NBA 2K15: Round Up of Reviews and Analysis of Acclaimed Video Game
It's rare when critical acclaim and fan anticipation for a video game line up perfectly. You can count on one hand the number of sports simulations that elicit—and warrant—a better reaction than the NBA 2K series. The release of NBA 2K15 has proved, once again, that this game is operating on another level.
The things that 2K Sports continues to do to avoid its NBA series from getting stale continue to astound. Considering that this is the 15th year that developer Visual Concepts has been working on this game, it's impressive how fresh this year's version feels.
Even though you have been immersed in all the goodness that NBA 2K15 has to offer, we want you to appreciate all the intricacies of your experience. Therefore, we have rounded up some of the reviews and analysis for the game to tell you what you're getting.
The One Big Criticism
When you scour the Internet for reviews of NBA 2K15, they are nearly unanimous in praise for the basic essentials.
Mike Mitchell of IGN praised so much of 2K15 that you would never know there was anything wrong with the game at launch:
"It’s an absolutely beautiful game to look at, and its controls are as tight as they’ve ever been. Some features are vastly improved from last year, and fortunately most of those continue to work when the servers don’t. It’s a shame that the best game modes won’t always be accessible, because this could’ve been an amazing basketball game. It still could be, if 2K can fix it. But if you buy it right now, you can expect a great offline experience.
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The last part of the review is where the concerns are coming from people buying the game. On Twitter, 2K Support did address some of the problems for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One:
It is nice to have your name back and a face that doesn't look like something that was beaten with a hammer on The Walking Dead, but the fact that so much of the online experience remains an issue is concerning.
While MyCareer and MyGM are great game modes that you don't need to be online to use, that's only a small part of the gaming experience in today's world. Hopefully, 2K Sports is able to address all the problems soon because this is a game that deserves to be enjoyed without annoying bugs.
Now, The Positives
With the negative out of the way, let's examine what makes NBA 2K15 worth the time. As Mitchell noted on IGN, everything about the game still looks and feels great. There isn't a better-looking sports video game on the market, which is quite impressive.
As a fan of the genre for as long as I've played video games, one thing that's always irritated me is how developers have so often struggled to capture the mood and feel of what it means to be at a sporting event. Anyone can put together a simulation of what happens on television, but the best games bring the experience to life.
Not surprisingly, some of the best sports games have come along in the last 10 years (Madden 2005, MLB: The Show, NHL 09 and 10, NBA 2K series) as technology has allowed developers more freedom to bring more flair to the proceedings.
Josiah Renaudin of GameSpot gave NBA 2K15 9/10 and highlighted how good and crisp 2K Sports has made the action on the court:
"Where players stuck unrealistically close to one another in past games, 2K15 adds much more natural spacing between bodies both on and off the rock. Smart ball handling leads to more distance to take a shot, and that puts a greater onus on the defensive player to read and predict the direction of his matchup’s drive. 2K Sports took significant technical strides with last year’s NBA release, but it’s the reinvented movement system and improved physics that make 2K15 such a success.
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All you want as a gamer is something that treats you like a smart fan. If a game doesn't control well, with players moving spastically when you barely touch the analog stick, that's insulting to what we know games should be like.
Being able to handle the ball and actually pass the way LeBron James does, or fight for positioning under the basket like Dwight Howard does is what makes next-gen systems worth the price of admission.
Bleacher Report's resident video game expert Brian Mazique, whose video review is embedded above, also praised 2K Sports in a written review for building a game that takes the time to show players developing and regressing as they would in real life:
"Once the season starts, there's a whole new brand of fun in store. If you're playing a franchise in MyLeague or MyGM, players will age and decline in skill level. Young players will peak and then regress.
This isn't a new concept, but the manner in which it happens in NBA 2K15 is the most authentic I've ever seen in a basketball game. OnlyMLB The Show's outstanding franchise mode even comes close.
Players not only see their numbered attributes drop, but they also see a decline in their skill badges.
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Again, this is all about the minute details of real life that we tend to take for granted in a video game. There's no logical way a player will be rated a 97 at age 26 and increase that rating to a 99 at age 35. The human body doesn't work that way, so players must adapt to what they are physically capable of.
Even though the bugs that prevent NBA 2K15 from being a complete transcendent video game experience are still being worked out, there are still enough great things working for the series that you should be happy right away until all the kinks are fixed.
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