It’s back to school for video games too. On the shelves of stores, we find the same sports titles as last year, with at the top of the list: NBA 2K. In this new version made for the 2024-2025 season, we find the biggest stars of the parquet behind our screen. The biggest challenge for an established franchise like NBA 2K, is not to fall into routine. At the same time, we must not transform the game, which would have the effect of losing players. The exercise is therefore to find the right balance between innovation and tradition.
NBA 2K25 : no news ?
Following the presentation of this new NBA 2K25, You might think that the Visual Concept teams didn’t put in any effort, but in reality, it’s quite the opposite. By turning on the game, we find our favorite modesYou can start a career as a player, lead a team, start a game alone or with others, but also take on the whole world in online matches.
Finally, no notable changes on the home page, traditions are not shaken. But the devil is in the details, and from the tutorial of this NBA 2K25we understand that The new features are hidden in the gameplay rather than in game modes.
Signature moves and new mechanics
The big new thing this year is undoubtedly the introduction of signatures moves. In other words, it is now possible to mime a player’s iconic shots with the right stick of your controller. Another interesting change: shooting. In a basketball game, this is a crucial variable.
In the last games, the shot gauge was criticized, because it was difficult to fill perfectly. It took hours and hours of play to get used to the mechanics. On this point in particular, 2K has simplified things. Or rather, it has personalized them. It is still possible to shoot with a shot gauge that varies depending on the difficulty chosen and the defense against you. But it is also possible to change these settings to give yourself “easier” shots.
These mechanical changes alone would almost make us forget the titanic work done by Visual Concept on the graphics level alone. In total, it is a little more than 9000 new animations that are arriving this year. You might think this work is a “gimmick”, but it changes the user experience considerably. The players controlled by the computer do not all reproduce the same gesture, they have their “signature”, their unique movement. This makes the experience much more fluid and less redundant.
A career mode, for women
The other major project of the year for this new opus resided in the feminization of the protagonists. If NBA 2K already features WNBA (North American women’s league) players, the game goes even further this year. In fact, NBA 2K25 integrates a completely new game mode “The W”.
In this part of the game, you control a female player according to two pre-written stories. If the mode is still quite far from its male equivalent, it has the merit of existing and offering various choices of scenarios. You will be able to attend press conferences, be at the battle for the rookie of the year title or even face the star of the game, Caitlin Clark.
The essential
Although this invitation to embrace a female career is very interesting, the game mode remains very poor when compared to its male counterpart, the classic career mode. Every year, the franchise manages to surprise us with a complex story, full of twists and turns. We are far from a EA Sports FC and its meager animations.
But be careful, career mode is not a feature-length film either. All animations can be shortened, and if you want to just prove your worth on the court, the game allows you to do so. For a more immersive experience, however, we recommend that you go through the “Heart of a Dynasty“with games from high school and even in FIBA U19. To get into the mood, it’s just perfect. The only problem is that This requires a lot of playing time.
My GM: The Best Game Mode ?
In addition to career mode, which is the natural gameplay option on NBA 2Kthe 2025 version relies heavily on the “Mon GM“As the name suggests, you will not find yourself on the field, but behind the scenes, as General Manager. You control the team. You make the transfers, manage the rotation like a real coach.
Here again, the great strength of NBA 2K25lies in its scenario. The focus is on the overall experience. All our choices seem to have consequences and the game lets us free to take the path of our choice. The immersion is total, we can wander around the facilities of our club, go and chat with the staff, the players or other members of the franchise.
This game mode, somewhat neglected in recent years, has been given a superb facelift with this 2025 edition. This only reinforces our opinion on all the work done on this opus.
An online mode, almost anecdotal
Like all self-respecting games in 2024, NBA 2K25 has the right to its online mode. It rests, as EA Sports FCon a system of opening maps and creating teams. If this mode allows you to face opponents all over the world, it seems almost superfluous to us as the offline adventures are numerous and gripping.
Please note however the return of the Auction House. This part of the game allows you to resell your cards to other players around the world (in virtual currency). This platform can allow you to buy and resell to collect a few pennies and buy slightly more interesting cards. The mode had disappeared last year, much to the regret of fans. It is therefore making its return this year.
A beautiful outcome
In conclusion, one might ask how NBA 2K26 will be able to do to compete next year. If there are still areas for improvement (particularly in the mode The W) they are getting thinner and thinner every year. This edition of NBA 2K is in any case very successful. The game works perfectly, it is fluid (although loading can sometimes be a little long).
The graphics are, this year again, simply mind-blowing. They reinforce the already great feeling of immersion thanks to the very good scenarios of the different game modes. It is ultimately the side modes, like “Play Now” or “Bitume” that suffer the most from this new opus. They have not had the right to major updates and are starting to seem a little bland compared to the rest of the game.
But overall, the gaming experience is just amazing. Each game session is a real pleasure, the opus is vast, it is difficult to go around it and two games can be very different. The basketball keeps its reference video gamewhat could inspire other sports to do the same?
The game NBA 2k25 est disponible sur PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One et Nintendo Switch.
Source: www.journaldugeek.com
