Praise
This year’s edition of NBA 2K which is called NBA 2K23 is a slight improvement from the prior game NBA 2K22 because in this year’s game there is more of a skill gap and you have to actually play the game to be good at it. To elaborate more on my statements this year’s version of the game has seen a vast improvement on shooting where anyone cannot just make any type of shot. You have to have enough skill to time your jump shot and to learn when to release it to have a higher chance of making it. Dribbling in the game has vastly improved as well where it is more realistic dribble styles and you cannot just simply go left to right and get open to shoot your jump shot like prior years. The mode called MyCareer has seen a vast improvement as well where they brought back quests, have brought in the rapper J Cole in the game and have various other things you can do if you just want to have a relaxable experience. MyCareer also allows you to walk into the stadium of where you get to play at and go to the coaches office to talk and to give you the option to talk to the press and do optional scrum as well. This game has little improvements but the improvements make the game more enjoyable
This is an image showing the shooting in NBA 2K23 and this image comes from https://segmentnext.com/nba-2k23-shot-meter/
Overview
NBA 2K is a franchise that has been going on for a longtime making many different NBA games using all 30 teams in the NBA. This year’s NBA 2K23 has many different modes such as MyCareer, MyTeam, Play Now, MyLeague and MyGM. The most popular mode which is MyCareer is a mode where you get to create a player of your choice going from the look to how the person plays and you are able to play through a story of your time in college and the NBA. You are also able to take the player that you create and play as to the park and play against other people who have created players in a 3v3, 2v2, or 1v1 game. You can also form a team or go into matchmaking to play a 5v5 game in a stadium setting against other people as well. Lastly you can form your own team with your friends and play another mode in MyCareer called Pro-am against other people that has created a team whether that be 3v3 or a 5v5 game. In the mode MyTeam you are able to create a team of your choice and play challenges to get cards to build your team up more. You can also play against other people who have created teams or even choose three players from your team and play a 3v3 match against people who choose 3 people off of their team. In the mode PlayNow you are able to choose any team in the NBA and play against either an AI or against a person who may be there in person with you or online. In MyLeague you can choose any NBA team and be the coach of the team where you play through a whole NBA season with that team and can make trades, sign players or cut players. In MyGm you can be a general manager of a team and make decisions based on the team needs to help improve the team to achieve the ultimate goal of winning a championship.
This image is of the NBA 2K23 loading screen and cover and this image comes from https://store.steampowered.com/app/1919590/NBA_2K23/
Issues
There are three main issues in 2K23 that need to be addressed and are mostly towards the MyCareer side of things. The first issue is defense. Defense in the game is not very great where the lateral quickness is slow and players cannot stay with other players no matter what their level of lateral quickness in the game is because of speed boosting. One minute you can be guarding someone and stay with them then the opposing person will make one move and speed right past you and there will be nothing you can do about it. The second issue is the adrenaline boost in the game for dribblers. When it comes to dribbling in real life most NBA players do not get tired really quickly or use an adrenaline boost to speed up their movements. This makes it hard to dribble effectively but most players try not to use their adrenaline and end up only needing to use one boost because the defense in the game is so bad. The last issue is the lack of diversity with builds in the game. You can play MyCareer in the park against other people and 9 times out of 10 you will see someone with the same build as you.
Strategy
To fix the issues that I have discussed above the developers can tune the defense to make sure the lateral quickness actually matches what the user player has. The other issue of adrenaline boost can just be completely removed from the game in my opinion. I find this to be completely inefficient and useless in the game. Most people who actually dribble barely even use the boost. The last problem that i have addressed which was the lack of diversity for builds can be where every build that you can create is very effective when playing against other people online. Additionally this is a hard fix because the people who make the game cannot tell people what player to make but, they can make it to where if someone chooses to build something and they want it to do a particular thing then it can do that thing whether that be just shooting, dunking, or locking people down.
Encouragement
NBA 2K seems like it is improving every year and that the game is so far very enjoyable. Although many people do not play NBA 2K as much as they used to in the prior years. People still buy the game and play and have fun when playing. This year’s game has seen vast improvements on skill with shooting and dribbling. Other improvements include the realism of dribbling and a better looking MyCareer mode. There are some more things that need to be improved in the game such as defense and the adrenaline boost. All in all this game is still fun to play and is an improvement from last year’s game.
Kylen Dilligard 