Review for NBA 2K Playgrounds 2. Game for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 16/10/2018
NBA Jam disappeared, NBA Street shelved, it was the turn - now more than a year ago - of Saber Interactive (Shaq Fu) and their NBA Playgrounds to bring us back to jumping like crazy on pitches around the world, using the license official of the American basketball league. The game had convinced us only partially, especially before some patches that improved its feel and technical performance (especially on Switch): in addition to presenting a few modes and options, the gameplay absolutely did not reach the heights of fun of the old arcades, quickly ending the game on the back burner. Saber, however, in addition to having undertaken to update the original code, immediately decided not to worry, on the contrary, to announce and prepare to publish in May 2018 a direct sequel, NBA Playgrounds 2, which would have tried to definitively square the circle. and give us the title we all expected. As you can see from the release in October and from the name that accompanies this review, something happened in those months and today we are here to talk to you about NBA 2K Playgrounds 2, newly joined the 2K Sports “team”, recently seen in action in WWE 2K19 and, of course, NBA 2K19.
If on the one hand this move led to a small postponement of the project, on the other NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 could benefit from this change of publisher in several respects, but unfortunately there were also many "fears", given the recent past of the American company in terms of micro-transactions. IS we must say immediately, these fears were definitely founded.
A new season
Let's start with the positive aspects: NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 builds on the foundation of the latest updates of its predecessor a competent arcade basketball experience. Although the formula is apparently similar to that of NBA Jam, the reality, gamepad in hand, is quite different. Even here, in fact, the experience consists of 2 vs 2 challenges of stylized basketball players with big heads with lots of senseless skills and power-ups, but the presence of a shot indicator requires a certain timing to make even just dunks or 3-pointers. , even with specialists in these disciplines. In other games of the genre it was more of a competition to see who missed first, with fadeaway shots from halfway through the basket as if nothing had happened, while in NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 you will need a skill level, especially at the highest difficulties, not just to bring home the victory. Saber's game denotes a decent depth between alley-oops, deadly crossovers and lay-ups, making it less immediate and perhaps less fun for newbies but more satisfying for those who want to dedicate time to it. Too bad all of this is ruined by its bizarre experience system and player stats, which we'll be back to soon.
Improved gameplay, we said; it's a pity that few modalities remain in which to express these improvements. NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 offers, in addition to online or local friendlies and the nice but limited challenge for the three-point shot, only one main mode, the NBA Season, which takes the place of the basic world tour of playgrounds contained in NBA Playgrounds. The premises for something more complex were there, however the season is reduced to a trivial series of games (15) to be played in sequence, plus the short final play-offs towards the title victory. It doesn't look that bad on paper either, but it's not edifying to see that every single pitch looks exactly the same except for the current team colors. The season seems like a missed opportunity, also because it takes away focus from beautiful new 10 stages around the world introduced in this sequel, full of details and character but confined to simple friendlies for a bit of exposure.
The 2K footprint
This year we have not been very "soft" with NBA 2K19, penalized for an excessive use of micro-transactions that have permeated and corrupted its structure. 2K Sports has unfortunately applied the formula in NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 as well, albeit in a not so intrusive way: here the main problems lie elsewhere. There are two types of currencies: Baller and Gold Points, useful respectively for buying FUT-style packs and unlocking new players or cosmetics to spruce up your favorite basketball players.
Baller Points are earned at a very slow pace by completing matches and challenges, and their spending goes solely to procuring new players, while Gold Points (obtainable via real currency online) allow the purchase of cosmetics and a € 10 package to unlock all one-time basketball players. The system is really complex and absolutely frustrating, paradoxically more for the "natural" progression due to Baller Points than for micro-transactions real. For example, by completing a season we will get enough credits to buy not even two golden packs (the rarest), with among other things the risk of being duplicates among the four players extracted from the pack. Getting to have a varied roster of modern and past players that can also be used in other modes will be an exhausting and repetitive process, which could lead us to repeat the same season in the same 15 playing fields all the same for dozens of times before completing the list.
Hold on tight, though, because the most inexplicable element is yet to come, something that also affects the enjoyment of the otherwise solid gameplay. In practice, every unblocked basketball player, of any rarity or quality, starts from a "Bronze" experience level to be increased by dint of games and experience points, as in NBA Playgrounds. If in the first game, however, player growth only unlocked some particular animations and only slightly improved their stats, in this NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 bronze level players are badasses. Sorry for the elementary school word, but it was the one that best represented the situation. Take Steve Nash, Canadian ex-star of the Phoenix Suns and winner of two MVP awards, one of the best shooters of the last twenty years. Here, if you select Nash without having trained him, know that his statistics will be of the lowest level, making it difficult even to score a three-point basket from unmarked without a good dose of luck and crazy precision, not to mention the slowness with which generally will complete every move.
To reach a level of performance more in keeping with his pedigree he will have to take him to the Gold level, or better still Diamond, making him grow game by game maybe against the CPU and even completing some "challenges" on the field. We are not averse to RPG elements of this type even in an arcade, but reflect on the absurdity of potentially having to train 400 basketball players in two or three ways to be able to think of using them profitably online or even just to be able to have fun scoring some baskets. difficult or thinking of entrusting the joypad to a friend of yours for a casual game. All of this will undoubtedly lead you to specialize in a handful of players, because realistically you cannot be asked to spend at least an hour on each of them to level them up by "grinding" to make him competitive on court as his NBA star status should dictate.
Market basketball, this unknown
If that's not enough, despite the very official licenses and the postponement, in NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 team rosters are out of date with the latest NBA market moves (started these days too!), with players like Tony Parker still at the San Antonio Spurs or Carmelo Anthony not joining the Houston Rockets: something we could accept when Playgrounds was an indie game, but not anymore. We require a patch in a short time.
And that's not all: even in the technical sectors, despite an improvement in the polygonal models, the game remains decidedly imperfect, at least in the version we reviewed on Xbox One X, in which we witnessed numerous audio bugs (music often disappeared) and an almost amusing visual glitch that practically transported our players to the surface of the Sun for the duration of a match. We leave you the video here, really unmissable.
If NBA Playgrounds could be seen as a decent first attempt, laying good foundations for a sequel, the sequel really disappointed us. Given the improvements in gameplay, it was enough for 2K Sports to refine the product, insert a couple of new modes and make us all happy. On the other hand, the introduction of micro-transactions, a level of grinding that is really too high and some style drops such as the failure to update the roses even makes the Saber Interactive series take a step back. That said, the ball now to the development team: in case the game's economy is substantially revised through updates, our opinion could change radically because the basics are good, but at present we cannot recommend in our hearts. purchase.
► NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 is an Arcade-Sport type game developed by Saber Interactive and published by 2K Games for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 16/10/2018
