NBA 2K19 continues the series tradition of delivering a high-quality basketball simulator, but it’s far from perfect.
NBA 2K19
Developer: Visual Concepts
Price: $59.99
Platforms: PlayStation 4 [reviewed], Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
MonsterVine was provided with a PlayStation 4 code for review.
The NBA 2K series has consistently delivered a high-quality basketball simulator year after year. Its presentation and attention to detail has put it on a different level than a lot of other sports games. In my own experience with the series, limited it may be (2K14 and 16), I was immediately blown away by its career mode and in-game animations. With the latest release of 2K19, the game continues the series’ tradition of being a high quality, fully packed product. With that said, there are aspects of some modes that felt overwhelming for people with little to no experience with the series. I was also put off by how the in-game currency (which can be purchased with real money) stretches across most of the modes, making it too reliant on microtransactions.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve only touched a few entries in the NBA 2K series. I’ve always enjoyed sports games, but I’m one of those people who are satisfied with one entry in a series every four or five years. This review is mostly intended for those casual sports fans looking for a reason to jump into this year’s entry for the first time, or are coming off a long break.
NBA 2K19 is packed with a lot of basketball (no duh) but there are tons of ways you can go about crashing the digital boards in the game. There’s “My Career” mode, which follows the story of A.I., whose pro hoop dreams are derailed as he’s forced to play ball in China. “My GM” mode has two options: a story-driven path or the traditional experience. There’s also “My Team”, which is a card-based fantasy mode. Outside of those modes are your typical season mode and online modes; the latter built around a community hub space.
Regardless of which mode you dive into, the gameplay is fantastic. Running up and down the court feels fluid thanks to the player animations. The characters react to the speed in which you push them, which helped me feel the increase or decrease in the pace of the game. On the more physical end, characters will bounce off each other in the low post in a way that made me feel the impact. There’s intensity in the gameplay that I rarely experience in other sports games.
Over the last few entries, developer Visual Concepts experimented with a narrative experience baked into their My Career mode. The attempt was met with mixed feedback, but that hasn’t stopped the team from telling a story in the latest entry.
I don’t hate their attempt of a story in 2K19. After failing to impress scouts after leaving college early, your character is forced to play professional ball in China. The language barrier impacts your player’s morale immediately but after the short stint, he’s sent stateside to join the G-League, the NBA’s minor league.
I appreciate Visual Concepts’ focus on this aspect of the post-college basketball career. But I don’t think the story goes far enough to actually land on a clear message. A.I.’s arc is meant to teach him a lesson on the importance of being a team player. But after my one year grinding through the minor league, I wound up with a NBA contract based on my individual performance. By the end of his arc, I was pretty much done caring about A.I.’s humbling journey and ready to jump into my role as a shooting guard for my new team.
The career mode is divided up between playing games and running around an online connected hub space. In this space, you can purchase new clothing and pick up paychecks you earn from attending endorsement events. There are also pickup games you can jump into with other players, but the one game I got into lagged so much that I decided to stick to playing against the computer. I wish that the community space wasn’t attached to the career mode because it created a lot of down time in between games. But I can see the allure of the space if I had a group of friends that played on a regular basis.
I spent a lot of time in the “My GM” mode, which mixes in a lot of enjoyable management style mechanics with the game’s already great basketball gameplay. Every choice you make between signing players and developing a training program for your team feels important. If I give too much money to a player for an extended contract, I run the risk of going running out of money to sign other high quality players. In the case of a training regimen, I run the risk of pushing players too hard, making them more susceptible to injury. At the same time, I have a team owner and a fan base to satisfy, so sometimes signing a big name player is the only way to keep my job. I really enjoyed the constant push and pull of managing a team both on and off the court.
With all that said, I found myself overwhelmed with all of its depth. It felt like any choice I made could impact my team in a way I wouldn’t anticipate. But the issue was that I didn’t always understand how my choices could lead to a negative or positive impact. I wish the game would do a better job of explaining its mechanics in the GM mode for less experienced players. I don’t think slimming down the mode’s menu is the answer, nor streamlining some of its mechanics. But it feels like there’s a way to ease newer players into the action without sacrificing any of its depth.
There are two ways to play the GM mode. The GM story experience is a continuation of the narrative from 2K18’s My GM story. There’s no voice-over for the story, just a lot of text; a lot of text that’s a little hard to read and often delivered in large blocks. Unless you really care about the story from the previous game, or wanted to start a new one here, I would avoid it for the traditional GM mode. It didn’t do much for me and I wound up skipping over a lot of the text. Which is a shame because some of the text actually help with explaining some of the mechanics you’ll be dealing with a majority of your time in the GM mode. But baking in those helpful tips in large blocks of texts that are also filled with superfluous story beats felt like a misstep.
NBA 2K19’s in-game currency can be used across most of its modes. The currency is used to increase your player’s stats in My Career mode. If you want more cards for your fantasy team in the My Team mode, you’ll need to tap into the same currency for upgrading your player in career mode. That same currency can be used to increase your level in the GM mode that unlocks different upgrades. And don’t forget that you’ll need that in-game currency to personalize your character’s appearance in the community hub space.
As you can imagine, it’s really easy to run low on the in-game currency, and that’s where microtransactions take shape in 2K19. If you want to stay on top of every mode in the game, it starts to feel over reliant on spending real money for the in-game currency. To be fair, there’s plenty of ways to earn currency in the game, but that means having to play a lot of basketball to be able to incur enough digital money to stay afloat. It’s up to every individual how much they want to buy in to 2K19’s microtransactions. But it starts to feel grimy to me when not spending a single dollar means I could miss out on some of the higher tier items in each of the game’s modes.
The Final Word
I really enjoyed the time I’ve spent with NBA 2K19 and I’ll undoubtedly turn back to the game throughout the actual NBA season. In terms of sports simulators, Visual Concepts has shown again why they are the one of the best in the business. But that doesn’t mean NBA 2K19 is perfect. The story stuff in the Career mode falls short of anything truly memorable. The GM mode’s mechanics are great, but could be better explained for newer players. And to be honest, the constant presence of the microtransactions is really off-putting for me. Either way, NBA 2K19 shows why the series is a powerhouse, despite its shortcomings.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
