Review for NBA 2K20. Game for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 06/09/2019
The first gusts of wind that hurl themselves with force on the trees and screech on the windows of the houses remind us that, inevitably, summer is now to be archived. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it is time to leave behind the sun, the sea (or the mountains) and relaxation in general, with only one mission: to resume everyday life. September, we know, is a particular month, which for many can be traumatic, but for others a liberation.
For all video game enthusiasts, this September will only mean one thing: lots of titles to play. Among the bombastic releases of the month, he could not miss NBA 2K20, the new chapter of the twenty-year basketball saga by Visual Concepts and 2K, arrived on the market, in truth, full of skepticism, due to the now inevitable and not very acceptable choices related to annoying microtransitions.
The overall quality of the product, however, is absolutely not in question which, on the contrary, also this year stands as a reference point for sports titles, with an overall conservative appearance but which still manages to improve (where possible) further an overall picture already of the highest level in itself.
The birth of a champion
As per tradition in recent years, one of the most awaited modalities is certainly the one dedicated to the career. This year's “My Career” has aroused great interest, right from the very start, with Visual Concepts and 2K announcing a heavy and breathable change of course in both cut and overall handling. The plot that moves the aforementioned mode takes on clearly different connotations in this edition compared to the past, starting with the protagonist, who is no longer the arrogant and know-it-all type seen in the previous chapters, but presents himself as a humble and altruistic boy, as well as from the moldable character from our choices.
The choices, not new but certainly more incisive than in the past, are very important: we will be able to decide how to react to a wrong done to a friend of ours, whether to devote ourselves more to basketball or to building fame, and so on. The story of the protagonist staged for NBA 2K20 is characterized by darker tones than in the past, being directly linked to the incident involving the protagonist. The unfortunate event will significantly affect the life of our alter-ego, whose skill on the pitch will be almost overshadowed in favor of his story, which is more attractive to the various teams than his game.
The My Carrer plot was supervised by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, owners of Springhill Entertainment (the ones who, to understand, are working on Space Jam 2). The good old Maverick is then present as a character within the story and it is he who warmly invites us to give more space to advertising, films and the like to the detriment of basketball, to put in the foreground the gains deriving from notoriety compared to sport.
Another important change brought to "My Career" in this NBA 2K20, is related to the creation of the character. After the canonical facial scan, the game, instead of letting us choose a preset archetype, puts us in front of a series of graphs complete with colors that indicate the various parameters: for example, the green rectangle indicates the skill with the shot from inside the area, the blue one the shot from outside, the red one the defense, and so on. Based on the decisions taken at this juncture, the player will assume different connotations. Furthermore, already during the creation phase it is possible to have a preview of what the player will be once reached particularly high levels, in order to make the choice more prudent. This large number of possibilities provides a truly noteworthy variety that is mirrored, for obvious reasons, also in online play: many different players, different styles, different game.
The mole, as usual, is represented by the progression, closely linked to Virtual Coins (VC), increasingly invasive mechanics. The choice of inserting different types of activities to be carried out to get to the fateful draft is also very important. The player is not a superstar right from the start and, to shine, he will not only have to play the match seen in past editions, but go step by step, starting with training on fundamentals. Yes, you got it right: in NBA 2K20 you will have to show that you know how to do it even with the most basic movements such as sprinting, jumping, and so on. In the end, once all this is over, you will be selected by a team which, in our case, was that of the San Antonio Spurs, which we had entered as a preference. Once the story is over, the actual game opens. In this edition, we can see how everything is no longer strictly linked to the "Neighborhood": the activities within it are no longer mandatory and you are no longer forced to go around the neighborhood trying to earn VC, but you can choose to focus solely on the NBA.
Without thinking twice, however, we can say that this year is the best career mode ever, both for the management on a playful level and for the way the story is told and for the protagonist put on the scene, selfless, no longer arrogant and moldable by the player's choices.
My Team, My GM, and much more
Leaving aside the impressive restyling made on what has now become the main mode of NBA 2K20, the other modes remain almost similar to the past. Although they have been significantly retouched in some respects, in particular, the "My Team" (the equivalent of the "Fifa Ultimate Team", so to speak), which has managed over the years to establish itself as one of the pillars of 2K basketball, which in this edition has undergone several improvements scattered here and there.
Already at a first glance, you immediately feel at home, with the various canonical modes clearly visible in the menu, which is also more streamlined and pleasant to see. The microtransitions, as always, are quite invasive, a choice that, however, appears quite widespread, when it comes to similar modes, even in the sports titles of other software houses. One of the most significant innovations offered by "My Team" is linked to the evolution cards, special cards that start with parameters that, after the achievement of certain objectives, can evolve and become stronger, even changing the "precious stone". This year, then, the coaches have a greater influence on the players than what happened in the past editions, giving real bonuses to the players who are best with their style of play.
Different speech, this year compared to previous years, we also have with regard to the My GM mode: in NBA 2K19 it was almost an interactive movie, now it's not anymore. The strong emphasis on the cinematographic part has been smoothed, thus bringing out with greater arrogance the soul of the GM: the basketball played no longer takes over the managerial part, but this mode leads to approaching the title almost as if it were a Football Manager. It goes without saying that the management of aspects such as training, contracts and rights become the pulsating vein of the mode and it is natural to leave the games in the hands of the coach and players.
Another novelty concerns the introduction of Action Points: every week a player has a certain number of them at his disposal, to spend on different activities (ask for the exchange, talk to a staff member, with the players, etc.). Once reset, you will have to wait until the following week, with the risk of losing goals on the road. In NBA 2K20 some real dynamic objectives have been introduced, which can also be requested by the players and which influence the whole team: to us, for example, Dwight Howard has asked to play at least 24 minutes per game and we had two weeks to fulfill his request. Once we decided to please him, we found ourselves faced with the discontent of the team that considered us too condescending towards the player.
Another novelty is linked to the introduction of the skill tree, complete with different skills and all in their own way useful in various aspects of the game. You can unlock the ability to communicate with the staff, with opposing players, or to change ticket prices, just to name a few. Unlike the other years it will then be possible to select the difficulty level at the beginning, which will influence the amount of time available to establish yourself as a basketball legend (in easy mode, for example, you have 15 years to win. , in intermediate mode 10, and so on). Once the deadline has expired, it will still be possible to continue playing but skills will no longer be unlocked, making the mode only "My League", which allows you to simply manage the team, with exchanges and everything else, but without the managerial part, for example, of multiple answers. The presence of modes such as 2KU is inevitable, very useful for (re) acquiring familiarity with the gameplay, the mode Blacktop, local games and all the part related to multiplayer. An interesting addition in NBA 2K20 is the introduction (fully licensed) of the entire WNBA - the female stars and stripes championship - whose digital reproduction has nothing to envy to the male counterpart. Even online, the title performs really well, with a matchmaking that tends to match players well based on skill and team.
The servers in general, even within the My Team, are very stable and even on the modest PlayStation 4 Slim they have never shown the side to lag or uncertainties of any kind.
Perfect simulation?
The real highlight of the 2K and Visual Concepts production, however, is always the gameplay. Pad in hand, in fact, NBA 2K20 absolutely does not betray expectations, immediately establishing itself as one of the best sports simulators ever, probably the best. The already excellent foundations of past seasons have been expanded, revised and strengthened, bringing to the screen a rate of playful satisfaction at times disarming. As we had already mentioned in the preview phase. The main focus was attributed to several factors in particular, such as shooting, defense and passing management.
The latter in particular now appear significantly less subject to often fatal and unmotivated inaccuracies, which in past seasons generated a disarming number of turnovers, even having more than reliable players in the team in this respect. The passage is more linked to the direction that the player gives to the ball when he touches the appropriate button, and to the timing in observing the movement of his partner. It is always essential, of course, to choose what type of pass to make, but in general it seemed much less complex (and frustrating) than usual to get the ball to the right man.
Definitely more substantial is the change made to the defensive system, both under the basket and on the perimeter. Jumping the man at speed is now much more difficult, thanks also to the artificial intelligence of the teammates, who increasingly rarely become protagonists of various blunders or inaccuracies. The best choice, therefore, is to make the ball spin by relying on the schemes, which obviously affects - and a lot - also on the general pace of the action, much slower and more reasoned than in the past. Freeing a teammate to shoot will therefore be a real playful pleasure, but be careful: Shooting management in NBA 2K20 is now more complex, and creating crosses in the box or stones on the board, even having (metaphorically) a shooter like Joe Harris in your hands, is not so difficult. Shooting well, in fact, is more linked to the skill of the player in getting the right rhythm and letting go of the ball at the point of release which, needless to say, greatly increases both the general difficulty and, above all, the vein of realism. that has always pervaded all the work.
With the approach of the new generation, therefore, 2K and Visual Concepts have preferred to go lighter, playing a bit in defense, supporting in the right way, in our opinion, those few elements - related to gameplay - still not very convincing.
A visual spectacle
The same goes, of course, also for the graphics sector. Although embellished by a series of all new animations in the dribble, in the movements in post and more generally in the various movements, the graphic sector of NBA 2K20 does not witness any revolutions whatsoever, remaining however on out-of-scale quality standards for a sportsman (and not only). On PlayStation 4 (not Pro) the game already shows a quality in the detail of every single element, starting from the players (all) up to the surrounding elements, truly commendable, all with a much more convincing color rendering than in previous years. The HDR then gives its best on PlayStation 4 Pro, and makes every chromatic vein very apt, seasoning everything with a solid frame rate, anchored at 60fps without any kind of indecision whatsoever, not even online. The new graphical interface of the menus is also pleasant, especially those on the homepage, while there is little to complain about as regards the soundtrack. What is the richest (numerically speaking) collection of songs in history, as always masterfully ranges from genre to genre, making every minute spent in the game menus adrenaline and frenetic, as much as the time spent on the pitch. The sounds in general are also very beautiful, now more realistic and engaging, while we feel like waving a nice technical foul on the commentary, decidedly outdated and which absolutely needs a general overhaul both in the sentences spoken and in the dubbing.
Although once again marred by the scourge of microtransitions, NBA 2K20 is a simply essential product for all lovers of basketball and sports in general. Leaving aside the unrivaled audiovisual sector of the production, always at the top, we found a title supported by a playful depth at times disarming capable, this year more than usual, to stand as the undisputed king of sports simulators. The few but significant changes made to a gameplay that is already unassailable in itself, the changes made to the My Team and My GM modes and the new My Career mode, certainly the best so far made, make the 2K and Visual Concepts title a practically mandatory purchase. , provided, however, to turn a blind eye to the annoying microtransitions, which have now become more intrusive than bearable. If we were to find a fault, however, it would probably be that of having dared little, after all, but for that there is time and the next gen is around the corner.
► 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
