom and look your turn just like you would at your local park or gym.

I've been content with pickup games alone, but The Neighborhood offers so much more than. There are wacky game modes to be played at The Cages where you lot can jump on trampolines to execute flashy dunks. A wheel-of-fortune style game lets y'all play a game of basketball with randomly selected stipulations. There's even dodgeball and trivia if you want to take a break from hooping. These extracurricular activities came off as cheesy at first, but they do add a great degree of diversity and fun.

Walking around The Neighborhood is just plain crawly. You lot'll encounter a line of stores, preparation facilities, gyms, shops, and other sorts of destinations that you tin can walk inside. And seeing everyone running (or skating, or dancing, or just plain being weird) around with their unique characters as the days turn into nights makes NBA 2K19 experience like a living, animate earth.

The elephant in the room

And then reality kicks in: Online play can be absolutely brutal in a world with VC. Information technology's non fun walking onto the court as a 65-rated ability forward with folks who have dumped coin (or insane amounts of time) into their characters.

Having to stride onto the court to guard a seven'3" center who never misses a layup and doesn't surrender any room in the paint isn't fun. Guarding a three-point specialist who can run circles around a gazelle and hit anything from half court makes it more about mind games than stick skills. And don't even think about going upward against a squad of pre-fabricated ballers who take full communication if you're going into the game equally a ragtag group of stragglers with no chemistry.

Intentional or not, it feels like the game is designed to punish you for not spending VC, and frustrates you just beyond the tipping point to where you lot're dying to reach for your wallet. I was disgusted to learn that some of my friends willingly spend $50 on each new grapheme they brand to level them upwardly correct away. One friend I know has already spent $400 in this endeavor.

2K knows what information technology's doing and for whom information technology's doing with this system. It's a vulturous do which crosses the line of unacceptable by a country mile. NBA 2K19 attempted to ease the pain for those who dare keep their spending to a minimum. At that place are more ways to earn VC than e'er earlier, and you do earn more overall. And yes, haircuts are complimentary. Praise the high heavens.

But to reward 2K for loosening the grip on this exploitative concern model is to take information technology as something I'g OK with. I'm not. And while they announced merciful in some areas, the fact that they're identifying other ways to make the grind harder — like lowering the amount of XP you get toward badges — tells me that null has changed.

And that's only in MyCareer. I won't even get started on the fantasy team building manner known as MyTeam, which is most impossible to be competitive in without an endless grind.

Verdict on NBA 2K19

There are other game modes you lot tin play to dodge the constant VC pedaling. In that location are MyLeague and MyGM for more league-structured gameplay, besides every bit regular caput-to-caput online modes including exhibition and blacktop games. There's all the same tremendous amounts of fun to exist had if you aren't in a position to deal with NBA 2K19'due south economy.

As such, the game won't live or die by its monetization model. The fact of the affair is that this is notwithstanding a compact game that offers the most accurate, deep, and fun, and heady NBA experience in a video game to engagement, and that lonely is enough to secure the initial purchase. Merely at that place's nothing I detest more than paying $sixty for a game and beingness made to feel similar I owe even more than.

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