NBA 2K24 Test – The Black Mamba is back!

Kobe Bryant is now a quarter of the way on the cover of the current part of the series published by 2K Sports, and this time there is a little more to it: he also got his own game mode. Well, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, because as with every sports game that comes out every year, the question arises (quite rightly, I might add): what extra do I get if I buy this part besides updating leagues, players, teams, statistics and more?

In recent years, there have been no particular complaints about the content and the surroundings, and it is no different now either: practically, we are once again getting a special, NBA-themed digital amusement park, where we can try everything related to American basketball. And here I would come back to Kobe: Mamba Moments commemorates his career, and we can play a few of his important games with him (even if we only control him).

Of course, the other well-known game modes were not left out either – although MyCareer was severely cut on the previous generation consoles and PC, and The W mode is completely missing – even though they charge the same amount of money for it. This also blew the fuse in connection with Mortal Kombat 1, and it will surely catch on here as well, if only because monetization is going really hard with MyTeam cards anyway…

To be honest, I always had the impression that improvements were made here: there is still a lot to do, you can play basketball in many different ways (even quasi-out on the street), you can build a team from classic players, you can develop from a green ear to a professional with your own virtual counterpart – perhaps the most obvious is that during MyCareer, we spend a little more time on the field, and we took back a bit from the lifestyle stuff.

As for the implementation: the new ProPLAY system is responsible for a more continuous and lifelike movement and match image, and I have to admit, I have to hum in appreciation of it (although it is still a bit rough, there are still minor jerks when changing movements). The quality of the graphics is excellent as usual, as are the sounds: I can still marvel at the attention to detail at Visual Concepts. However, I would like to know why the PC version didn’t get the same level of graphics as the PS5/XSX? And why is cross-platform multiplayer only their privilege?

And when I started talking about frowning things: the dynamics of the matches are not real. There are a lot of interludes, which are fun in the first few games, but after a while you start to overdo it – and in this case, it’s annoying how many times you have to press a button to skip the given interlude even to start a match. Or maybe it’s just me who doesn’t know that with some secret button I would immediately find myself on the field…

Of course, control with a gamepad works great, but in the case of such a patinated series, this is no longer a virtue, but an expectation. Fortunately, the currently controlled player also reacts well to our inputs, the laws of physics also apply, so we can control our player in an absolutely predictable way.

This year’s NBA 2K also easily meets the expected level, but I wondered during the test: how much is this enough? It was released with a AAA price tag, and the microtransaction line is very prominently present. The PC, X1, PS4 Switch camp is clearly getting less for the same money – yay! NBA 2K24 is a good game, but somewhere it is a victim of its own success: its own development curve has flattened so much that it can only bring appreciable newness with gigantic work, if at all…

The test copy was provided by the domestic distributor of the game, Cenega Hungary.