izigame.me

This game is fun, but the same innate issues that have plagued 2k for over half a decade still plague the game today. (This will fully be going from a MyCareer/Park perspective)
This game feels in the range of decent to pretty good in terms of gameplay. Not great or amazing, but decent/pretty good. If you don't have experience playing 2k before, I could see this game being tedious and more of a hassle than a basketball game. Unless you spend $100 more to max out your character (and a cool fit is another $20 lol)
Also a big question people have is, do people play the game? So far in 3 weeks. Yes. But if you want games fast/consistently you can really only play park. Rec takes a good 5-10 minutes for a game. Proving Grounds is inconsistent but in 1v1/2v2 it's pretty fast. In 3v3 it's around 2-3 mins. 5v5, impossible. Not many people go to the theater. And starting 5? Good luck with that.
I also see people complaining about optimization issues? I run an i7-8770k and a 1660super and run 90 frames no problem, yea it's at lowest settings but there's really been no issues. But I wanted to address that here.
ALSO THE TRACK HAS BEEN BROKEN FOR 2 WEEKS, CAN WE PLEASE FIX?
-------------
GAMEPLAY
-------------
The shooting is definitely a problem this year, however if you use rhythm shooting/pro stick shooting the results get a lot better. Although a learning curve, I became a lot more consistent in park after switching to this setting. (54% 3p -> 62%3p). I also recommend REALLY optimizing your custom jump-shot, your release speed at the end doesn't matter as much. Your base and release 1/2 matter much more.
On-top of that, in controller settings, change your shot/layup timings. For whatever reason, the game autos to difficulty-based so no matter how good your jumpshot timing is, the fate is determined by the difficulty of the gamemode you are playing. I recommend "normal-risk timing" as it's the most relative to older 2k games. Why don't they tell you any of this? I DONT KNOW!!!
The finishing feels iffy, at least on lay-ups. It seems no matter how high your layup is this year, your player will just smoke wide-open layups once in a while. I know it happens in real life, but in game it happens a lot more than i think an NBA player (especially our myplayer who's supposed to be the goat) would actually allow. Dunks/alley-oops seem pretty strong this year. Not overpowered, but if you want your player to dunk and they have really good dunk ratings, as long as you have animations your player will just yam it if you have the space. It's pretty nice.
Dribbling feels nice (if you're annoyed with constant hand switching, turn off passive dribble hand switching in controller settings) it seems a lot more authentic at least in the way you are able to chain together/combo moves. However speedboosting is still an innate problem that never seems to go away, so "meta" dribble moves will always be used the most/have most value. However, I've tried plenty of dribble sets with a 90 ball handle and gotten value in park/rec/proving grounds/etc with unique stuff I made on my own. If you have lower than a 60 ball handle, be ready to get the ball stolen A LOT.
Defense matters this year, I mean it when I say it if you don't have AT LEAST an 80 perimeter defense going against a 95+ ball handling guard, you are going to get blown by, ankles took, you name it.
The same applies to the interior, I'd say if you aren't at AT LEAST a 75 (you get a good amount of defense badges at this spot) your contests and interior defense will just be wildly inconsistent.
Block/steal matter a good amount too, you can notice your character get better animations if you have a 75 block comparing to say a 93 block. Same applies to steal, bronze interceptor with 67 steal will never get the same value as 87 steal with gold interceptor. (Last I played in 2k20, it really didn't matter if you were good enough)
No matter how skillful you are, your badges/attributes will hold you back.
Your physical attributes matter too, I've seen a 5'9 guard with 70 strength body a 6'5 guard that clearly had no strength while dribbling and it was hilarious. So i'd at least say have decent strength, you don't need to max it out but don't have it at 25. Agility matters if you're someone who likes fade aways, step-backs, creative shots in general, while also helping your perimeter defense A LOT (pick dodger)
Speed matters for dribbling, and vertical matters for interior finishing/defense (rise up, posterizer, pogo stick)
-----------------------
CORE OF THE GAME
-----------------------
2k is still the same, microtransactions that make you want to refund soon as you open the game, cheesy dribble moves behind screens, your player getting a stupid animation, it's almost impossible as a no money spent player unless you spend 60+ hrs a week.
Microtransactions have actually gotten WORSE over the years, much worse actually. Watch "NBA 2k Really Needs a Competitor" by Fireplace Gaming on Youtube to truly gain some more insight on how awful it's gotten.
Cheesy animations will always be in the game, it's not really a complaint. It's a video game in 2024, people will always use the best things they can use. People have been using the best things in 2k since 2k15 park when everyone was a 7'0 demigod, so this aspect will just never change.
I will say, sometimes your player gets forced into a dribble animation, bump animation, drive animation, and as much as you want to pass or shoot at a certain point, you get delayed SO much. Not being able to have control over your player when you want to sucks, especially because these delays have so much variance. Sometimes it's .25 seconds, .5, 1, 2, sometimes even 3 yes THREE seconds.
Finally, if you're going to go into mycareer being no money spent. You will genuinely lead a one person journey into the deepest depths of hell. I am not overexaggerating.
I will say there are A LOT of ways to make VC this year. Complete your quests, if your player averages crazy stats you can sim mycareer to progress in the goat/dynasty stuff for a bunch of VC/awards ontop of shoe endorsement every season, free wheel spin prizes have been pretty good this year i've made 30k VC alone in only 3 weeks from it. Do the track every week, it's a free 2500 VC.
MAKE SURE TO CLAIM YOUR SEASON PASS AWARDS. Even if you're a free to play player, the very first tier gives you 15000 VC straight out the gate. After completing all the entry stuff + redeeming the 15k, you can start the game pretty much at around a 70 overall.
Regardless of all these methods to acquire VC, once you reach around 85 overall things REALLY slow down. Just for reference, you will need around 450k VC (accounting for attributes AND animations) to fully max out a player. That is $100, and if you spend that out the gate your player is still only maxed out at 85 because you haven't done your MyPlayer caps yet from playing the game.
I will say at least badges are super easy this year.
-----------------
CONCLUSION
-----------------
Genuinely if the game took a step-back on microtransactions and actually had more of a "grind" system in place it'd be more fun. Realistically no rookie going into the league that's some prodigy is going to be a 60 overall, can we at least start at an 80 so we can play the game somewhat without spending money? I kinda wish MyCareer games had a bit more purpose.
The game is fun, I like a lot of the experiences I've had playing both guard and center but the fact there's so much bullshit with microtransactions and settings could make it some of the worst experiences for first time players. Experienced players expect it, but that's a whole other problem in its own.