What is this strange feeling? I haven’t felt this in many years. Is it optimism for a sports game? I don’t know if I’ll dare to go to sleep tonight. A few weeks ago I tried Madden NFL 25 and it was exactly the experience I expected from all the sports games this year. A mediocre book with some good things but too many not so good things that left me frustrated. Back then when I started NBA 2K25 I felt like “Yeah, yeah, it’s time to have the same experience as last year but with updated rosters.” What I didn’t expect was The best game in the series since I don’t know how long.
Unfortunately, I already know what many will be thinking and saying. “How can you like this disgusting casino where everything revolves around microtransactions?” In fact, you should put a zero in the score for this reason. Believe me, I hate game-breaking microtransactions as much as anyone and this game has its problems with that. In fact, the first thing I saw when I started the game was a pop-up window asking me to get my wallet to buy VC, as the game’s currency is called. The worst thing is that it always appears with a delay of a few seconds, just in time to press the A button to enter a game mode, but instead opens the window with the various payment options. The presence of microtransactions in MyTeam (the Ultimate Team mode of the series) is one thing. There, unfortunately, we can wait for them to exist to buy new card packs. But when it comes to career mode, whether you want to play completely offline, the ability to upgrade your player feels completely wrong. This game mode, which I’ll come back to later, is linked to your online character, which can then be used offline.
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The thing is, the microtransactions are really the only major downside for me, and there are things that NBA 2K25 does better than any other sports game on the market. Chief among them is the presentation and experience of the games. There is no game that can match the 2K series in terms of game presentation. The commentators are great, with a few different outfits and sideline reporters and so on. The variety of recorded dialogue adds to the experience. It can be about how well a player did, how he grew up in a poor home and is now a star, or how Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis from Lithuania had two basketball-playing parents and both his grandfather and grandfather played. There are halftime shows featuring Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith from Inside the NBA on TNT (Charles Barkley refuses to be at the game). Unfortunately, this program seems to have no future, as TNT has lost its rights to the NBA. Additionally, coaches’ team talks have been taken from real games and integrated into the game so they can be heard during timeouts. No other sports game comes close to this.
Another thing that is absolutely top-notch in NBA 2K25 is the career mode. Of course, I must immediately return to the issue that it basically costs money to upgrade your player. For several years now, your created player has been introduced in the online center “The City” and to compete there, VC (virtual currency) is used to improve your player. If you want to play offline, just run to the arena and continue playing from there. But there you cannot upgrade your player without VC. That means that if you do not want to spend money on the game, it will take a long time to improve your player. A small amount of money is earned for each game played. But playing for several seasons with a weak center with poor rebounding skills and teaming up with Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid or Victor Wembanyama is not fun. Since I cannot afford to improve the speed of my own pivot, it seems to me like maneuvering a Finnish ferry. But putting that aside, the career path is very good and deep. There are city challenges and a quick little game mode that provides a backstory for your character over four games. Sign shoe deals, play street basketball against computer-controlled players, drive a kart around the city. There’s a lot to do. If you choose to play online, your horizons expand even further with different game types and opponents. If you prefer to play one game at a time offline and ignore all the side activities, you can do that too.
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A few years ago, the 2K series added something that I think all sports games should have. They call it “Eras” and it’s basically a franchise mode but where you can play in different eras. This year you can start a save file in six different eras, with the oldest starting in the 1983 season with Magic vs. Bird. You can also find “The Jordan Era” from 1991 and “The Modern Era” set in the present day. It could be a licensing issue and so on, but I don’t understand why other sports games don’t have something similar. Imagine playing on a muddy Premier League pitch in the 1980s or managing a team in the Gretzky era. Of course, if you’re into old-fashioned franchises, there’s also a game mode that lets you take charge of any team and manage everything from ticket prices to transfers and squads. MyTeam is another brief mention, but it’s basically the same experience as last year.
I saved the most important part for last. Is it fun to play? And how good is the basketball experience? NBA 2K25 is the best game in the series on the court in many, many years (maybe ever). Improved passing, hundreds of new animations, and a better sense of how different players behave differently. Unlike some previous titles, this year I feel like I get what I deserve. If I make a bad shot, it probably won’t go in. If I manage to unlock the improved defense, I get at least two points. I really like this year’s version of basketball.
NBA 2K25 was not at all what I expected. Instead of a tedious and mediocre experience, I had fun. That seems like a very strange statement to make about sports games these days. In fact, This could well be the best sports game of the year.. If you can ignore the microtransactions that are pushed on you.