NBA 2K23 – Test: Nostalgia versus Microtransactions

As always, pay-to-win and stupid city prevent the recommendation. But otherwise pretty nostalgic and with more control over throws and passes.

The same every year, right? New NBA 2K, new excitement about the cheekiest microtransactions in business, including pay-to-win. Type out a quick tirade, praise the gameplay, scold the business model and in the end put in another 30 hours easily because… well, it’s good basketball. This year, NBA 2K23 makes it even harder for me to judge the way it encourages its not-so-micro transactions, as it skillfully plays on my nostalgia for the Jordan and Kobe era. I also have the feeling that I’m playing more successfully than I did last time with the windfall that you normally start your career with, as long as you don’t put the price of a complete game into the virtual currency again.

Yes, I find NBA 2K23 to be easier than the last installment where I struggled through my rookie season, played poorly, got even worse ratings, and in turn earned less VC to upgrade my baller. This year Visual Concepts obviously doesn’t feel like making my life harder than it has to and is happy to let it go as long as I’m not completely stupid. I’m consistently getting decent ratings, hitting, rebounding and passing more reliably. But if you want to become the main star of your team, you still have to grind properly – or buy VC. But at least it wasn’t torture. Hooray!

If full-price games suddenly actually cost 100 euros, you play NBA 2K

It’s clear that in this full-price game, too, the hand will often be held up (I’d better not even start with the MyTeam card mode) and that you’ll feel it online at the latest. Because honest skins met players with nicely bought values ​​beyond the 90s just two days after the release, against whom you have no chance with a “normally” developed baller. Completely fun-free pay-to-win, which once again categorically prevents a recommendation. Especially since pay-to-win even applies to solo mode here, because you definitely win more often with a better player. Also, a few other issues are preventing the career mode in particular from reaching its full potential.

Aside from the cool player creation and the genuinely well done and thoughtful way in which you develop your personal “build” – you can even create your own jump shots so that the throwing technique also suits your own play style – the structure of the career is just a horror. I like that once again I’m getting a thin but engaging story where my player has to win over his club’s fans as an unloved draft alternative and the badge system wouldn’t look bad in a clever RPG either . The city, as a cross between a shared online hub and a walk-in main menu, is once again an incredibly sluggish, sterile and boring linchpin for a career.

In a city like this, I’d rather be a country bumpkin

I’ve rambled on about it enough in the past year, but I just hate everything about it. That I am sent back and forth hundreds of meters even for the most uninteresting conversations, for example. The stiff-to-steer skateboard that is supposed to shorten the way, but which I often prefer to leave in place because of the animations on getting on and off. The endless clusters of players that form at the trigger points for the plot and the ubiquitous advertising are also a thorn in my side. Most importantly, I hate how the frame rate drops hard below 30fps on a regular basis. I can’t skip many of the “quests” but actually why not? Basically, I don’t want to skip the actual quest, just the paths and the following long dialogue sequence in which my coach tells me the tasks for the upcoming match. Let me just skip the gossip and movies because I’m here to play ball!

And then there is the permanent online constraint that many modes are subject to. This even applies to the solo career – and only those who keep their game up to date are allowed to go online. This means that you are often bullied into pulling the very frequent updates. So if you’re in the middle of a game, the game will tell you with a not exactly small and non-hidable sign in the lower right that you please go back to the main menu so that the patch can be applied. If you are just about to start career mode, you must first download and install any new update. You can’t start before then. This is problematic.

Nostalgia – my kryptonite

The stupid thing about the whole thing, as already indicated at the beginning, is that the game plays excellently with my nostalgia. I can play the Johnson/Bird era, Jordan era, Kobe era, and the current one with all sorts of management aspects and not worry too much about microtransactions. Even (disableable) image filters emulating what basketball looked like back then and chasing the Jordan-Bulls as the Charlotte Hornets was great fun for me as someone who followed that team back then. I really hope that this way of experiencing the MyGM mode will remain the same for next year – then we might even be able to choose the starting year? The Jordan Challenge, in which you replay various stations of the legend and have to achieve certain goals, is a successful mode for everyone who was there – or only knows this idol from stories and YouTube. A nice way to fill an educational gap.

I really like 2K23 on the court, the stamina management has also been refined a bit and the stamina bar is divided into three adrenaline rushes per attack. If they are gone, that’s it. Already last year there were good approaches to counteract long-running hits, but the new system works a little better. Lately you have even more options to use the right stick to shape the type of throw or dunk, which even works quite intuitively (pull the stick down and hold it, for example to get caught on the basket). And having throwing animations now separately assess speed, release amount, defense immunity, and timing impact is a smart new facet that makes shooters even more different from each other.

More control – and a technique in conflict

It’s also nice that you can choose from five litter displays right from the start (15 more are to follow over the course of the season) and if there was a personal setting for litter timing last year, I wasn’t aware of it. Here I was very happy to see them and put them directly on “Late”. In terms of game design, I’m happy about teammates who spread out better on the pitch and move against each other. I can also use my pass to pull team-mates directly to the basket (hold a triangle) or let them free themselves for a quick shot (hold a circle). I like what’s happening here and I’m sure I’ll be sticking with it for a while.

Technically, the game looks very good in motion on the pitch. However, there are always animations that do not match the game situation and, as always, it can take a while before the pass or throw is made, until an animation has finished. This is so common in sports simulations – this one in particular – but sometimes causes outrageously strange situations and ball losses. Even the faces of less well-known players are often horribly bad. However, those of the stars are all the better for it. Still, a good-looking game unless you’re roaming around the city. I can already hear the clock ticking for this engine though. It’s not quite the figurehead for presenting new hardware like it was back then.

NBA 2K3 Review – Conclusion

In the end you know how you want to handle this. It’s once again a good simulation that has improved since last time, but still habitually makes some bad decisions. Above all in terms of microtransactions, structure and online compulsion. Before that – as every year – to warn. But if you can do without the grind and the city nonsense of your career, you will find a whole lot of beautiful basketball memories here in MyNBA Era and the Jordan Challenge, which were prepared with love.

If you’ve been out for a few years and still feel like playing NBA 2K again, number 23 is probably a good opportunity to get back into it. Who knows if the eras and the Jordan Challenge won’t be mothballed again next year. In the meantime, 2K could think about whether it isn’t a bit cynical to simulate this sport down to the greed of the organizers.

Per NBA 2K23

• Still good simulation of the sport
• Wide range of modes and functions
• Jordan Challenge and eras are fun
• Easier than last year
• Nice individual player development in the career…

cons

• … but unfortunately also the worst pay-to-win microtransactions
• Lots of ads
• Technically changeable
• Online forced also for solo modes
• The City slows down the career mode unnecessarily