NBA 2K10 Review
A Review - By Gaetano Prestia
The rivalry between the NBA 2K and NBA Live series’ hit its peak in 2006 when Live hit an all-time low and 2K was the ball game to beat. Since then, it’s as if 2K Sports’ basketball sim was the Lakers and Live was the Bobcats – you always knew who was going to come out on top. While Live improved slowly over the years, the 2K series always brought the same level of quality to the table. However, unlike any good NBA team, 2K doesn’t seem to be planning for the future, staying put in its current form as it has been for the past four years. It still hasn’t addressed key issues that have plagued it for years and considering the major jump in quality in NBA Live 10, NBA 2K10 may be the last game that comes out on top if it doesn’t start mixing things up.
NBA 2K10 is a great basketball game. There’s no denying that. At its core there is an extremely solid basketball-sim experience, one that offers plenty of challenge and a distinctive focus on court tactics. However, there are quite a few technical issues that can hamper the gameplay. While in other years these issues were overshadowed by the great sim gameplay that we just didn’t see in any other basketball game, they stand out a lot more in this year’s iteration. If not because of the fact that they should have been rectified by now, than because NBA Live has finally made a stance as being the best basketball game of the year. There’s more room to compare than in previous years, so any issues in the two games stand out a lot more than in previous years.
There’s plenty to love about NBA 2K10 though. The gameplay has hardly changed, with the addition of turbo the only noticeable difference in how the game plays from last year. Using turbo will drain your player’s stamina a lot faster, so using it sparingly is obviously the way to go if you want your top players on the court as much as possible. There isn’t as much of a focus on turbo as there is in Live and you don’t need to rely on it to have a better chance of hitting a jumper or slamming down a dunk. In fact, you could go a whole match without using it once, so it’s great to see some balance with it, as opposed to making it crucial to how the game is played. The implementation of turbo in a sports game can dictate how “arcady” the experience is, but 2K Sports have done a great job of not focusing on it too much.
What makes the NBA 2K series such a great sim is that it is heavily focused on tactics. Fast-breaks aren’t common in this game (although that does depend on what team you’re controlling) and rushing the ball through the offense won’t lead to success. You have twenty four offensive plays to work through and quickly choosing one when you’re moving up the court will confuse the defense and allow you to get a good shot off. Being able to distinguish the difference between quick play-calling and quick offense is integral, especially in reference to the offensive awareness level of your team and ball handlers.
Lockdown defense returns and has thankfully been improved, with the AI responding more realistically to your smothering defense. The AI opponent will try to fend off and move around the controlled player and this is better than in previous years when Shaq would be able to shut-down Nash. The game will take advantage of mismatches, even if you’re using the lockdown defense feature, and it’s great that the AI takes notice of what is actually happening on the court.
There are some flaws within the gameplay that have been present for a few years now. Lay-ups and dunks are missed way too often, even if the player is left wide open, and this leads to extreme frustration when you’ve got the momentum. Going on a run in this game and shutting down your opponent helps lead to a strong momentum change, but when your highest ranked player misses an easy lay-up, it puts a negative spin on the experience. It would be OK if it happened once or twice every two games, but when a player like LeBron misses three lay-ups in one game, you know there’s something wrong. We can all argue that it depends on how the person is playing, but the fact is that no matter how long you hold a button down or which direction you push the shot stick in, NBA players shouldn’t be missing lay-ups. It’s like a Premier League player missing a goal from five meters out with no keeper in the goal – it just doesn’t happen.
The AI also completely and utterly sucks when it comes to time management. If the opponent AI is down by three with ten seconds left, you’d think they would hang around the 3-point line and get a shot off with a few seconds left. Instead, they’ll pass it around the key, sometimes getting the shot off after the buzzer, or shooting the ball from within the 3-point line. It also struggles to take notice of the clock at the end of quarters. The common thing to do when there is twenty seconds left in the first quarter would be to run the clock out. Instead, they rush the ball down and put a shot up, giving you another chance to score.
Both your teammates and the AI opponent players struggle to get open unless a play is called, often leading to shot clock violations. If you run the ball up and just pass the ball around, players will stand around waiting for you to do something. This might encourage you to be more tactical and use plays more often, which is good, but some gamers don’t really have a sound knowledge of the game and they might want a more free-flowing and accessible experience. When your teammates aren’t getting open it’s difficult to get a flow going.
However, beyond all of these issues, it’s still a great basketball game. Defense is still strong and player rankings are accurate for the most part. If you can look beyond the problems - and you will be able to - the experience itself can be fluid and smooth. Once you get into a rhythm with this game you’ll be harder to stop then when Bryant is on fire at Staples.
The new mode in My Player is a deep and thoroughly enjoyable rag-to-riches game that is going to get a lot of attention. You create your own player and lead them through the summer league, into training camp, through the D-League and ultimately onto the path of becoming an NBA star. It can be an extremely long experience, one that won’t happen in a few hours and one that requires dedication and persistence. 2K Sports have done a wonderful job to create a mode that distances itself so much from the core court experience, offering something new that may very well be worth the price of admission itself.
As you progress through the ranks you’ll either be rewarded or punished by what you do on the court. You get skills points for pretty much everything while playing, so a small knowledge of the game and the positioning of your player’s chosen spot on the court is absolutely crucial. Although it takes a long time to get your player up to a decent rating, the challenge to ensure your player is doing everything right on the court makes the game as challenging as it is. Everything from boxing out, double teaming, blocking, posting up and boxing out will effect your player’s rating, so it’s not just the simple things like scoring and assisting that help your player improve.
However, My Player is far from being perfect. As fun as it is to build up a player and lead them to success in the big league, the mode is hampered by unrealistic difficulty that punishes you for the most unavoidable errors. Things like having your player scored against, having a fast break scored against your team, being out rebounded by a player twice as tall as you, or being out of position. The game never really directs you on the court so if you’re new to the sport you’ll struggle to position your player well and get the most out of a match. Furthermore, you could have been playing the mode for hours on end and have finally reached the NBA, only for your player to still be lingering around the 50 rank mark. It makes sense to have your created player initially unable to perform the more complex of basketball moves, but not allowing a tall player to dunk the ball or block is kind of stupid. Even if someone that is 6’6 hasn’t been taught how to dunk, they’re probably going to be able to do it anyway because it’s not that difficult. There’s too much of a focus on every single attribute and having to build up every single little insignificant aspect of a player. It definitely takes away a lot of the mode’s realism.
Yet while all of these problems do hinder the My Player experience a bit, they shouldn’t deter you. Whether these problems were present or not, this mode still requires patience and persistence to master and hopefully we’ll see it evolve over the next few years. It has plenty of great aspects and it’s awesome to create your own player and stay with them right through until the big time.
NBA Today is similar to NBA Live’s updating feature, keeping all of the statistics in the game up-to-date with the action from the actual NBA season. It’s not possible to rate this feature now, as the season hasn’t started yet, so it’ll be good to see how it works once things get rolling.
NBA 2K10’s presentation is a mixed-bad. While graphically is looks great, the framerate drops to a horrendous level on the 360 version and the menus are still as confusing as always. The game looks different initially, but changing things doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be fixed. The menus still lack the ease to breeze through like the Live series. 2K Sports need to take a simplistic approach in future to make the opening menus less confusing.
The online mode is a complete disaster, although patches and improved servers look set to rectify any issues. The PS3 mode is practically unplayable online, while the 360 mode struggles to find a game for you. Things are gradually improving as 2K Sports address the issues, but it's unacceptable.
The Final Verdict
NBA 2K10 hasn’t changed since NBA 2K9 – it’s still the same core basketball experience with the same problems. That’s OK, because the on court action is a lot of fun, it just has the same issues that should have been fixed years ago. My Player is a great mode that requires patience and persistence, although it punishes you way too much. There are major framerate issues on the 360 version and online mode is a shambles. All of these issues ultimately hide in the shadow of the great sim experience though.
Gameplay
8.6/10
Still better than its competitor, but only slightly. Issues from previous years are hurting it and need to be fixed next year to avoid being overtaken by Live.
Graphics
8.0/10
Great player animations and design. Framerate issues on the 360 are major, but the action on court looks great otherwise.
Sound
7.5/10
A great soundtrack coupled with repetitive commentary.
Value
9.2/10
My Player mode is a fantastic addition that can keep you entertained for months. It requires patience and persistence (and a calm head). All the same old modes return.
Overall
8.6/10