When it works, NBA 2K15 offers compelling content
By Matt Bertz | Game Informer Magazine
NBA 2K15
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Style: 1 to 4-Player Sports (10-Player Online)
Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: Visual Concepts
ESRB: E, for Everyone
Building a championship team is one of the most befuddling jobs in professional sports. You can get everything aligned — a collection of star players in their prime surrounded by hardworking secondary players and a motivating head coach — only to watch the season unravel when a critical player goes down to injury, an off-field matter becomes a distraction, or some of the players don’t perform up to expectations. NBA 2K15 is like one of these on-the-cusp clubs. It has nearly everything you could ask for from a sports game, but one chronic deficiency it claimed to have overcome — server woes — once again keeps the series from reaching its potential.
If NBA 2K15 were firing on all cylinders, it would push FIFA as the best sports game on the market thanks to its best-in-class presentation, forward-looking franchise experience, and innovative MyCareer mode. But the decision to tie several game modes — some of which are experienced entirely offline, like MyCareer — to unstable servers that continue to have intermittent outages overshadows the great strides the game makes in other areas.
After last year’s continual connectivity issues, we hoped Visual Concepts would take a new approach to its servers. Instead, we’re facing many of the same issues, like inconsistent performance in online matches and inability to access MyCareer for stretches. NBA 2K15 also brings new problems to the table, like losing face scans that take several tries with the PlayStation Camera and Kinect to create decent results in the first place. Why that data had to be saved to a server instead of the console is beyond me. Visual Concepts claims this issue is resolved, and recently, I have had better luck connecting to MyCareer, but I still encounter intermittent outages.
However, the revamped online versus experience, dubbed MyPark, is crippled by its problematic structure and laggy performance. In theory, the idea of having a virtual space where players commune to join pick-up games sounds great, but it’s downright maddening in practice. I would rather join a 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 match by simply selecting my preference in a menu and loading directly into a game rather than wandering around a basketball park waiting for others to jump into a queue the same time as me. When you do finally get enough people to play a game, the delays, drops, laggy performance, and lost progress in the ranking system mar the experience. In its current form, MyPark isn’t just hindered by minor annoyances; it’s downright inhospitable. The other online offerings, such as a barebones versus league and the competitive collectable MyTeam mode, do little to serve players who prefer real competition over games against the CPU, effectively making NBA 2K15 a nonstarter.
On the hardwood, NBA 2K15’s outlook brightens. The gameplay is largely improved thanks to a refined A.I. system. Players move with purpose across the court, setting up off-ball screens, spacing to open up isolation plays, and effectively defending pick and rolls. To help newcomers better understand the shooting styles of the various NBA players, Visual Concepts added a new shot meter that visualizes the right time to release the ball. While some may find this helpful, I found it distracting and eventually turned it off because my eyes were locking on the meter instead of watching the court.
Defense may prove the biggest obstacle for newcomers. When tracking a player around the court, it’s easy to get drawn into unintended animations, giving the attacker just the opening he needs to make a play. I also saw a player clip entirely through a defender’s torso while going up for a shot, an immersion-shattering occurrence I thought this series had left in the rearview mirror long ago. Despite these annoyances, the moment-to-moment action is enjoyable whether you are controlling a full team or your MyPlayer.
When it works, NBA 2K15 offers a triple double worth of compelling content, from its accessible but deep gameplay to the deep MyGM and dramatic MyCareer modes. Unfortunately, the connectivity issues continue to box out players from its engaging experiences. Not every mode is affected, but tying the predominantly offline MyCareer to the servers was a poor decision, as was the choice to once again take the court with an underperforming online suite. What enjoyment you get out of the game will likely be tied to how much importance you place on connected experiences.
