NBA 2K19 Review for Xbox One

Welcome to another year of going hard in the paint in the latest 2k experience! NBA 2K19 is the 20^th anniversary since its first release, and you will find that this current title is pretty much more of the same game released over the past few years. If you have never played 2K, and you follow the NBA, then you may want to grab a controller and get playing today.

A fair warning for the newbies: this is not like Fifa, where the game gives you a brief tutorial, reminding you how to play or just teaching you how to move the ball. If you want to learn how to play 2K, you have to pause and look up the controls. But practice makes perfect! And you will have plenty of opportunity to host friendly matches with friends (online or local) and with the AI.

The gameplay is fun, and the controls are fluid. Definitely not like driving a stick shift. Like I had mentioned, if you don’t know how to ball like a pro, you can just look up the controls on the pause menu. My only issue is that my own teammates would often commit fouls a little too recklessly. I mean to the point that they get close to being taken out of the game. Everybody fouls.

I enjoy the commentary – especially Shaq’s. It feels authentic as the announcers comment on who you are currently controlling. They even go into your player’s history from last season. For instance, if you are playing really badly as someone who is generally regarded as a well-rounded player, then Shaq might say something along the lines “He is definitely not himself this quarter” and might reference another game from the year before.

The load times can be a bit too long for my taste, but I think the devs acknowledge that, which is why they have 2K TV and take live footage of the cities you play in. To me it seems like a hybrid between IGN and ESPN, and I kind of like it. I would rather get right into the game, but I did put the controller down occasionally to hear about the latest 2K news and NBA commentary.

The game description mentions having the most up-to-date graphics, but I have to admit that they’re only mostly okay. Maybe there is a little more expression in character model faces than folks in Mass Effect Andromeda, but the lip syncing with the audio is not so great. Albeit, that’s not what you are looking at for the majority of the time. Otherwise, the characters are solid and physics applies just like we’d hope it would.

I do not know much about the pay to play and microtransaction aspects of the game, and I tend to disapprove of that strategy, especially found in other titles published by EA. Regardless, it is still a playable game, it’s fun, and I enjoy moving the ball as players on my favorite teams. If you are hyped for the next season, you get your fix here in 2K before we actually get into 2019! I think a fair rating for this title is an 8.5 out of 10.

Check Out the NBA 2K19 Momentous Trailer:

For more information on NBA 2K19 please visit https://nba.2k.com/2k19/

John Pruitt

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I like to think of myself as the average Joe who grew up alongside video games. I have fun playing strategy games, RPGs, shooters, sandboxes, the whole shebang! Every game provides an experience whether it strikes you as profound, mundane, or someplace in between. I'd like to weigh in my two cents before you spend a single penny.

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