Another year, another sports game. Regardless of your sport of choice, every sports fan knows the mixture of excitement and dread that comes with a new entry in their annual series. Thankfully, it’s usually mostly excitement in NBA 2K’s case.
While other sports franchises stumble more often than not, Visual Concepts proves year after year why NBA 2K is the best in the genre in just about every regard. In addition to smooth on-the-court gameplay and outstanding presentation, 2K always brings exciting new features and expanded control options with every new iteration, and NBA 2K25 is no exception. 2K25 doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any major way, but it’s still some really great basketball with some new tricks up its sleeve, and that’s what people really come to these games for.
As always, 2K25’s core gameplay is remarkably solid. It’s taken years for franchises like Madden to get anywhere close to 2K’s game feel, and 2K25 makes things even better with some tweaks and changes that smooth out the experience even more.
Thousands of new animations have been added to make moves blend together more than ever before and allow for even more creativity on the court whether you’re playing offense or defense. A brand-new dribble engine makes driving the ball more responsive than ever, and paired with new offensive customization options introduced this year, moving the ball and landing shots feels effortless. Defense is even better this year too, as a new defensive movement system lets you rapidly reposition to cut off aggressive players.
Most importantly, the shooting system has been refined to offer more options for multiple playstyles. Landing a green on the shot meter is still the most important thing when shooting (and new shot meter designs and timings make it feel a bit more natural), but you can also change shooting to be more reliant on player stats and positioning. The default “high risk-reward” option still prioritizes green shots above all, but the new “low risk-reward” option lets you sink sloppier shots in the right circumstances. If you’re wide-open as Luka Doncic, you don’t need to constantly make perfect greens anymore if you change your settings.
2K has historically done a poor job of onboarding new players and introducing its daunting suite of mechanics, which is why the all-new Learn 2K mode is a much-appreciated addition. It walks you through the basics of how to play 2K and then shows you how to perform even the most advanced shot types and ball moves, complete with mini-games, drills, and on-screen controller demonstrations to help you nail them. It’s a great way to work on any weak spots you may have, and it makes the game’s other modes significantly less intimidating as a result.
Learning 2K25’s core mechanics makes MyNBA and The W feel more rewarding than ever. They’re just as solid as last year with some new tweaks — MyNBA adds The Steph Era centered around the 2017 Warriors and The W now has press conferences to make things feel even more personal — and these modes are where 2K25 is at its best. Again, the core basketball has never been the problem with the 2K series. NBA 2K25’s cracks start to show in its other game modes, however.
MyCareer is the biggest mode in NBA 2K, and 2K25 makes some huge changes to The City and available game modes for custom players looking to play alongside their favorite NBA players and teams. The City itself has been drastically trimmed down, featuring a small beachside main street instead of a sprawling urban center. All the usual shops and courts are still there, but everything is much easier to access. You’ll spend less time running around and more time playing basketball. You’ll still be riding go-karts shockingly often for a basketball game, though.
The narrative has been stripped back as well, letting you just focus on your player’s NBA career instead of worrying about off-court drama and social media beef with your annual rival. MyCareer’s story is packed into Heart of a Dynasty, which features flashback games from your player’s early basketball days that showcase your rise to the NBA. It’s entirely optional so it doesn’t get in the way of people who just want to hoop without all the usual MyCareer frills, but there are still narrative moments throughout the main NBA seasons to give things flavor.
The City is home to some really interesting stuff if you need a break from nonstop NBA games, too. Remastered courts are back from NBA 2K15, the private MyCourt is back so you can practice your skills without fear of judgment, and Proving Grounds is the home of ranked play and competitive games. The overly-extravagant Streetball mode also returns (now with co-op), letting you challenge and recruit bosses like Dunkotron 5000 in games that are more focused on flair than fundamentals.
As always, The City is a remarkable social hub that really feels like it was built by a team that loves basketball. It’s a place where you can show off, hang out, and everything in between. It’s also NBA 2K25’s biggest problem.
You start your NBA career with a 60 overall rating. You improve your stats with VC (Virtual Currency), which can also be used to buy clothes and customization options. You earn VC through normal gameplay, but of course, you can also buy it with real money. You already know how this works. Your OVR rating affects your gameplay in The City, so you can feel your wallet calling your name when you’re getting dunked on by 90 OVR players on day one in friendly pickup games on casual courts.
It’s easy enough to get a decent OVR rating just by playing a few NBA games, but you’ll still be constantly outpaced by Steph “Credit Card” Curry when you’re just trying to grind affiliation reputation or knock out a daily challenge. VC is also used to buy clothes and other things, too, so customizing your character and replacing that ugly default brown shirt will hinder your growth as a player. It’s fun to have wildly different skill levels and builds represented on City courts, but 2K’s VC problem has infested the game for years and shows no signs of stopping in 2K25.
Plus, some of the stuff in The City just screams sellout. It’s was cute at first seeing Jake from State Farm pop up in The City, but now his obligatory annual inclusion is getting grating. Gatorade has also been a 2K staple with the Gatorade Training Facility (home to your weekly workout quests), but having the Gatorade rep describe the specialized blend of five electrolytes in the all-new Gatorlyte in an unskippable introduction cutscene is offensively obnoxious. Advertising and sports are intrinsically linked so it’s understandable to see this stuff in 2K, but it just gets to a point, man.
You’d think that MyTeam — the card-collecting team-building gacha mode — would be where the most egregious monetization examples would be found, but that’s surprisingly not the case. Compared to other Ultimate Team-style modes, NBA 2K25’s MyTeam is pretty generous. It starts you out with a bunch of high-rated players, albeit with limited uses, so you can use them to get a headstart on challenge completion and earn some starting VC and card packs.
Plus, there are a ton of modes ranging from casual to hardcore that make it super easy to acquire new players and items for your team. Triple Threat Park, for example, lets you participate in park-style gameplay from The City but with MyTeam players. This solves the OVR problem from The City since you can use NBA players here, and those limited-use stars provided to new players can even the playing field.
Breakout is easily the standout new mode added to 2K25’s MyTeam, however. It’s a pseudo roguelike mode where you start at the center of a grid-shaped board and attempt to reach the exit by playing quick basketball games against different teams on each tile. Each spot on the grid has different difficulty levels, team matchups, rule sets, and time limits, so things are different every time. It’s a shockingly fun experience, and getting close to the exit only to find prime Shaquille O’Neal on Superstar difficulty can make things pretty tense while moving around the board.
There’s really a lot to love about NBA 2K25. It remains the absolute pinnacle of the sports genre and the core basketball gameplay just gets even better with this year’s dribbling rework and control changes. As always, though, you just can’t escape the game’s offensively aggressive monetization. NBA 2K25 is an immensely rewarding game, which makes it hurt even more that players on both sides of the court can either carry you or shut you out after a big VC purchase. It’s one of the only games that is quite literally pay-to-win, and that puts a huge damper on what would otherwise be an all-time great.
Published: Sep 13, 2024 05:50 pm