This year the sports title by Visual Concepts, NBA 2K, turns twenty and the event was celebrated with the arrival on the cover of one of the best players of all time: LeBron James. With the last chapter of the series, the software house has created the basis for a rosy future, but will she manage to create the best NBA sports title of all time? Let's analyze the title in every little detail, starting from the most important mode and in which there has always been a big commitment: My Career.
La my Career: China - G League - NBA
This year we will no longer play the role of a DJ, and luckily I would say, but there will be one very complex and interesting story: our player will find himself having to play in the Chinese basketball league, more precisely in Shanghai, but he will have to face many cultural and linguistic problems; thanks to flashbacks, during the prelude, the story of AI and how it ended up in China: our player tried to take the path of the NBA Draft, but was not chosen. At that point he tried to ask for help from his "friend" Corey Harris, chosen by the Los Angeles Lakers, but these did not want to help him. I won't go any further just so as not to spoil you, but we can say with certainty that it is one of the most successful stories at Visual Concepts, thanks to an excellent script and an excellent interpretation. Finally, after completing the prelude, we will have the opportunity to choose which team to go to, negotiate the contract, enter "My Neighborhood" and much more.
The neighborhood has been redesigned and improved
My Neighborhood has been one of the most popular revolutions for us gamers and, as you well know, it was introduced in the last chapter of the series. Also this year it has been added and there have been some changes: finally they listened to the community and organized it more intelligently, in fact we will find ourselves in a neighborhood where all the landmarks are enclosed in a rectangle. In the center we will find the park, where we can play with friends or challenge other players on the server, we find the barber shop, the NBA Store and all the points of interest we met during NBA2K18. Visual Concepts has seen fit to add events during the day (such as the trivia, red ball vs blue ball and the dodgeball!). The only problem that still plagues the neighborhood are game servers, in fact very often we found ourselves fighting against lag in the park and we also notice the imput lag. These drawbacks are not only found in the neighborhood, but in all multiplayer modes.
The new My Team of NBA2K19
The mode "My team" it has been improved by Visual Concepts and has introduced others: as you can see from the image, the layout of the home screen has been completely redesigned and now it looks much more functional and faster. Another novelty introduced this year are new game modes for the My Team: Triple Threat (i.e. the classic 3vs3 both offline and in multiplayer); the classic Domain, in which you will have to face all the NBA teams, the fantasy teams and the oldest teams; finally the modality Unlimited in which you will have to face teams of 5 players from all over the world and more victories will lead to greater rewards. A new in-game currency called token: they cannot be purchased with real money, unlike VCs, but they can be obtained in all the ways listed above and more! Thanks to them it will be possible to redeem players with fairly high overall and immediately usable.
My GM: NBA 2K's most mistreated mode
Visual Concepts has also introduced some news on the My GM, but before reviewing the aforementioned features, we will explain what this game mode consists of: we will impersonate the general manager of a team of our choice of the NBA and there will be a whole series of tasks to manage (from the financial part, to the happiness of our staff and players ect). One of the first innovations that have been introduced this year is the possibility of choose which type of mode to use: the classic My GM or the My GM with history (which we strongly advise against because the story is very poor in terms of content and is not in the least comparable to the level reached during the prelude). Finally, the possibility has been added to use the most experienced players, such as LeBron James, to mentor younger NBA players, so as to teach them 3 cards / skills (as you can see from the image).
Are VCs a Problem in NBA2K19?
I VC have always been a very thorny topic of discussion: many gamers argue that they are too influential and that, without having "shoppato", it is impossible to go on. After trying all the ways in which these virtual currencies are present we can assure you that you can go on even without "shopping"; in fact, you can do without spending money since, for example, during your career, after each match you will be given VCs (the amount is mostly determined by the salary you have negotiated with your team). Obviously, without having shopped, it will take some time to reach a high overall in the career, but this does not mean that the title is unplayable or that gamers are "forced" to have to spend money on VC.
TOP Gameplay and Graphics
After trying assiduously NBA2K19 we can say with certainty that Visual Concepts has improved the gameplay of the title, fixing what were the flaws of the predecessor (first of all the AI of the opposing CPU), they added the possibility to unlock the Takeover, which is a short-term enhancement of our core skills and in this chapter it will be easier to steal the ball. Another improvement, even if minimal, implemented by the software house is the graphics of the title: the faces and the lighting of the playing field have been improved; We remind you that we tested the title on a simple Xbox One S, but the Visual Concepts product is also optimized for Xbox One X, so it supports 4K and HDR.
Are we facing the best NBA2K ever? To the best sports title on basketball? These are the questions I immediately asked myself and, after several hours on the title, I can tell you that NBA2K19 is the most comprehensive basketball sports title ever, all thanks to an improved gameplay, graphics always at the top, and the many very interesting game modes; unfortunately though flaw on the server side, which has always been the brand's Achilles heel. We hope that Visual Concepts will listen, once again, to the NBA2K19 community and improve the game servers, making the title playable also online.
