NBA 2K18 is such a large game that it's difficult to touch on all of its modes and features in one article. You're bordering on writing a novel at that point.
That said, this piece will focus on MyCareer, The Neighborhood, MyTeam and the Create-A-Player Options.
The Neighborhood is an Ingenious Concept
The biggest news from Thursday's preview event is the unveiling of the new Neighborhood concept. In a nutshell, it introduces an open-world to the NBA 2K franchise. It's the first time this theme has ever appeared in a sports video game and it works perfectly with 2K's multi-pronged feature set that uses MyCareer as its hub.
Here's a look at the trailer:
The goal is to guide your MyPlayer to a 99 overall rating, hence the Road to 99 theme. Much-needed progression bars have been added as visible aids on your journey. This is something that has long been needed in the MyCareer experience. One issue with open-world experiences is a lack of direction and focus, but with the Road to 99 and the general sports theme, that shouldn't be an issue.
The Neighborhood includes a hangout called 2K Zone with mini games, multiple parks for the streetball experience, a Pro-Am gym, a tattoo parlor, barber shop, a Foot Locker for new kicks and a clothing store for threads.
Here's a look at an infographic that puts The Neighborhood into perspective:
Think Grand Theft Auto meets NBA 2K and you'll be on the right track. I wondered around the Neighborhood and I could see the other gamers meandering up and down the boulevard as well. It was a really interesting setup that was almost overwhelming at first.
I knew that to completely appreciate this mode I'd need to be at home in my favorite gaming chair, taking my time to notice the nuances and features.
The character creation has changed a bit and so too has the upgrade system. For starters, there are 189 different archetypes this year. In addition to the traditional pure classifications from NBA 2K17, there are now hybrids as well.
Here's an example of some of the blended archetypes:
Each archetype (both pure and hybrids) have badge caps. Players can earn bronze, silver and gold badges in each. That's incredible diversity and it ultimately helps to individualize players on the eSports scene. We didn't get an opportunity to use the face-scanning application to create a player, but that is supposed to be active before The Prelude demo arrives on September 8.
What Could Go Wrong?
The elephant in the room is the server issues the NBA 2K series has battled for years. The Neighborhood seems set to put even more pressure on one of the few weak areas of 2K's game. If the servers don't operate properly at launch, the game will take a beating on social media.
That's a bad look. Fans can only hope the development team is ready to handle the weight of hundreds of thousands of gamers looking to explore their virtual neighborhood.
MyTeam Gets some Much-Needed Depth
We had a limited amount of time in a hectic environment to explore the game. Unfortunately, MyTeam was the mode I saw the least of during the preview event. The draft mode is called Pack and Play and this could be the mode fans spend the most time playing in MyTeam.
You draft your first five and then the bench is filled in via pack openings. There are also a ton of new challenges, Dynamic Duos and other theme cards. Here's a video from Sub The Gamer that shows off some of the mode:
There is also a mode within MyTeam called SuperMax. It's a salary-cap restricted way to play the game, which was also a much-needed addition to the mode.
What Could Go Wrong?
The servers are the main impediment for MyTeam to overcome as well, but there's more. Last year, the mode suffered from non-sim-like action that turned out to be a major turnoff for gamers who like more realistic play. We've been told features like system proficiency have been incorporated to curtail that negative element, but we need to see the game in full bloom to judge for sure.
CAP Options Look To Have Taken A Step Backward
There are a good number of new hairstyles and tattoos for your MyPlayers, but the offline create-a-player options look to have regressed. You will have access to the additional hairstyles, but you still can't give created players tattoos. This is a little bewildering to me, and I've never been able to get a solid answer as to why this isn't possible.
More troubling is the new facial sliders the CAP suite now uses when you are creating players. I played around with it during the preview event and it felt as if it gave me even fewer options to individualize my creations than I had before in NBA 2K17.
Shouldn't we be going the other way with all features? If nothing else, it would have been nice to leave it as it was if it wasn't going to improve. This is an issue that will negatively impact roster and draft class creators, which isn't a very large piece of the NBA 2K community.
However, I'm one who does create players and rosters, so it does sting a little.
Overall, there isn't much to gripe about with NBA 2K18 just yet, but the offline CAP system is one area of concern.
