NBA 2K23 Next-Gen Review: Use Your Heart in the Right Place
It's been 12 years since NBA 2K11 launched in 2010. Many things have happened, whether in the NBA or in the game industry. We have witnessed two generations of the console market, and we have also witnessed the era of basketball entering the era of three-point and space. Power comes in.
Twelve years later, in 2022, Visual Concepts decided to bring the Jordan Challenge back to the NBA 2K series, giving young players a glimpse into the game's undisputed best player in basketball. But at the same time, a new question has arisen: Can NBA 2K23 be worthy of the Jordan name?
*This review is based on the game's next-gen (PS5) version.
Back to the Jordan Era
And from North Carolina, a 6'6" guard, number 23, Michael Jordan!!!!
NBA 2K23 Jordan Challenge is a top priority, even if it's just a 15-game single-player content. To a certain extent, the new "epoch" content in the basketball league mode of this game can also be considered a joint product of the development team to create a better "Jordan mode."
Schematically, the Jordan Challenge is very easy to understand. Play 15 games with three goals per game. There is not much innovation in the mechanism, and the main changes are in the actual game. Except for a few games recreated in specific scenarios, the other players mostly controlled Jordan's team rather than Jordan's one player.
The games in the Jordan Challenge spanned from 1982 to 1998. How do these past games look like they happened again in the 2022 game instead of simply making a few classic teams make? They are fighting against players, which is a big test for developers. After all, 12 years have passed, the performance of game consoles has improved a lot, and the requirements of players are not what they used to be.
In the past 12 years, some unbelievable things have happened.
"NBA 2K23" increases the credibility of the game in two ways: the rules, tactics, and player behavior, and the way the screen's content is presented.
The NBA basketball game from 1982 to 1998 was significantly different from the rules and tactics of today's basketball game, and there were also rule changes and tactical developments. Suppose modern offensive three-point, space and pick-and-roll tactics, defensive zone defense, off-ball double-teaming, and the three-second rule of defense appear in the Jordan era. In that case, the absurdity of time travel will directly destroy players (especially true basketball hobbies). player) game experience.
For this reason, the rules and tactics of each Jordan challenge in "NBA 2K23" have been adjusted according to the actual time of the game. From the first game of Jordan's challenge, the 1982 NCAA college basketball finals, players will find that the easiest and most effective way to score is to hand the ball to James Worthy in the paint. The direct performance is that the game's offensive rhythm is slow, and inside players and direct outsiders launch many post-back attacks. Breakthrough is more difficult, etc.
In terms of picture performance, Jordan, his teammates, and opponents can use the performance of the new host to become closer to reality, but the overly clean picture lacks the outdated feeling of those past games. Visual Concepts has added the "era filter" function to this game, adding a layer of filters that reduce the picture's clarity and increase the picture's noise for the games that took place in the last century. The TV broadcast effect also follows the appearance of the 80s and 90s Redesigned.
It's the 80's
As time goes on, the picture clarity and broadcast effect will gradually improve, and the broadcast effect will also become richer. I even found a video of the 1982 NCAA college basketball final. After comparing the screenshots, I found that the game has tried its best to reproduce the real court, jersey, and broadcast style within the framework. However, it is impossible to be 100% consistent.
Video footage of the 1982 NCAA college basketball finals
Game Screen Effect
After all, players will not accept the low-definition graphics that will be blurred when they move, and the game's sponsors will not be the same as the sponsors of each era, each arena, and each team. Even so, Visual Concepts found all of the game's sponsors in various eras, making the on-court state of the game at different times more credible.
Before each game, there will also be a narration of famous NBA personalities. They are witnesses of the era, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dennis Rodman, and Dominic Weir. Superstars like Kings also helped Phil Jackson, the coach who helped Jordan reach his peak. Looking more like a documentary-style lineup, NBA 2K23's Jordan Challenge was born from all angles of 2020 ESPN and Netflix's Jordan documentary, The Last Dance. But it took time to make, so it caused a delay.
But now that the "NBA 2K" series has increasingly become one of the important carriers of NBA and basketball culture, it is undoubtedly worthy of affirmation to be able to tell a new generation of fans about the era that belonged to Jordan.
Change History
Another major addition to NBA 2K23 is the Basketball League's "Era" mode, which allows players to play from 3 historical periods: 1983, 1991, and 2002. Players can change the NBA's history at every level, shaping a league to their liking.
It sounds amazing, but the gameplay of the "Epoch" mode is not much different from the previous basketball leagues. After selecting the era and team, you can start as usual. It is very easy to change the history in terms of team performance and personnel composition because whether the game is played manually or simulated, it will be different from reality, and the difference in the record will naturally affect the flow of personnel in the future.
I chose the Houston Rockets at the start of 1983. Because of their weak strength, I randomly simulated the end of the season and still won the No. 1 pick in history. Since the AI's trading judgment is not very intelligent, I tried some trading schemes and got the second and third picks while retaining Ralph Sampson. At this time, the game is equivalent to a direct end.
In reality, the game mechanism has no way to simulate the draft decision and player growth, so it is almost impossible to reproduce those low-ranked and undrafted players. All teams are equivalent to opening their eyes. Michael Jordan, Akim Olajuwon, and John Stockton have already booked the top three draft picks in the game, and no one will be able to compete with them. Players familiar with the "NBA 2K" series will not ask where Charles Barkley is. We all know the series does not have his authorization.
In contrast, the more interesting and valuable part of the "era" mode is that the system will tell you the historic changes that will occur in the off-season after each season, including rule changes, team name changes, relocations, and changes to the team logo, and replace the floor, etc. You can decide whether or not to make these changes happen as historically as possible before heading into the next season.
This is equivalent to giving players a handbook of the history of NBA development since 1983. You can learn when the rules that shaped today's basketball were added and how the pattern of the 30 teams in the East and West today passed. How the change came about, how player salary caps and team spending ballooned all the way… the game is the best way to look back on this history.
The "Epoch" mode also has special settings such as the age-based tactics, rules, jerseys, broadcast effects, and screen filters of the Jordan Challenge, and it extends beyond 2000. Until players travel to 2021, everything won't be the same as quick matches.
Despite the development team's efforts to bring back the basketball experience of the past, there's still something stuck in there that tells you that's where it falls short. The unavoidable thing is a player authorization. If it only lacks Andrew Bynum and Ron Artest, it will be a big regret in such a mode that focuses on history. But the absence of big-name stars like Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller, Chris Webber, and Pau Gasol, who have a place in the title race, is a blow to the model's integrity.
We all know who is missing from this mandate.
In simulated games, you can also often see the high scores and high shot counts of modern basketball; there may be insufficient data on past players. There should be some randomly generated players in the free agent list, but seeing the surname of An Tetokounmpo's players is still very entertaining.
Longest Story
In pre-release promotions, NBA 2K23's brilliant career was described as the longest in the series, and after playing it, I have to say they were right.
In the brilliant career of this work, players will directly choose an NBA team and start their NBA career after a summer league game. The content of the college stage will still be there, but it will be presented later in the form of memories. You can do it before the next game if you like to run through all the main quests. Then you will probably have to go through more than 20 NBA games to finish the story, including nearly 20 PVE streetball games. If you don't like to run too many tasks between two NBA games, the length of the story can be more than 40 games.
The plot covers all kinds of things that an NBA player will encounter, from a rookie to the peak of his career. The confrontation on the court, the problems on the team, and the personal hobbies outside the game will all be shown, but they are all compressed halfway through the rookie season. This makes many plots feel awkward because so many facts about a rookie entering the league are a bit too much, and your main assistants also act like a family. Some plot cutscenes are Hard to see.
Among the off-court personal development tasks in the main line, some require you to answer some questions outside of basketball. If you don't answer correctly, you will have to repeat the entire conversation and Q&A, which often results in several repetitions. Even more unbearable is that the protagonist has to record a song as a rapper, a series of 4 options to choose from, and if you choose the wrong one, you will have to start all over again. The key is that the recorded song is not very good.
Not only is the song not good, but the movements when recording the song are also indescribable.
I think one of the plot's highlights is "Big Baby" Perkins, who will constantly criticize you and deny your performance in a commentary in the plot. It fits his style, and I didn't feel any disgust that the role was given to him, even though he kept talking badly about me.
NBA Champion Kendrick "Big Baby" Perkins
I still want my career storyline to be colorful, but we'd better be a little more professional.
In the retrospective stage of my college career, the real time and space warriors appeared. You have to go back to the college nba 2k23 with the attribute points and badges that you have improved after entering the NBA, and the opponents in the college game are much fiercer than the NBA players. The final battle made me retry a few times and then switched to rookie difficulty in a fit of rage. I really don't know how this happened.
Coming with the new story are new tweaks to player creation and badges. The badges in this work have become removable and can be adjusted freely, and there is no need to specifically unlock the badges. The badges are divided into three levels. The points required for each level of badges increase in turn, how many badges points the self-created player has in 4 aspects, and the highest level that each badge can reach will give a hint when setting the player's potential value.
This book has a "core" slot for the four badge types, and badges that complete the core challenges can be equipped in the core slot without consuming points. The so-called core challenge is actually the number of times the badge is activated. A badge with a high activation frequency, such as "First Step Master," almost completes the challenge after just a few games, and a badge such as "Infinite Take-off" improves the dunk take-off distance. It seems that the challenge bar has never been raised.
The addition of badge tiers makes it very difficult to equip multiple powerful tiers with three badges. A purple tier 3 badge requires 9 points, and to use a tier 3 badge, you must invest 10 points on the 1 and 2 badges. Therefore, the challenge of completing the level 3 badge is inevitable, and the time required to unlock the badge points has been shortened a lot, but completing the desired level 3 badge challenge has become a new time-consuming point. However, it is not a big deal for players who have played in the brilliant career mode for a long time.
This year's Basketball City looks more and more like a dynamic city. Many NPCs are walking around on the road. Outside the arena, there is a scene of lively preparations for entering the stadium before the game starts. The most immediate problem this causes is frame drops. This work also adds the process of entering the arena, walking through the passage, entering the locker room, and entering the arena for self-created players in NBA games. This is a small change, but it is of great significance to enhance the sense of substitution.
Go through the tunnel and enter the arena.
How to talk about being attentive?
It's hard to say that "NBA 2K23" is careless work. Various details and new elements of the game show Visual Concepts' efforts in this game but look at the evaluation of the new game among the player community. Why is this? What kind of basketball game will satisfy players?
After actually playing the game, you will find that many improvements that should be made have not appeared. The shooting bar has been changed again and again. This year, several options are given for players to choose from, which is more humane but not so important. Many operations have been refined. In theory, it allows players to make the desired operations more accurately and finely, but they are changed every year and have to be re-adapted after playing new games.
The way forward. Although the propaganda uses a lot of space to describe the offensive and defensive reinforcement of the player and the opponent's AI, I still feel that I am playing with 4 Teletubbies. I will not move without it, and it will run to block me when I break through.
It's frustrating, but the problem is still there.
Not to mention that the old bugs that have appeared all year round are still there this time, and how many times my skateboard has been stuck on the shoulder of the sidewalk in the basketball city.
The Jordan-related content in NBA 2K23, the era filter, and the wonderful halftime performance of the masked dance group Jabbawockeez are all longboards that Visual Concepts have made, and the most The basic game experience and the design of prolonging the game time and forcing in-payment are the shortcomings that players complain about constantly. The barrel effect is well known. If the shortboard cannot be filled, and the longboard is made longer, the improvement of the evaluation may be very limited. I think it's a matter of being attentive and using the right place.
While writing this review, I looked at some of the most viewed highlights of Jordan's career on a video site. Once again amazed by Michael Jordan's amazing physical fitness and skills, he also felt that even though the development team copied the important scenes of Jordan's career at the pixel level in the opening animation of Jordan's challenge, its action tension is still different from the low-definition broadcast. Video recordings are different. Especially after the "The Shot" lore of the Cavaliers, Jordan kept throwing his fists to celebrate.
Even if the previous jumping celebration is similar, the game screen is still far from the old video. The evolution of basketball games is still very long.
Comments
Post a Comment