September, we know well, is a very special month. For many it can mean the end of the holidays, the return to school or work, but also the return of sporting events such as the football championship or the return of the most watched television programs and so on. For the gamer community, however, September is almost always a real messiah, as much awaited as it is loved. In recent years, the month in question has always been a harbinger of large productions, among which the unmissable sports titles stand out, with all due respect for those who just can't stand them.
The new PES, the new FIFA, but also the new NBA Live and, in our specific case, the new chapter of the long-running and popular NBA 2K saga: NBA 2K20 This year, after last year's twentieth birthday celebrations, the creature of 2K e Visual concepts shows up at the starting line of the new season with the usual air of someone who knows he is the best, trying however - as usual - not to sit on his laurels and work more and more to bring to the screen an even more valid product that borders on the perfection.
Starting from the bottom
The focus, as in recent seasons but perhaps even more, falls on the mode My Player. Once again, 2K and Visual Concepts have worked hard to give the many fans the opportunity to impersonate a young talent of American basketball, deeply characterizing the narrative background, the character traits and everything that comes with it, both outside and inside the playing field.
To do this, once again, the team thought big and did things equally big, making use of the contribution of actors of the caliber of Idris Elba and Rosario Dawson, which will accompany our alter ego within his growth as a basketball player and, why not, as a man.
The NBA 2K20 demo, available on stores starting yesterday (August 21), gave us the opportunity to taste only the most superficial part of the new My Player mode, putting in our hands only the possibility to create our budding basketball player and test his potential skills in a single match. Fortunately, the editor in question allows the creation of six different different archetypes, to be tested freely, which will be available in the final version of the game, in order to start your career with clear ideas about what kind of player you want to become. .
Creative freedom
The editor in question, which allows the usual facial scanning through the use of the application, offers even more precise and important solutions than in past iterations. After having recreated your play counterpart in detail, will open a list of graphics that replace the old archetypes. The graphs in question, composed of different colors based on the various parameters that would affect, offer the possibility of creating players with very different characteristics from each other, since in the title there is also the possibility to change not only the player's skills , but also physicality and attitudes in the middle of the field.
This, we are sure, will make online gaming very varied, but it could once again be downsized by the inevitable microtransactions which, honestly, we hope not to see again in the near future and, in particular, in this NBA 2K20.
Completed the creation of the player, unlike in previous years, the real career does not start, but the game offers us the opportunity to test firsthand the potential of our creation, with a real game, against the reigning vice-champions of Golden State.
Playful show ...
Once on the pitch, it's impossible not to notice all the small, but significant, changes made with NBA 2K20 to the already unassailable play formula. The developers had promised themselves to work on some aspects in particular, which in 2K19 had registered a small step backwards compared to the predecessor, in particular as regards the dribble and the game in the low post. These mechanics, even if tried only superficially, appear to us significantly improved compared to the chapter of last season.
Advancing "ball in hand" and slowing down and accelerating, a bit like it also happens in real games, you can see a series of much more convincing and realistic animations, which make not the general glance but also the gameplay much more appreciable. The same is true when deciding to attack from under the boards. Players enjoy much more post movement, including the new ability to change the direction of the shot while running, and are more effective where used properly.
This does not mean that the defenses are penalized, quite the contrary. Especially in the painted, without taking the timing of the shot well and, above all, positioning yourself well, it is very difficult to be able to make the basket, which happened a little too easily in the past iterations. To improve the general picture, already more than valid in itself, there is also a sensitive retouching to collisions in general. This also affects mechanics such as blocks and steals, which are less random and more related to the player's skill. More generally, however, there is a general slowdown in the action, slightly slower and more staid than in the past, which greatly favors the player's vision of the game, who can more calmly observe the numerous movements without the ball of his teammates. team. This aspect has also been subject to review by the development team. Non-personally controlled players tend to move more, both in attack and in defense, to better accompany the action on both sides of the field.
… But also visual and sound!
Moving on to the technical front, it was very difficult, especially at the end of the generation, to be able to do better than the already incredible quality standards achieved. So, at least from this point of view, we didn't expect great things. We like to point out that, in part, we have been proven wrong. Since the advent of the current generation, we have always noticed a sort of "error" regarding the proportions on the field of some players, whose bodies appeared quite disproportionate to the playing field and also to some companions, much more massive in the real counterpart. This year, this trifle seems to have been filled. The players, even the most physically performing ones, are reproduced in a harmonious and more "truthful" way, without ever giving up the care for every detail, typical of the saga.
Also on the sound side we need to record the excellent progress made with this NBA 2K20. The sound of the ball hitting the parquet or the scoreboard, or even more so when it hugs the net following a triple sound of Klay Thompson it is unmistakable, and the whole outline also plays its part very well. The shoes on the parquet, the defensive slips, the rebound, everything is reproduced with faithful audio down to the smallest detail, further testimony of a creative goodness that can easily teach school.
To this is added a vast soundtrack, the largest ever seen so far in the series, which promises with its songs halfway between the rock pieces, RnB and the inevitable artists of the Hip Hop scene, to brighten every single second past in the menus of the new chapter of the 2K series.
The first contact with NBA 2K20 is very positive. The new possibilities offered in the creation and evolution of the player in the most beloved mode, the My Career, bode well for the future, hoping not to see the ravenous jaws of microtransactions still so present. Added to this are a series of tangible changes and improvements to gameplay in general, which make a product that - for a decade now - has no rivals in this direction even more realistic and simulative. In short, the weeks that separate us from the official release date, scheduled for September 6, are still many, and we are already rubbing our hands, ready to throw ourselves back on the parquet with more desire than ever. For a definitive judgment, however, we refer you to our complete review.
► NBA 2K20 is a Sport-type game developed by 2K Games and published by Visual Concepts for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 06/09/2019
NBA 2K20 is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 87%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the NBA 2K20 Review
