There are still a few weeks left before the 2018/2019 NBA season begins, a year with important changes in the rosters of the franchises where, for example, we will see LeBron James don the legendary purple and gold of Los Angeles Lakers, Carmelo Anthony with the elastic of the Houston Rockets or DeMarcus Cousins completing a dream quintet in the Golden State Warriors. Luckily, video game fans have the opportunity to liven up the wait until October 16 with the new NBA 2K19; the latest installment of the classic 2K Games saga that this year celebrates its twentieth anniversary.
The truth is that for many years the work done by Visual Concepts has been spectacular, turning the franchise into a benchmark for sports video games, a series that reinvents itself year after year to continue maintaining an excellent level that allows us to enjoy of the best basketball Of course, NBA 2K19 was not going to be the exception to the norm, and the developer has once again taken a step forward by offering us a title with refined gameplay, a superb technical section, and a remarkable variety of game modes that will get us in control. during long gaming sessions. If you are interested in knowing everything that NBA 2K19 proposes, I invite you to accompany me throughout this text.
Who Said Beginnings Are Easy?
We'll start off by talking about the MyCareer mode which, in my opinion, is the best we've been able to play to date. The truth is that the fairy tales in which we played a character who burst into the NBA Draft after having been one of the great sensations in the university league are over. On this occasion we will develop the role of AI, a young American who, after not being selected in the Draft, goes to China to make a name for himself, and who before taking the final leap goes through the G League. Throughout all this time, AI will meet characters that will play an important role in his development as a player, and as a person. But far from it will be a path of roses, on the contrary, we will see how our friend falls and must fight with all his might to fulfill his dream of playing in the NBA.
When we meet that initial goal of signing our first contract with an NBA franchise, that's the moment when we have the freedom to exploit all the possibilities of this game mode, at the same time that fluid initial narrative is diluted. Here NBA 2K19 is not so different from its predecessor, since we will be earning VC continuously (the amount will depend on our contract, initially around 1,000 VC) and, with this, we will be able to buy clothes for our player, improve their skills, make hairstyles, tattoos... In addition, we will also have the option of training in the gym, in the pavilion with the rest of our classmates, playing street games with other players in the Park (there are even courts with trampolines) or competing again with the gangs in the Jordan Rec Center. Among the most striking innovations we find a redesign of "El Barrio", which makes it easier to move around it; there is a reduction in the cost of many of the services offered and even means of transport to get around.
In spite of everything, although you can progress in a more fluid way than in previous installments, the VC are a great boost to enjoy My Career to the fullest. In addition, there is a significant jump among the players who invest in having a significant progression of their player when it comes to competing in the different multiplayer modalities.
Build Your Dream Team
If there's one NBA 2K19 mode that gets the most attention, it's My Team. The truth is that for any basketball and NBA fan, the possibility of forming your own Dream Team and competing against other fans is a very sweet idea. But it is that we are not only talking about a fantastic initial premise, but that we are facing a modality full of content, with alternatives for those who seek to compete against other players, and those who simply seek to have a good time playing alone. You all know the mechanics very well, it's about getting player packs and cards to make the best possible team. How do we get them? We have three options, the VC (premium currency) and the MT (currency that we get by playing) that we use to buy all kinds of envelopes, and some tokens (that we get by performing certain tasks) and that allow us to acquire certain players. Of course, the auction house also returns for all types of transactions.
Among the playable alternatives that My Team offers us, we find classic options such as: Domination, Challenges, Freestyle and Play with friends. The truth is that we are not going to stop to talk about them, we are going to focus on the two great novelties: Triple Threat and My Unlimited Team.
Triple Threat has been my favorite addition; It is an agile mod in which teams of 3 will compete to win a game with 21 points. It is a quick and different way to play games, with the possibility of playing online or offline. In the case of playing offline we will face the teams that make up an NBA division, and if we win the 5 games they will reward us with tokens that will allow us to sign players that will give our squad a quality bonus.
For its part, My Unlimited Team is an online alternative for all those who seek to truly compete with players from all over the world. The objective is to chain the longest winning streak possible, ending the attempt by chaining three defeats, and rewarding us with interesting prizes based on our results. But if this isn't enough of an incentive, 2K Games has put up a prize pool of $250,000 in a tournament that is sure to capture the attention of a large number of players.
Future of a franchise in your hands
The last mode I'm going to dig into is MyGM. Every time a new installment of NBA 2K arrives and I start to enjoy this mode, I can't help but wonder: “What would they be able to do if they developed a sports management video game?”. Anyone who has dedicated a few hours to this modality will have realized the number of options it has, and the number of parameters you must manage: the role of the players in the team, the minutes, the transfers, the contracts, the ticket prices and a long etcetera.
Of course, those players who choose to spend hours in this mode in NBA 2K19 will be able to enjoy a game experience that has a narrative component that influences the course of events based on our decisions, and can have very positive, or very negative, for our franchise. Even so, for those fans who want to continue enjoying the original essence of this modality, you have the option of a Traditional mode that, respecting all the management options, suppresses those newer aspects such as certain dialogues; so you can focus all your work on creating a legendary team that ends the Golden State Warriors dynasty (or extend it if you are Warriors fans).
The ball doesn't stop rolling
Beyond the modes that we have discussed above, and which would be the most relevant to NBA 2K19, we also have alternatives for those players looking to enjoy basketball without many complications or headaches. Among these options we have the possibility of playing a complete season, some Playoffs, our own league, the games that are played that morning in the NBA, the street games of the Blacktop mode and the Pro-Am mode or the quick games.
Precisely, within the Quick Match mode, which is the most basic of this type of game, it includes a wide range of franchises so that no two matches are the same. Of course, we have the 30 official teams with their updated rosters throughout the season, Team LeBron and Team Curry from All Star Weekend, the All-Time teams, which bring together the best players in the history of each one of the franchises, and a multitude of classic teams (Magic Johnson's Lakers, Michael Jordan's Bulls or Larry Bird's Celtics, among others). Of course, on this occasion new classic teams have not been incorporated as had been the case in recent seasons.
Reviewing the list of teams included in the game, and taking into account that a few years ago we had all the clubs that participated in the Euroleague and that they are not going to return, at least for the moment, I miss that they are expand the roster of teams. I believe that there is a very logical option, which I am surprised has not been carried out yet, the incorporation of the WNBA franchises. I believe that the best basketball game cannot ignore women's sport, even more so when its top competitor is clearly committed to this competition. Maybe next year?
Basketball in its purest form
At this point we have to put aside the content of NBA 2K19 to focus on its gameplay. The truth is that Visual Concepts has taken the measure of the series, and the studio knows what it is doing. We will notice the most important change in the physics system, where the contact between players will have a greater weight, to which other important aspects such as player fatigue will be added. When it comes to shooting for a basket, aspects such as the player's position, his quality from a distance, fatigue or the opponent's defense will have a clear effect on the shot's chances of success.
However, the changes that I have noticed the most that affect the evolution of the matches are: player fatigue, ball steals and the activation of dominance. Before we mentioned that fatigue could affect when shooting for a basket, but it will also greatly influence our player's control of the ball on the court, being more prone to losing it. Directly, this influences another aspect, the robberies, it seems that in this installment it is easier to get hold of the ball when attacking a rival's pot. Finally, there is the dominance factor, a state that players get when they are hot, enhancing specific player abilities that will be represented with a symbol that makes them easily identifiable. For example, 3-point shots or dunks. We also find more new features such as the modification of the drawbar, which now goes up and down to make it more visual when we launch sooner or later.
In addition, as you play games, you see how the animations are extremely well cared for, and Visual Concepts has included many new ones to recreate a basketball game as well as possible.
A finish worthy of the best league in the world
One of the most striking aspects of NBA 2K19 is the spectacular recreation of the league that it offers us. Of course, there is an immense job to perfectly recreate the NBA players, where we will not only be amazed by the excellent level of detail of the models, but we will drool watching the great players of the competition do their usual movements: feints, dunks, celebrations, etc. To all this we add a faithful recreation of the pavilions, the basketball courts and, even, the shows in time-outs.
As for the sound, Spanish players will have comments in our language, which must be previously downloaded from the Microsoft Store, led by great specialists from the world of basketball, these are the journalists Sixto Miguel Serrano, Antoni Daimiel and Jorge Quiroga. There will also be a spectacular soundtrack selected by rapper Travis Scott.
When it comes to game performance, we've enjoyed NBA 2K19 on an Xbox One X at 1080p resolution and 60 fps. The truth is that there hasn't been any relevant problem, but I did experience some framerate drops at very specific moments when playing multiplayer games in local mode, some start of the fourth and when resuming the game after some dead time.
Conclusions
One more season, and although it sounds repetitive, it's time to say again that NBA 2K19 is the best basketball game to date, but today this is the reality (at least least until next year's installment comes out). The reason is very simple, the NBA 2K franchise has had a tremendously solid base in all aspects for a long time, and once again the formula has been perfected for the game at hand today. At the playable level, the matches manage to have a great rhythm, mechanics such as robbery have been modified, new animations have been implemented, etc.
When it comes to game content, NBA fans have endless alternatives to spend hours and hours enjoying the best basketball. Modes like My Career offer you the possibility of living your own American dream until you shine in the best league in the world (this is possibly the best story they have given us to date). My Team offers you the option of competing in a variety of ways both against the CPU and against players from around the world, all while building truly luxurious teams with current players and former stars of the competition. Then for those looking for a more complex and in-depth experience, My GM continues to offer us the option of taking command of any of the 30 NBA franchises. All this without forgetting more direct alternatives such as quick games, the possibility of playing in a league or, directly, the playoffs. As you can see, in NBA 2K19 you will not get bored.
The technical section is another aspect where NBA 2K19 shines with its own light. The player models and the way men like LeBron James or James Harden behave on the court make you wonder: “Am I not watching a real game?” To this we must add the comments in Spanish by Sixto Miguel Serrano, Jorge Quiroga and Antoni Daimiel; the pre-games with figures such as the great Shaquille O'Neal, the setting and recreation of the pavilions...
To put a but to the work of Visual Concepts, note that once again the VC (the premium currency of the game) can greatly restrict and limit the evolution of the players in the different game modes, since in the end it is the dominant currency in NBA 2K19. Also, personally, I think it's also time for the saga to start incorporating the WNBA and make room for women's basketball in the game, it wouldn't hurt to see Euroleague teams again, although I think this is currently a battle.
