 Review By: Nick Arvites |
Developer: | Visual Concepts |
| Publisher: | 2K Sports | |
| Genre: | Sports | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1-2 (4 online) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (online play) |
Basketball sports titles are often the most disappointing ones to hit the shelves. Unlike any other sport, you’re dealing with close-ups of players who aren’t concealed by padding and bulky uniforms, and there are only a handful of people on the court at any given moment. Worse, the intricate nuances of the game are harder to capture in video game form than perhaps any other sport. That being said, recent basketball games have made great strides towards putting a solid simulation on the video game markets, and this one is no different.
NBA 2k8 is the latest installment in the longstanding series that originated on the Sega Dreamcast. The 2K series faced stiff competition early on from EA’s firmly established NBA Live series. While the early years of the 2K series experienced some growing pains with the game’s gameplay system, the series quickly vaulted over the competition after the first few installments. For the last few years, the 2K series has delivered a solid product year after year that offers gamers a deep and authentic basketball experience. NBA 2K8 follows in this tradition, but has a few issues that hold it back from greatness.
If you’ve played a 2K basketball game, you know what to expect. The system is the same with a few minor improvements. Offensive dribbling controls are still assigned to right analog stick movements combined with the left and right triggers. This system is jarring for new players and for players coming from NBA Live’s button-based dribble move system, and this jarring sense isn’t helped by the lack of any sort of instructions in the manual or tutorial in the game. However, if you’ve played prior 2K basketball titles, you should have an idea as to how to perform crossover moves and other dribbling skills to carve into the lane on a break. Shooting is assigned to the right analog stick (or to the X button), and this system feels right. Releasing the stick releases the shot, and this method allows a greater amount of control over shots (read: holding it to draw fouls). Players can post up by holding the left trigger. While you can watch the CPU offense enter into impressive post moves, the most I was ever able to do is back closer to the goal and shoot the ball. Defensively the game introduces a Lock-Down system. By holding the Left Trigger, your defender will closely guard the offensive player and follow him around, hopefully preventing him from getting past you.
The control system is basic, yet extremely complex to fully pick up. There is a high learning curve with picking up the various dribble moves performed by the analog stick/triggers as well as a high learning curve concerning post play and defense. The problem with the learning curve is that I can’t tell how much of the learning curve is artificially difficult. The instruction manual is 13 pages, and only provides a skeleton outline of the controls without details into the advanced sets. This is unusual for the 2K brand, as every one of their other titles that I’ve owned or played have come with a manual that ranges between 40 and 60 pages that describes all of the advanced controls well enough to figure them out. Further, every other 2K sports game I’ve played had an in-game manual that contained a few more details that were left out of the printed one. NBA 2K8 does not have an in-game manual. Reducing the manual to 13 pages is a huge mistake, and not including an online manual is inexcusable. These gaffs could be forgiven if there was a tutorial mode included that took you step-by-step through the various controls. However, the best you get is a very limited open practice mode. There are still features that are simply not explained anywhere that can only really be known if you’ve played a prior installment. For example, the left trigger + A performs a dump pass/alley-oop. This isn’t explained anywhere in the manual or the game, and the only reason I found it was because I’ve played prior games. Really, this game is extremely unfriendly to a player new to the series, and this is simply inexcusable. 2K, if you want to cut printing costs, fine. Just include tutorials or a full manual in the game like you used to.
Posted: 2007-11-15 21:28:51 PST