NBA 2K15 Review: A New Standard

MyGM

"This mode is pretty fantastic for passive play in NBA 2K15 if you don’t feel up to the grind of MyCareer or playing an online game against other players."

When I first got into NBA 2K way back when it first expanded into the Live killer with ESPN NBA Basketball, one of my favorite modes was Franchise mode, which was heads above the Live franchise mode at the time. Above, I’ve talked a little bit about what the offline version of the game offers in terms of franchise and season mode that is controlled by multiple users. This is your mode. Where you’re the GM and you have to outsmart the other bot GMs currently making moves to make their teams better. It is exhilarating.

Normally, I’m not really into doing game management or training setups, but MyGM makes it a measurable activity for you to peruse through. You can track player and team development from the way you structure practices. You can do financial set-ups to try to maximize franchise dollars available. You can change gameplans based on the team. You can send out feelers for trades on players and look through them. GMs will call you with offers for your players and it gives you an opportunity to work with them to get what you want. You can do in depth scouting reports on prospects for everything from 3 point shooting to whether they have ankle problems.

Check out biometrics on players before signing or drafting them.

The owner gives you a list of goals, the media occasionally asks you questions, the head coach might just hate you for the roster you built, the CFO probably thinks you’re an idiot because you never run any promotions, and you can simulate through pretty much everything (although it doesn’t provide the most optimum outcomes). This mode is pretty fantastic for passive play in NBA 2K15 if you don’t feel up to the grind of MyCareer or playing an online game against other players. Your competition is the game itself and trying to figure out the best ways to train your players or the best lineup combinations.

The problem with MyGM presents itself when you try to get to some of the finer details however. You can’t really do lineup data research, despite the fact you can set rotations. I’ve gone through two different coaches now and both of them refused to do more than 8-man lineups at the beginning of the NBA season, which is asinine and misrepresentative of how NBA teams approach seasons. Players will complain about minutes, you’ll fix the lineups to better represent a variety of role players and within a week the coach will have pushed them out again. This is especially problematic when your best role players are not PGs. I’ve tried to have a highly rated PG sixth man, but all it did was make them play him like a starter and ignore the rest of the wings I drafted.

"Your competition is the game itself and trying to figure out the best ways to train your players or the best lineup combinations."

The media will sometimes ask you a question about a weakness on your team and even if you’re 42-0 and touting a killer draft pick alongside a booming ticket operation you still have to choose who in your regime is holding you back. There is no winning answer there and someone is going to be mad, so I usually just blame the scouts.

These are some small things in an otherwise terrific mode that take it from possible game changer to just a fun mode to actively play through. Some of those bigger data points make for a more informed take on your team and it creates a bit more intrigue like what NBA fans go through when they play armchair GM at home. Also, I’m miffed at how Al Horford can ask me for an 8 figure extension to be a sixth man and then be mad I brought Dwight Howard in to start over him. Man, talk about difficult. He’s messing up team chemistry!

MyCareer

"You can basically create any kind of narrative for yourself that will find you success or find you out of the league."

This is the big daddy of modes in NBA 2K15. With NBA 2K14, Visual Concepts stated that for the first time the MyCareer mode was the most played mode even beyond the Quick Game mode people use to play with friends. They put a lot of work into creating a new feel with this new mode and it is pretty compelling.  If there’s something that separates NBA 2K15 from the rest of the sports games that come out this year, MyCareer mode is it. You don’t just play a character you create as a highly touted pick this time. This time it makes you earn it (or pay for it, but we’ll talk about that later).

As you may have seen in the clips online, you begin your career working on 10-day contracts as you try to get into the NBA. Your player was passed up in the draft and he’s got a list of teams to work out for in order to get a contract. You can choose the path of least resistance with teams that need a player at your position or you can try to get on the end of the bench of a team stacked at your position. Whatever challenge you want, you can choose it. My favorite team is the Lakers, but I also usually play as a SG, so I clearly said I’m going to have to be on a different team until the old man retires. So I chose the Suns for my SG. The dynamics at play here are pretty fun.

As you are brought into the office, the caricatures of NBA agents and owners are pretty funny. The agent is a bit all over the place and constantly trying to sell you on an idea or sell someone else on the idea of you. Even in his tweets, the agent doesn’t really talk to you except about business. It is a partnership of riches. The owner is just sitting in a sky high office with a huge desk and a nice suit with bookshelves all around. It is so over the top about how these characters are in real life that it is funny.

When you get on a team, the superstar usually comes over and talks to you at various times to be your mentor or your foil. How it goes with teammates is pretty much up to you. You can be a selfish player, calling for the ball, ignoring plays, providing poor spacing, and being a general nuisance on the defensive end. You can have a bad game and your mentor will call you on it. You can basically create any kind of narrative for yourself that will find you success or find you out of the league. Though I haven’t tested how quickly you’d be dismissed as of yet because I just do not like failing in these games.

"Thank your deity of choice the Last of Us featured real voice actors and not Al Horford."

From this point on the game gets a bit weird as it moves a little fast. Suddenly I am in the starting lineup and they are calling my name last, but supposedly the last player called is supposed to be the best player. I am not that player, especially only two months after I signed a contract for the rest of the season. This breaks that immersion a bit, but the story of the NBA for an up and coming player is intriguing enough that you overlook it.

“Can you help me with my lines, man. I’ll help you with ya jump shot.”

The other thing that breaks immersion a bit is laughing at some of these NBA players delivering lines. Thank your deity of choice the Last of Us featured real voice actors and not Al Horford, but it does provide a bit of a laugh to see these guys learning their way through these processes. There is no ill will towards the players here, they are not trained actors or voice actors, so having them in game is a special treat to be hearing their real voices. It would be even weirder if Troy Baker was playing Kobe Bryant. Or maybe I just pitched a sequel to the Last of Us about one man alone with his Discovery Channel obsession.

Other changes to the mode include the lack of development tests with legends or those practices sessions you used to earn through the season. These have been replaced by random events in the season like after game shooting sessions and occasional tough love practices with coach. The main menu mode allows for you to practice with your player in a closed gym however so you can practice any shot or dribble mechanics you may tinker with, of which there are many different mechanics to choose from.

"It is one of the best put together RPGs every year."

The way in which you upgrade your player has also changed. You can upgrade different facets of your player’s game, but upgrading one area too much will definitely leave a weakness that won’t be fixed easily as the amount to keep upgrading increases at much greater increments than it has previously. If you want your player to be athletic and good at finishing, it may mean a lack of skill at shooting the ball for a while. There is a real weight to foregoing upgrades in other areas as you continually watch your guy struggle to finish or struggle to hit shots or continually get tired much too soon in game.

MyCareer continues to be by far the most unique sports game single player campaign offering available. It really shines on NBA 2K15 because it shows in the amount of effort put into the game during this single player campaign how much more a sports game can be. It is one of the best put together RPGs every year.

Up Next… Online Play and Final Verdict!