NBA 2K16 Review

Slam Dunk?

NBA2K15 was a superlative game of basketball with a few slapdash areas around the edges that managed to seriously let the overall experience down. Does the 2016 game fix these issues or merely paper over the cracks?

Story:

The story mode from the last game is gone, overwritten by the new Spike Lee directed ‘Livin’ Da Dream’, where you play as the ludicrously named ‘Frequency Vibrations’, or ‘Freq.’ Unfortunately no-one calls you ‘Mr Vibrations.’ The mode takes itself too seriously despite the fact it’s so dumb, which is a shame. It’s well acted, but no-one thought the repercussions through of having the main supporting cast being your twin sister and parents. They’re all black, whilst your character can be white, which is just weird. I’m all for the representation, especially given the makeup of pro basketball players, but why they couldn’t just be friends rather than immediate family just strikes me as odd.

And whilst the cast are a little one-dimensional, so are your choices, of which there are none. And once you’ve played a season in the NBA, the mode just ends, referring to you as a superstar, despite the fact your stats will be mediocre at best. Whilst not a complete failure, I was expecting a lot more, especially given the marketing hype, and came away pretty disappointed.

Gameplay:

This year no longer starts with a huge, unskippable game, but continues to suffer from a lack of any kind of tutorial, or even a ‘what’s new’ section. Instead, after endless menus and intro videos, you end up in what remains the most confusing menu structure in sports gaming. There’s less swapping from vertical to horizontal this year, but instead it’s been replaced by pop-ups and load screens. Surely a UI designer or some more UX testing could be afforded into the development budget?!

Multiplayer:

Things have been real bad with NBA product launches over the last few years, and whilst NBA2K16 is ‘better’, it’s still hardly a triumph online. There’s still too many connection issues for my liking, and even getting the game to start was a nightmare. The latest patch kept corrupting when downloading, then the ‘MyPlayer’ I created was wiped after about 5 minutes of play, and accepting the EULA and T&C’s was about as painful as I could possibly imagine. You get the sense that 2K are slowly improving, but it’s still hardly an acceptable situation.

Presentation:

Somehow, 2K have managed to get 2K16 looking even better than last year, ensuring it remains a glossy, silky 60 FPS complete reference title for your PS4. It’s hard to find anything to criticize; obviously you get the odd janky animation, and sometimes player faces look a little rubbery, which looks all the more out of place given just how great the rest of the game looks, but that’s about it.

The commentary is pretty much as great as the graphics – again, the whole match-day experience is superlative. I barely heard the same lines twice, and the pre-match build-up is really impressive. Without a ‘curator’ for the music, it’s a bit more of a consistent soundtrack, but it was at least more memorable last year.

Conclusion:

NBA 2K16 is a great looking, sounding and playing game of basketball which is still haunted by many of the issues I brought up last year: poor UI, annoying server issues and an over-confidence that you’ve played the game for hours before. Even the slight tutorials from last year are gone. Coupled with a disappointing story mode, given the hype, and the only good reasons to return to NBA2K16 is the much-improved AI and the updated rosters. Enough for the hardcore perhaps, but casual fans may do better by waiting a year.