NBA 2K22: Breaking Down Best New Features for This Year's Game
It's hard to escape the hype wave for the upcoming NBA 2K22 release.
This year's annual sports juggernaut will be developer Visual Concepts' second effort on next-generation consoles when it launches on September 10.
It sure doesn't hurt that this year offers a 75th-anniversary edition, equipped with Kevin Durant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dirk Nowitzki on that edition's cover. Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic is the pick for the standard edition's cover.
But the most interesting cover of all is also the most historic. For the first time ever, 2K will have a WNBA-themed cover, featuring two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player and six-time All-Star Candace Parker:
It's only fitting considering the WNBA side of things is where 2K22 presents some of its most noteworthy new features.
A WNBA-specific mode is still new to the 2K22 franchise (debuted in 2020), but this year sounds like 2K Sports bringing the mode up to par with the rest of the features set. Dubbed "The W," players now manage a badge system similar to that found in other modes and must balance not only action on the court but also practices and off-day activities while pursuing a championship.
Besides scrimmages, the mode will work in legends like Parker as a way to help players improve their character, as noted in a recent developer diary:
"NBA 2K22 will feature contact workouts, an exciting way of learning new skills in The W. Progressing through the Season will help you form connections with some of the WNBA's brightest stars, such as Candace Parker, A'ja Wilson, and Nneka Ogwumike. You'll be able to challenge them to 1-on-1, 2-on-2, or even 3-on-3 games of 21. Best of all, you'll be able to join forces with players after you make contact with them. You can choose to play alongside a player or go toe-to-toe against them in future workouts. Each contact specializes in different skills and will help you improve one of your badge categories."
Also of note is continued upgrades to the Seasons feature that debuted last year. The feature is now a staple of MyCareer, MyTeam or The W Online and boasts rewards that refresh after a certain amount of time. Over in MyCareer, the biggest reward known to date adds a new wrinkle to City, with Go-Karts.
And the addition of Seasons to other modes means bigger challenges for players to take down. Reaching legendary status won't be as easy this year. Via the new format for Seasons, players can't have their characters become legends until they reach level 40 in four different seasons.
One fun wrinkle to the overall experience too? What 2K dubs "First Fridays" will add a new song to the game's soundtrack each week.
Best not to forget MyTeam either, where Seasons' reach also creates a new feel to progression. New Season and Lifetime goal groupings mean a longer-term feel to the game mode and simply more rewards worth pursuing for the duration of the game's lifespan.
MyTeam, besides being the fun collect-a-thon that it is every year, also brings back an oft-requested feature for fans: the draft.
It sounds simple, but it's just another way to play the game in a fun, fresh manner. Players get to draft their entire team in a draft format before an online game using an ever-updating pool of cards, then use whatever rewards they earn during the game to put toward their long-term collections.
On a broader front, 2K Sports has confirmed that MyTeam progression and VC Wallet balances will transfer seamlessly between console families should a player make the jump from the last generation of consoles to the new.
With an emphasis on The W and a Seasons aspect that changes the feel of multiple game modes, NBA 2K22 looks to keep upgrading the series into the next generation in interesting ways while attempting to reel in the status of best sports game on the market.
