NBA 2K15 ($59.99) takes the court as the king of hoops games, but the online performance issues from last year are once again back to detract from the gameplay. Even so, tweaked graphics and smoother animations, plus a stellar MyCareer mode, make this year's version well worth playing. On the digital court, the core basketball gameplay remains mostly the same, which is a good thing, because NBA 2K15 is the best basketball title on the market. I reviewed the PlayStation 4($799.95 at Amazon) version, but it's also available on Xbox One($200.00 at eBay), PC, mobile devices, and last-gen consoles.
It's All About The Game
NBA 2K15 runs at a staggeringly smooth and fluid 60 frames per second. The players are much easier to control than they were in NBA 2K14, gracefully flowing from one action to the next. Animations (there are now more than 6,000) are smoother, shorter, and less distracting. You can dribble, crossover, back down your man, and turn to shoot the fadeaway in one fluid sequence. Previously, this would have been several distinct actions, each with its own animations, and you had to wait for one animation to finish before you could trigger the next. NBA 2K15 looks and feels like an actual NBA broadcast.
One of the beauties of NBA 2K15 is that it can be as complex or as simple as you want it to be. If you simply want to jump into a game, you can go right ahead. If you'd rather set lineups and dictate offensive and defensive plays, you're free to do so. If you want to be a Mr. Fancy Pass, use the L2 modifier with the X, Triangle, or Circle buttons to unleash a bounce, lob, or flashy pass, respectively. The Basic and Advanced controls are responsive, and they give you a good feel for the game.
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You'd think that 2KU, the tutorial suite, would be a good place to learn about advanced game controls, but it isn't; 2KU simply rolls a video featuring a player voice over and calls that a tutorial. The videos are frequently comprehensive enough that a dozen mechanics are described, but there's no opportunity to practice skills. I retained almost nothing at the end of the tutorial.
Attention to detail is a hallmark of NBA 2K15. There's even the option to have the refs call technical fouls in-game if your console's microphone hears you swearing in real life. In-game athletes look like their real-world selves, complete with super-detailed faces, bodies, hair, and tattoos. The highly developed AI causes CPU-controlled players to behave in the same manner as their flesh and blood counterparts. For example, digital Kobe Bryant exhibits a tendency to bellyache when he thinks he's been fouled, just like in real life. Not everything gets that same degree of detail, however. For a dose of make-believe, look no further than the cheerleaders who cycle through a few dance moves and look very much like rag dolls in costumes. Rather than being a pleasant distraction between quarters, their blank expressions and clumsy movements are the stuff of nightmares. The players are so real that the cheerleaders look shockingly unreal in contrast.
The most noteworthy "improvement" this year is the shot meter. I have improvement in quotes because I found the shot meter to be little more than a distraction. The player you're controlling has a bar that appears in the circle below his feet. As the player moves around the court, that bar grows or shrinks, showing how much of a chance that particular player has at scoring a shot from that point in the field. For example, if you don't have a three-point shot, then no bar will appear when you're in three-point territory. After the shot, the shot meter provides feedback—if it's to the left then you let the shot go early; if it's to the right then you let the shot go off late.
Modes and Online Issues
A Multitude of Modes
NBA 2K15 is not NBA 2K14, and that's clear from the moment the game starts up. The standard boring main menu is gone, replaced by a more-engaging and colorful design that also provides a clear description of each mode, including MyGM, MyCareer, MyLeague, and MyTeam. Each mode is significantly different from the others, so there's plenty to explore.
MyCareer is my favorite mode, because it does a great job of immersing you in the life of a NBA player. In MyCareer, you create a player to compete in the NBA while a story line develops around you. How you meet each challenge shapes how your teammates and peers within the league see and treat you. You start the season undrafted, and you get the option to pick a team and earn a ten-day contract during a practice game. Teams around the league have different degrees of interest in you, and how well you play during the try-out game affects on how much interest they show. The more interest that a team displays, the easier it is for you to make that team. If you don't make the team, you get chances to prove yourself on other teams. Not every team in the league desires your player, however, and if you blow all of your chances then you're out of the league. I could feel the tension building between me and my smarmy agent as he did the least amount of work he possibly could while "helping" me build my career.
Creating your player is incredibly fun. It's possible to use a default player and customize his height, weight, facial details, hair, etc., or you can start from scratch with a scan of your own face, which is a new, exclusive PlayStation 4 and Xbox One feature. I placed the PlayStation Eye Camera about 18 inches in front of my face, and rotated my head about 30 degrees in either direction. Scanning took about 45 seconds to complete. Once your face is scanned you can tweak your player's other attributes to your heart's content. I got a huge kick out of seeing my head on a NBA court! Note: Scanning your own face can be a bit tricky. Make sure that you've got good lighting and you're prepared to sit perfectly still while being scanned.
As your career advances, you get to upgrade your athlete's attributes. In NBA 2K15, various attributes are grouped into categories like Athlete or Jump Shooter, so you don't have to manage each attribute on its own, which was a rather tedious affair in past games. You can also practice in the gym so that you can get better control over your player. This is important because don't want to explore a newly unlocked skill in a game that counts.
This brings me to one complaint that I have with NBA 2K15: excruciatingly slow load times. I'm talking about load times so oppressive that once or twice I was convinced the game had crashed. It's a shame to have an otherwise pleasurable gaming experience marred by load times so bad I almost forgot what game I was playing.
Within the MyCareer mode is the MyPark mode where you can take your baller online to play three-on-three street-ball pick-up games. The first thing you do is choose a team. The different teams offer different enhancements to your character. For example, the Sunset Beach Ballers excel at shooting, the Rivet City Rough Riders are all about rebounding, and the Old Town Flyers are defensive aces. You earn rep during play, and that unlocks new capabilities for your player and club. You also earn virtual currency you can use to upgrade player attributes or buy items from the MyPlayer store. Online battles bring out the competition in all of us—I usually don't care what kind of shoes my player is wearing, but after being ridiculed for looking generic I felt the need to blow some cash on some flashy sneaks.
MyTeam mode is a card-based team-management game. You begin with a starter pack of cards and then build it from there. You earn more cards as you play and those cards can be used to obtain additional players. I've never been one for any card-based team-management game and MyTeam was no exception. This is the kind of detail that I find boring, but others may love. I'd rather be out on the court ballin'.
MyGM is like a full-team simulation with the pleasant exception that you can play all the games yourself. You choose which franchise you want to manage, then work with the owner to set goals (like making the playoffs), managing the budget, scouting for new talent, interacting with players to get the best performance out of them, and setting your team's tactics. In MyGM, you're in total control of your team and the devil is in the details. Managing my roster could have been a full-time job. Players even came to me to complain that practice was too easy. Then, my superstar turned out to be a whining baby who didn't like anything I had to say; I know if I had stuck with the game long enough he would have jumped ship. I felt more like the team shrink than a GM as I struggled to balance the different player and coach personalities. Still, it's a great mode that kept me interested between games.
Online Issues
NBA 2K15's most-significant faults are with the online experience. Online gameplay performance varies almost from game to game. Some games experience no lag time and others experience such heavy lag time that the game itself looks like a slideshow and is completely unplayable. 2K is more than aware of the problem and claims to be working diligently to fix it.
Still The Best
Although far from perfect, NBA 2K15 is a noteworthy achievement in the world of sports gaming with fast paced, fluid gameplay that is frighteningly lifelike. Both fun to play and realistic, this is the basketball game to have this year. Unfortunately, online gameplay performance is so variable and load times so oppressive that I cannot give NBA 2K15 an Editors' Choice nod.
NBA 2K15 makes significant strides over its predecessor in terms of graphics and animation, but an inconsistent online multiplayer mode mars the experience a bit. Still, it's the best b-ball game around.
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