The NBA season is upon us, which means another entry in the NBA 2K franchise once again tries its best to be the best sports game available. This year, NBA 2K23 brings a slew of new gameplay improvements, a revamped Jordan Challenge, a big city to explore in MyCareer, a new spin on MyNBA with different playable eras, and other improvements that will keep fans busy for the rest of the year.
However, the cracks start to appear after a few games, and the immersion breaks a lot easier than in previous games in the series.
NBA 2K23 Review: Not Quite a Perfect Release
From the moment you step into a game, which is lightning fast on the Playstation 5, the atmosphere exudes the feeling of watching a real NBA match-up. The arenas are electric, the crowd is energetic, and the players’ introductions are entertaining. This has always been the case for the 2K series, but it is especially prominent this year. No doubt, NBA 2K23 is one of the most beautiful games on the current generation of consoles and in the series; the player animations combined with signature taunts and shots help create a sense of place that few other sports games can muster.
It’s a shame, then, that the excitement fades after playing a few games and hearing Kevin Harlan and Brian Andersen give the same commentary as two games ago. 2K23 hasn’t done much to improve on the already great lineup of broadcasters, and if you played last year’s title you know what Harlan and Andersen will say after and in between every major play.
And while the players are looking their best this year, there are still a few issues standing in the way. Players’ eyes move around randomly, and there are times when they’ll snap while interacting on the couch, all things that ruin some really fun moments and celebrations. Overall, it’s an indication that the series is taking a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” stance without updating and upgrading old systems to make them feel fresh.
2K23 has a lot to offer on and off the field, although the modes are about the same as the ones in 2K22. The differences are in the choices you can make within those modes.
MyCareer is exactly what you’d expect: it’s a story that follows a blossoming star who faces an uphill battle to prove they deserved to land where they did in the NBA Draft. There are dialogue choices that affect the in-game boosts and shape the player you become as your career progresses. The system is based on Mass Effect’s Paragon/Renegade system, here only replaced by the confident Trailblazer, á la Mamba Mentality or General, who let their playing speak for itself.
MyCareer is full of quest markers and points of interest; there’s a lot of walking around and meeting quirky characters in the city, which is big for a sports sim title. What you do between games, however, is a bit tedious: you walk in The City to a quest marker, talk to a character, complete trivial goals like doing two exercises at the gym, train and complete time trials on a skateboard, and jump. then in the next game before repeating it all again. Navigating these areas feels particularly sluggish, and the pace suffers, exacerbated by consistent framerate drops while exploring.
Overall, the experience is a bit cumbersome, especially since it’s a shared online hub, and 2K23 relies on an internet connection which causes quite a few hiccups with connectivity and the inability to even access the mode that is about to launch. It was especially noticeable when using the NBA 2K app to apply a player face scan, which just didn’t work during my review.
In recent years, fans have complained about MyCareer’s story because of bad voice acting and goofy inclusions like State Farm’s Jake. Although the voice acting is a lot better this year, 2K23 still For real wants to lean into his quirkiness: Jake is still here, and next to him is Ronnie2k and a bunch of NBA legends and stars like Zion Williamson and Kevin Garnett. While these characters are much more grounded and help the story turn your player into a legend, the interactions are still awkward, and a lot of the dialogue, while well-acted, isn’t well-written.
Aside from MyCareer, there have been some great additions to MyNBA that create more replayability and opportunities to experiment with the addition of Eras. Eras lets you play from one of the four most important periods in NBA history: the Magic vs. Bird Era, The Michael Jordan Era, The Kobe Era and The Modern Era. Each has different options and rules that are set before you start the first game of the season.
For example, the All-Star game in the Kobe era and earlier still has fan votes, but no captains. There is also the inclusion of the play-in tournament for the modern era. These differences are a great way to create more variety on the path to an NBA championship and to create lots of fun ‘what-if’ situations to play with. The Kobe era takes place right before the legendary 2003 draft class, so what would happen if Cleveland didn’t get the No. 1 pick?
Within each game, however, the on-field experience is relatively the same, with the exception of the pre-modern eras, which don’t feature halftime shows, but fun, old-fashioned replay animations and graphics alongside a retro filter that gives the feeling of watching historic broadcasts. Ultimately, MyNBA is still a great mode, and while there are no major updates, these updates are a step in the right direction.
There are also new additions to the WNBA modes across the board. However, the changes in these modes only reflect the NBA modes at a basic level. Even the game broadcasts feel duller compared to its NBA counterpart. It’s heartwarming that the WNBA is more involved with the 2K series, but just like in real life, more attention needs to be paid to these modes and players to provide better experiences.
The Jordan Challenges return this year with 15 different career games to play through as the legendary Bulls shooting guard. Each requires you to meet three conditions, such as score 19 points, win a game with 15 points, and/or get 9 rebounds in a game to earn three stars before continuing. That gameplay is complemented by authentic commentary that matches the specific game being played, and the videos launched for each match-up help encapsulate the importance of the individual moment.
The difficulty of the Jordan Challenges is not exclusive to the mode. The NBA changes 2K23 to court make isolation arrangements a bit more demanding. First and foremost, the shot meter has been overhauled – and includes a variety of different ones to choose from – keeping the player from knowing if they’ve put a shot on green (release a perfect shot) until after the ball has fallen in.
It’s also a lot harder to green a shot when a defender is hard to shake, so adrenaline boosts that help ball handlers make their own shots are important. The compensation is that those boosters deplete energy faster if you keep holding the ball. This balancing act aims to create more ball movement and prevent players from chasing the ball, especially in online play, and it ultimately ties in well with the systems around it.
NBA 2K23 Review – The Bottom Line
Advantages:
- Challenging experience.
- One of the best looking games on the current generation of platforms.
- Further expansion of the WNBA is a solid step in the right direction.
- Presentation is top notch.
- Attention to detail for players and their signature moves is still great.
cons:
- Players’ emotions and expressions are unpleasant, mainly because of the strange eyes animations.
- Not much attention is paid to the WNBA modes.
- Broadcast starts to get old after a few games.
- Online connectivity is causing problems for MyCareer.
- No major updates to differentiate from last year’s title.
- Astronaut in the ocean unironically included.
NBA 2K23 involves quite a few changes on the pitch while making sure things feel the same and the players feel comfortable. While that strategy has largely worked this year, 2K should start implementing better changes in the future.
Just because something isn’t broken doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t cracks in the foundation, and unfortunately that’s true NBA 2K23 even if it’s one of the better sports titles out there.
[Note: 2K provided the copy of NBA 2K23 used for this review.]
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