Review for NBA 2K19. Game for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 11/09/2018
For twenty years the NBA2K series has invaded our consoles bringing the great basketball to the stars and strice in our homes: it was in fact March 2000 when NBA2K was distributed on Sega Dreamcast with Allen Iverson on the cover; with Giannis “The Greek Freak” Antetokounmpo and Lebron James on the cover, NBA 2K19 is granted to owners of PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. Will it have matched its NBA 2K18 predecessor or will it be able to do even better?
Visual Concepts has kept all the expectations created during the promotional campaign of the game, carrying out the cleaning interventions of those micro-defects present in the title of last season and reinforcing even more the two main modes: My GM and My Career.
My GM allows the player to manage a National Basketball Association team through and through: management of the roster and staff, assignment of observers to the most promising rookies to be hired in the Draft, choice of free agents and management of rotations throughout the pre-season, the season and (hopefully for you) the play-offs. There is no lack of the possibility of dealing with this mode with a minimum of story as a side dish, not as narratively important as last year but which adds a bit more cohesion between game and player than the classic mode.
My Career seems to have partially abandoned that gaudy and noisy style present in the past years, turning to a slightly more serious story and closer to what can easily be labeled an episodic series about the world of basketball. AI, the nickname of the protagonist of this year's My Career mode, is a talented young man, but due to his particular character that does not allow him to be chosen in the draft he is relegated to the basketball league of the People's Republic of China, where it will have to begin to express itself but also to face linguistic and cultural problems. If the script certainly does not shine for its originality, we must point out the excellent cast of professional actors who have given features and voice to the co-stars of this mode: Michael Rapaport, Haley Joel Osment and Anthony Mackie most of all offer excellent performances.
Also pleasant is the return of the Neighborhood, the open world mini-world that allows you to interact with other players in mini-games, this year even more engaging thanks to the inclusion of the Dodgeball and an even greater number of arenas for the three against three . The customization guaranteed by myEditor this year is considerably greater than in NBA 2K18, we are probably facing the best editor of a sports game made so far.
Visually NBA 2K19 is a real feast for the eyes, every detail of the athletes is faithfully reproduced while the arenas, the coaches and the public have improved considerably compared to the previous title. The animations of the basketball players are smoother and very natural, the annoying bugs of interpenetration between players or between the player and the basket have also decreased. NBA 2K18 was an excellent starting point but in any case Visual Concepts has the advantage of not having rested on its laurels and having even more squeezed its excellent graphics engine. The audio / video presentation of each match is as close to reality as possible, the team of commentators has been further expanded with the presence of three authentic "heavyweights": Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and the American sports journalist Bill Simmons, true and own guru of the National Basketball Association. The negative note is the absence of Charles Barkley in the pre-race curtain where Ernie Johnson, Kenny “the Jet” Smith and Shaq introduce the game we are going to face.
The playability, which has always been a strong point of the 2K title, has received some tweaks, noticeable especially during My Career: the useless post-basket jump animations that slightly broke the rhythm have almost completely disappeared, the position of the power bar of the shot has been changed (now conveniently located on the side of our shooter instead of at his feet) and above all given the right weight to the basketball players: so forget to see Kyrie Irving move like Jonas Valančiūnas. The only flaw in our opinion, despite the changes to make the defensive game more precise, is still the difficulty in stopping some attacking plays of the teams with the best rosters.
The online modes are excellent, above all the playful offer of the myTeam mode stands out, further improved thanks to the inclusion of greater weekly challenges and three-on-three matches. Unfortunately, to get the full enjoyment of the aforementioned 2K mode, it requires you to replenish your Virtual Currency funds, the virtual currency of the game that can be obtained by grinding games and good performances in them, with your real money.
“Cash rules everything around me” sang the Wu-Tang Clan in 1993 and certainly on the upper floors of 2K there are some fans of the historic East Coast rap group. The publisher has in fact chosen to monetize as much as possible on the myTeam and My Career modes: in myTeam with Virtual Currency you will have the opportunity to buy new cards to improve your team while in the Career the virtual currency will allow you to improve the parameters of your player and bring him closer to basketball perfection. The VC obtainable through the simple game is in fact too small - although the system has been improved compared to NBA 2K18 - but having to shell out more money after buying a full-price title seems to us too aggressive a policy towards the pockets of gamers.
NBA 2K19 is a beautifully crafted game with a growing fan base on the European continent. 2K is perfectly aware of this and has adopted a policy of microtransactions that the public and critics had already largely crushed in the previous chapters of the series. Despite everything, the publisher has decided to continue with his offer, only going to slightly increase the free possibilities on the editor and little else. Obviously 2K has the right to offer the product it deems appropriate for its finances, just as we consider it appropriate to revise our vote downwards as a protest against the choice made. We applaud the excellent work done by Visual Concepts to package such a well optimized product that always aims to improve itself, but perhaps 2K should listen more to the voices of the players instead of being so attentive to the tinkling of its virtual coins.
► NBA 2K19 is a Sport-type game developed and published by 2K Games for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 11/09/2018
