has been released in 2010's "NBA 2K11", and 12 years have passed. Too many things have happened in the NBA and in the gaming industry. We have witnessed the generational alternation of the console market twice, and also witnessed the era of basketball entering the three-point and space. The stars of the past ended and the new generation of powers came on.
12 In 2022, Visual Concepts decided to bring the Jordan challenge back to the "NBA 2K" series, allowing young players to see the undisputed best player in the basketball field in the game. But at the same time, a new question arises: Can "NBA 2K23" deserve Jordan's reputation?
*This review is based on the next generation of the game (PS5) writing.
Return to Jordan's era
AAAAnd from North Carolina, a 6'6" guard, number 23, Michael Jordan!!!
Jordan Challenge is the top priority of "NBA 2K23", even if it is just a purely single-player content in 15 games. To some extent, the new "epoch" content in this game can be considered a joint product derived from the development team to create a better "Jordan Mode".
From a model point of view, the Jordan Challenge is very easy to understand. Playing 15 games, there are 3 games per game A goal. In addition to a few games that recreate in specific situations, most of the other players control the team Jordan is, rather than Jordan as a player. There is not much innovation in the mechanism, and the main change point is in the actual game.
The game in Jordan Challenge spans from 1982 to 1998. How to make these past games look like they have happened again in the 2022 game, instead of simply making several classic teams to let them fight with the players, it is a big test for developers. After all, 12 years have passed, the functions of the game console have been greatly improved, and the requirements of players are no longer the same.
"NBA 2K23" has increased the credibility of the game in two ways, one is rules, tactics and player behavior, and the other is the way the screen content is presented.
1982 to Compared with today's basketball games, there are huge differences in rules and tactics, and there are also rules and tactics during this period. If the three-pointers, space and pick-and-roll tactics on the modern offensive end, the joint defense tactics on the defensive end, the unball double-teamed and three-second defensive rules appear in the Jordan era, then the absurdity of time and space travel will directly destroy the game experience of players (especially real basketball enthusiasts).
For this reason, the rules and tactics of each Jordan challenge in "NBA 2K23" are adjusted according to the actual time of the game. The direct performance is that the game's offensive rhythm is slow, there are a large number of back-on attacks launched by inside players, and it is more difficult to directly break through the outside. From the first game of Jordan's challenge, that is, 1982 NCAA In the college basketball final, players can find that the simplest and most effective way to score is to hand the ball to the inside James Worthy .
In terms of screen performance, Jordan, his teammates and opponents can use the performance of the new host to become closer to reality, but the overly clean picture lacks the old feeling of those past games. Visual Concepts added the "year filter" function to this game, adding a layer of filters to reduce picture clarity and increase picture noise for the game that happened in the last century. The TV broadcast effect was also redesigned in the 1980s and 1990s.
continues to advance, the picture clarity and broadcast effect will gradually improve, and the broadcast effect will become richer. I even found the NCAA in 1982 The video of the college basketball finals. After screenshots and comparisons, I found that the game has tried its best to reproduce the real court, jersey and broadcast styles within the framework, although it is impossible to be 100% consistent.
1982 NCAA University Basketball Finals video screen
After all, players will not really accept the low-definition picture that can be blurred after moving, and the sponsors of the game will not be exactly the same as the sponsors of every era, every stadium and every team.Even so, Visual Concepts found the logo of all the sponsors of the game in various eras, making the status of the field more credible during different periods of time.
Before each game begins, there will be a story about famous NBA people. They are all witnesses of that era, including superstars like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dennis Rodman , Dominic Wilkins , and coaches who helped Jordan reach the peak Phil Jackson . It seems that this should be more like a documentary-style lineup. From various perspectives, the Jordan challenge of "NBA 2K23" was born by the influence of the 2020 ESPN and Netflix Jordan documentary " The Last Dance ", but the production takes time, which leads to delays.
But now the "NBA 2K" series has become one of the important carriers of NBA and basketball culture. It is undoubtedly worthy of recognition that it can carefully tell the new generation of fans about the era that belonged to Jordan.
Change History
Another important addition to "NBA 2K23" is the "Era" mode of the basketball league, allowing players to start the game from 1983, 1991 and 2002. Players can change the NBA's past history from all levels and shape a league based on their own preferences.
sounds amazing, but the gameplay of the "Era" mode is not much different from the previous basketball league. After choosing the era and the team, you can start as usual. It is easy to change the team's performance and personnel composition in terms of team performance and personnel composition, because whether the game is played manually or simulated, it will be different from reality, and the difference in performance will naturally affect the subsequent personnel flow.
I chose the Houston Rockets at the beginning of 1983. Because I was weak in strength, I just simulated it until the end of the season and got the No. 1 pick as history. Since AI's trading judgment is not very intelligent, I tried some trading solutions and got the No. 2 and 3 signs while retaining Ralph Sampson . At this time, the game was equivalent to ending directly.
game mechanism cannot simulate real-life draft decisions and player growth, so those players with low picks and unsuccessful talent are almost impossible to reproduce. All teams are equivalent to having a clear eye. Michael Jordan , Akim Olajuwon and John Stockton have already booked the top three drafts in the game, and no one can compete with them. Players familiar with the "NBA 2K" series will not ask where Charles Barkley is going, we all know that the series does not have his authorization.
In comparison, the more interesting and valuable part of the "Year" mode is that the system will tell you the historical changes that will occur in the offseason after each season, including rule changes, team name change, relocation, team logo replacement, and floor replacement. You can decide whether these changes will happen as usual before entering the next season.
This is equivalent to giving players a manual for the development history of the NBA since 1983. You can understand when the rules that shaped today's basketball were added, how the pattern of today's 30 teams in the East and West was formed through, how the staff caps and team spending have expanded all the way... The game is indeed the best way to review this history.
"Era" mode also has special settings such as periodic tactics, rules, jerseys, broadcast effects, and picture filters in Jordan's challenge, and it has been extended to 2000 years later. It won't be the same as the fast race until the player marchs into 2021.
Although the development team strives to make a basketball experience that returns to the past, there are still some things that tell you that the shortcomings are here. The most unavoidable thing is player authorization. If it is just missing Andrew Bynum and Ron Artest , it will be considered a big regret in such a historical model at most.But the lack of big-name stars who have a place in the championship competition, such as Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller, Chris Weber, and Paul Gasol, , which is an unignorable blow to the completeness of the model.
In simulation games, you can often see high scores and high shots in modern basketball; it may be because of insufficient data from players in the past, and there should be some randomly generated players on the free agent list, but it is still very distracting to see a player with the last name of Antetokounmpo.
The longest plot
In the promotion before the release, the brilliant career plot of "NBA 2K23" was described as the longest in the series. After actually playing it, I have to say that they are indeed right.
In the glorious career of this game, players will directly choose an NBA team. After a summer league game, they will still have content at the university stage, but will be presented later in the form of memories. If you like to run all the main tasks you can do before the next game, then you will have to go through more than 20 NBA games after completing the plot, including the last 20 PVE Street Ball games. If you don't like running too many tasks between two NBA games, the plot length may be over 40 games.
plot basically covers all kinds of things that an NBA player will encounter from his career rookie to his peak, and will show off his confrontation on the court, problems within the team, personal hobbies outside the game, etc., but it is basically all compressed to half a rookie season. This makes many plots a bit awkward, because there are so many facts about a rookie who is just a little over the league, and the behavior of your major facilitators also looks very similar to playing house, and some plot cuts are really hard to watch directly.
In those off-field personal development tasks in the main line, there are some questions that require you to answer some areas outside of basketball. If you don’t answer correctly, you have to repeat the entire conversation and question-and-answer, which will often cause several repetitions. What is even more unbearable is that the protagonist also has to record the song as an rapping singer. A series of 4 options are selected. If you choose the wrong one, you have to start completely again... The key is that the song recorded is not very good.
I personally think a highlight in the plot is Perkins, who will constantly criticize you and deny your performance in a commentary program in the plot. This is very consistent with his style, and the role he gave him didn't make me feel disgusted, even though he kept saying bad things about me.
I still hope that my professional plot can be colorful, but it is best that we can still be more professional.
When it comes to the review stage of college career, real time and space warriors have appeared. You have to go back to play college games with the attribute points and badges you have improved in the NBA, and the opponents in college games are much more powerful than NBA players. The final battle made me try a few times and then switch to the rookie in anger. I really don’t know why this happened.
along with the new plot are also new adjustments to player creation and badges. The badges in this game have become load-and-unloading, which can be adjusted freely, and there is no need to specifically unlock the badges. Badges are divided into 3 levels, and the points required for each level of badges increase in succession. How many badge points do the self-created players have in 4 aspects, and the highest level that each badge can achieve will be given prompts when setting the player's potential value.
is set up as the 4 badge types. The badge that completes the core challenge can be equipped in the core slot without consuming points. The so-called core challenge is actually the number of times the badge is activated. Badges like "First Step Master" with extremely high activation frequency can be completed in just a few games, while badges such as "Infinite Takeoff" that increase the distance of the dunk and jump seem to have never seen how the challenge bar has risen. The addition of
badge level makes it very difficult to equip multiple powerful level 3 badges. A purple level 3 badge requires 9 points, and if you want to use level 3 badges, you have to invest a total of 10 points on level 1 and 2 badges.Therefore, the challenge of completing the Level 3 Badge is inevitable. The time required to unlock the badge points is much shorter, but completing the desired Level 3 Badge challenge becomes a new time-consuming point. However, it is not too big for players who have been fighting in the glorious career mode for a long time.
This year's basketball city looks more and more like a vibrant city. There are many NPCs walking around on the road, and outside the stadium is also a scene of being prepared to enter before the game begins. The most direct problem this causes is that frame drops. This game also adds the process of entering the stadium for NBA games for self-created players, walking through the passage and entering the locker room, and entering the arena. This is a very small change point, but it is of great significance to improving the sense of substitution.
Why talk about attentiveness
It is hard to say that "NBA 2K23" is an unattentive work. Various details and new elements of the game show the efforts Visual Concepts has put into this game, but looking at the player community's evaluation of the new work, why is this? What kind of basketball game will satisfy players?
After actually playing the game, you will find that many improvements that should have not appeared. The shooting bar has been changed again and again. This year, it is more humane to give players their own choices, but it is not that important. Many operations have been refined again, theoretically allowing players to make the desired operations more accurately and precisely, but after making changes every year, you have to adapt again after playing the new work.
Although the promotion uses a lot of space to talk about the offensive and defensive enhancement of players and opponents' AI, I can still feel that I am playing with 4 antenna babies. Without me, I will not move. When I break through, I will run to block my way forward.
Not to mention the old bugs that have appeared all year round in the past are still there this time, and my skateboard has been stuck on the shoulders of the sidewalk of Basketball City.
barrel effect is well known. The Jordan-related content, era filters in "NBA 2K23", and the wonderful midfield performance of the Mask Dance Team Jabbawockeez are all the long boards that Visual Concepts has worked hard to create. Those most basic game experiences and designs that delay paying within the game time are the shortcomings that players complain about constantly. If the shortcomings cannot be filled, no matter how long the longs are made, the improvement in evaluation may be very limited. I think this is a matter of using the right place with care.
When writing this review, I went to see the most clicked Jordan career highlights on a certain video website. Once again, while admiring Michael Jordan's amazing physical fitness and ball skills, he also lamented that even though the development team copied important scenes in Jordan's career at almost pixel-level in the opening animation of the Jordan Challenge, its action tension is still very different from the low-definition broadcast video. Especially after "The Shot" defeated the Knights, Jordan celebrating with continuous punches.
Even if the previous jump celebration was very similar, the game picture is still far from the old video
The evolutionary road of basketball games is still very long.
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