Welcome to our review of the newest NBA 2K21 game out now on Various platforms and we played it on Xbox series X.
NBA 2K21 offers one-of-a-kind immersion into all facets of NBA basketball and culture – where Everything is Game. The Mamba Forever Edition for Xbox One also comes with NBA 2K21 Standard Edition for Xbox Series X|S – a whole new NBA 2K experience – upon release.
NBA 2K21 is the latest title in the world-renowned, best-selling NBA 2K series, delivering an industry-leading sports video game experience. With extensive improvements upon its best-in-class graphics and gameplay, competitive and community online features, and deep, varied game modes, NBA 2K21 offers one-of-a-kind immersion into all facets of NBA basketball and culture – where Everything is Game.
Allow me to start this review by sharing a little personal information, while I do not watch the NBA on a regular basis, I do keep some track of what is going on. As I am Belgian and we have a really good women’s team right now, I do occasionally watch a few games. Not the biggest of fans but I do what I can to keep up. When it comes to the games, however … It might be over 20 years ago that I really got into one of the games.
A personal issue that I often have with modern sports games is that they have become complicated by lack of a better word. Maybe I should more describe it as advanced and at the same time advanced beyond my personal preference. When I grew up, you basically had around 5 moves and that was it! Easy peasy and never really difficult to get the hang of things.
Fast forward to NBA2K21 and you got a highly articulated and very advanced basketball game in your hands. The first time I saw its trailer, I admit to putting it on repeat not just because of the amazing music, simply love that song, but because the game just looked like something I wanted to give a try. All this despite my preference for playing the older games.
I was already aware that day games are incredibly big in content nowadays, similar to FIFA, Madden, and so forth. After figuring out where the tutorials were, I was able to learn the basics of the game, and quite honestly, those basics are pretty useless at first. Not to say the tutorial is useless, the game is literally all about learning how to play properly and then really step into the spotlight.
In my first few games, I think I missed more than half my shots and fouled pretty much every single time I tried to steal the ball. Actually leading to frustration with the game and giving it a day’s rest before continuing. Despite still not being able to properly steal a ball, I did get a little better at the scoring mechanic and I am getting slightly better at losing.
Yes, losing! I am currently around 10 games into the game am I am still to win a single match. Due to my constant fouling, I end up with my best players sent off and eventually losing the game. Despite this being mostly due to my more aggressive playstyle, it sets the bar really high for actually liking or appreciating this game.
I can however see how a fan of this type of game will have a lot of fun playing it. The career mode, the WNBA, … just so many things make this game such a big package, but in my humble opinion a big package for fans and not for the casual gamer like myself. Does that make it a bad game? Absolutely not! I personally consider most sports games to be a niche in the genre and they have their public. I respect the people playing them and I respect the people making them.
What I would like to say, is how great this game actually looks. At the time of writing, this is the most realistic basket game out there and I am curious to see what next year’s version will bring us, so I guess the game did spark my interest in the end?
In conclusion, NBA2K21 might not have been the game for me but the number of possibilities for a fan is what makes this a great package and probably a must-buy!
