NBA 2K20 Review

By
Susan Giles
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NBA 2K20

NBA 2K20 is a simulated basketball video game. It is available on many platforms, including PlayStation, Xbox, Android, Windows, and Nintendo. The game simulates the National Basketball Association. It is created by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports.

A lot of things have been improved in the new series, like the dribbling, the spacing between players, and footwork. The game continues to surprise its players. However, the only challenge that comes with it is its file size, which is something that has raised previous concerns, but the other improvements that we see in the new NBA 2K20 make up for it.

NBA 2K20 Pros

The Game Visuals

Just when we thought that its visuals couldn’t get any better, playing the new series has definitely proved us wrong! NBA 2K20 is said to have the greatest graphics since NBA 2K14. Just like older versions of the game, the visuals show a lot of effort from the creators that have always delivered style and beauty in their graphic work in this game.

We can see this in the lighting and the surrounding environment that was crafted in great detail and looked real in many ways. We can also see the amazing details in the players’ tattoos and in their hairstyles, which made them look more like their real-life selves.

The visual improvement was shown in MyCareer Cutscenes as well, through amazing graphics and beautiful styles that brought the scenes to life. Sometimes the characters’ eyes would look a little off-track or unreal during close-up shots, but this is hardly noticed with all the other graphic enhancements that make it almost impossible to spot mistakes.

If you focus enough on the interviews, you can notice some awkward silences and pauses between the players and David Aldridge. Considering the effort that was put into creating smooth flows for the commentary, this could have been easily avoided by shortening these pauses in order to simulate a real-life interview. Other than that, the graphics are completely brilliant, almost mimicking the real NBA games seen on TV.

Gameplay

The gameplay is nothing but another success and a point of strength, just like its stunning visuals. The game has never been more realistic, especially when using smaller players and seeing how faster and lighter they feel in the game. Defenders now are equipped enough to stand against quick players.

It shows in some player tactics such as “walling up”, which is used as a defensive strategy to block forced contested shots that are close to the rim from drive-heavy players. There’s also the new badge system, which links players with certain unique skills and abilities.

For example, the Worm badge is given to players who can slip through box-outs and make it through while rebounding. And there are special abilities like the one given to Anthony Davis, who can immediately regroup after having a blocked shot, which makes it easier to block many shots consecutively. About 78 other badges exist in the game making every player stand out with their unique ability.

The gameplay improvements also show in the new ball-handling techniques and controls. The animations for dribbling the ball feels very real, it almost feels like you managed to throw the ball at the rim for real. The more accurate you are with controlling the ball, the more successful your shots will be.

You can even flip the ball from one hand to the other, and the movement of the ball will be satisfying enough to make you feel it’s real. Throughout the game, the score screens are big and clear on both sides of the view of the ball, which is good for controlling the ball on smaller screens.

https://revyou.com/uploads/thumbnail-960/1611997982284626306.webp NBA 2K20 Review

MyTEAM

A lot of improvements have been added to MyTEAM in this series. There are so many ways in which you can play and compete to earn points for MyTEAM. Even if you don’t want to spend money, you can still earn MyTEAM points and compete with any team that challenges you. The most important thing to know is if a new card is really valuable.

Sometimes, new cards are nothing more than the old ones that you can earn easily, you just need to learn how to use the cards that you already have in your collection. For the new updates, we find the position-locking system very interesting. That is because it reduces the number of non-basketball lineups that we used to see in NBA 2K19 MyTEAM.

NBA 2K20 Cons

Slow Layups

One of the few problems with the visuals is how slow the animation of the layup shots can be. When attempting a layup, players are more likely to chase blocks down due to the slowed down actions. This makes the whole layup scene a little slow and annoying sometimes. But other than that, slow gameplay isn’t that bad with most other actions and can actually be enjoyable.

Limited MyPlayer Options

NBA 2K20 brings us a new way to build players with MyPlayer builder. The MyPlayer builder is created to allow players to access multiple combinations for their players, which is fun but can still be considered limiting for most people. For example, some players in the NBA cannot be created with MyPlayer builder.

However, these restrictions were intended to balance the competition and create diversity. Some restrictions are made to stop users from building invincible players that cannot be competed against at the PARK or Pro-AM.

Slow Ball Drops

A big part of MyTEAM mode revolves around the ball drop. However, for the 2K20 series, the ball drop takes a little too longer than expected. The ball drops work fine, but the problem is with the time it takes the ball to fall through the pinball machine. It takes too long and makes collecting rewards feel like a waste of time. Ball drops is still considered a good way to collect rewards after finishing Triple Threat games or after capturing locker codes.

No Updates on MyLEAGUE

This may not be a bad thing about the game. It is more of an update everyone was expecting but did not come through. This mode was much anticipated in every version of the game over the years that its presence can stay strong for another year without updates. This doesn’t mean we didn’t look forward to seeing more features in this mode, but it looks like we have to wait another year.

Final Verdict

The best features in NBA 2K20 are shown in the on-court experience. The realistic actions and scenes that are crafted in beautiful styles and details make up about 80 percent of the improvements. Even though some graphic mistakes can be spotted in the visuals, they can be overlooked due to the brilliance of the other graphic improvements made on players, from hairstyles to shoe brands.

Even the neighborhoods and the environment look more realistic and feel closer to NBA games seen on TV. The fans definitely expected updates to modes like MyLEAGUE, but that doesn’t mean that anything is missing in that category, at least, not with MyTeam and WNBA. Overall the game is still the best in its category, but we are just expecting more from NBA 2k21.