By Seth Payan
Let me say first: This game looks beautiful. Right off, I noticed that NBA 2K18 received a huge graphics improvement from NBA 2K17.
The new details are so intricate — from the lighting on the courts to the players in the game — that the whole visual experience blew me away.
This year’s version of 2K has a new style, look and feel that exceeds last year’s flopped installment.
The gameplay is also better, bringing a new experience to the basketball video game genre while also solving the franchise’s past gameplay.
The game is now free-flowing and smooth. Dribble moves have the same animations as last year but the fluidity and energy of the game has been re-vamped.
There are a few nice additions, including the ability to intentionally foul someone on a fast break, the ability to score on a smaller person in the paint and the ability to throw full court outlet passes. The timeout screen has also been improved.
However, there are some negatives about the gameplay, including layup success, ball control in transition, floor spacing and an inconsistency on wide-open shots.
Layups are one of the hardest shots to make in this game. Shot timing now takes a huge factor into actually making the layup, which causes a lot of misses for an inexperienced player.
This was frustrating, especially using a player with a high finishing ability like Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant.
This ties into the AI spacing issue while playing offense, as well as inconsistent shooting on open shots.
When your teammates are actually spacing the floor well, however, a lot of wide-open shots miss. It is easy to finish every game with a terrible shooting percentage.
Losing the ball when running down the court is another big issue I found, and it seems that this year’s installment has worsened in this aspect.
It’s also difficult to catch any kind of pass near the half of the court line, and even if you’re able to catch it, your player seems to find a way to dribble the ball off of somebody’s leg or foot.
Another small issue I had was that the blacktop game mode has had zero improvements from last year, and the players are still wearing the same boring, plain clothes. I expected something different.
Overall this game was good to me, and I enjoyed playing it longer than any other 2K game. However, I look forward to the issues and bugs being fixed or addressed. For now, the game lives up to the hype.
Rating: 4/5
The Crow’s Nest rates games between one and five stars, with five stars being the highest possible score.
