NBA 2K23 Review: Decent Changes, But Still Undercooked

Reviewed on PlayStation 5

Look, negativity sells. And negativity has been the name of the game for the NBA 2K series for the past few years. So many folks would agree that 2K16 was the last "great" game from the series, and everything else that followed it is just a pile of microtransaction-ridden crap.

But maybe, JUST maybe, 2K and Visual Concepts did get something right this time. At least, perhaps, several parts. And I'm not going to lie, but maybe I actually liked this year's iteration - if not for a lot of undercooked promises, dated mechanics and graphics (even for next-gen), and just plain old fatigue.

Xs and Os

The biggest change for this year, as far as I know, is the gameplay - even though the change is still nothing too extraordinary. For one, I like how flowy the gameplay this year is. It's far easier to make jump shots in this game, and the animations are way smoother - at least on next-gen.

Jump shooting is where I think the game separates superstars from ordinary players. Whereas it would be tough to consistently hit fadeaway, turnaround, and other types of jumpers that aren't stationary with non-star starters and bench players, it is far easier to do them with the superstars. Furthermore, knowing how a player's signature jump shot works actually matters. If you know how they set their feet up and how their release point may or may not have a hitch, it is critical to consistent success when shooting from the perimeter. You also have to know their hotspots really well, because they're basically automatic if you perform these shots where they're most comfortable from.

As for the next part of the offense, dribbling, there isn't a lot that I could say in favor of NBA 2K23. 2k touted their new dribbling system so much in marketing. They said that the three-bar stamina system was designed to prevent people from overdribbling. But since I've always played 2k with no emphasis on dribbling too much and just focusing on ball movement all the time, I never really felt the change. Perhaps this was way more evident in modes like MyCareer or Park, where you could never cheese out defenders anymore by dribbling way too much.

Defense also had a good overhaul from last year. I love how in the Defensive Settings menu, you can choose defensive presets for each individual player on an opposing team. Each preset will have pros and cons that could be fitting for an opposing player (specifically for superstars), or you could just tailor-fit your defensive game plan by choosing individual options.

Aside from that, age-old problems still persist. Control responsiveness is still not great, as I always feel like there's a bit of input lag between pressing buttons and the player moving. This "lag" made me lose track of cutters to the basket and people setting up on the perimeter so many times, leading to wide-open shots that should've otherwise been contested. To cap things off, the overall gameplay is still pretty much the same aside from these "individual player improvements." Nothing too spectacular here.

Not Too 'Next-Gen'

Sports games like NBA 2K23 are perhaps among the few game genres where graphics will matter. I still remember the time during the jump from PS3/360 to PS4/Xbox One, and the improvements in visuals were absolutely magical. But things aren't as apparent here, and other visual problems remain - even if the developers had all the hardware capabilities of next-gen consoles on hand. I was expecting an even bigger leap from last-gen to next-gen visuals, but it was just... alright. I can only surmise that the next-gen version has ray-traced lighting and shadows, but other than that, it's not impressive at all. Maybe I was fooled the first time we got a look at next-gen graphics with 2K21.

There were multiple times that the graphics look just downright last-gen and not worth the extra $10. But that's not all, as the visual quality degrades beyond absurdity during MyCareer, which is the mode that I believe is the biggest offender. Furthermore, I was also looking forward to massive changes in the overall presentation and arena realism, among others. But I ended up feeling underwhelmed.

For one, I tried to see whether the playoff atmosphere has improved from last-gen to current-gen. The crowd, while far more varied than what I remember from last-gen, reacts more or less similarly to big plays down the stretch - that is, not as enthusiastic as I want them to be. This is even more jarring when you're playing a home playoff game for big market teams like Boston or New York, among others. How is this still a thing?

'Role-Playing'

MyCareer has had nothing interesting for so many years now. And while NBA 2K23 did make a lot of changes when it comes to the "role-playing" aspects of this mode, it's still the same old thing that they've sold year in and year out.

I don't want to blatantly ignore the changes they made, though, so I'll mention the ones that I liked here. I liked how this time, they don't make you go through the gauntlet of games against other draft prospects with your ratings being all crappy. You also don't have to go through the "drama" of being undrafted anymore. This time, they actually let you pick the team you want to play for because it sets up the story of you being like a Kristaps Porzingis: booed by your home city and stuck with having to prove that you deserve to be there.

Aside from that, you also have to deal with the antagonist player, Shep. He's not compelling to me at all. I saw him as just a cartoonishly arrogant idiot of a "social media influencer" trying to get a rise out of you. That's it. I even remember him talking up a storm before the NBA Summer League championship game, believing he was going to play better than me, only for him to play like absolute doo-doo and be a sore loser at the end when my team won. Boo-hoo.

And lastly, for the first time ever, MyCareer lets you roleplay just a bit with a quest system like in RPGs in an "open-world" type setting that you can explore on foot. There's also a quest log where you can track "quests" that advance the MyCareer story. My first impressions are it's just "new," but I feel like it's a little undercooked. I understand that NBA 2K23 is a basketball sim, first and foremost, so it's not too big of a deal that this feels underwhelming. Though I did like how you can now explore the arena before every game and actually go through the tunnel to get to the pre-game warmups on-court. That felt awesome, if not still undercooked.

Last but not least, are there still microtransactions in the game? Yes, yes there are - no matter how much gamers hate them at this point. It's going to be 2K and parent company Take-Two's business concept from the foreseeable future until they publicly scrap it. Though I must say that this game doesn't feel like it's shoving VC deals into your face every five seconds. That's... good, I guess? But what would be way better is the complete omission of this thing for good.

Leaving So Much Performance on the Table

Playing a lot of NBA 2K on last-gen, I understood how the hardware would struggle with maintaining 60 FPS gameplay all throughout. In NBA 2K22 on PS4, compromises had to be made to ensure that the actual basketball part would run as smoothly as possible. But we're on the freaking next-gen, people. How in the world is this game still not running on 60 FPs all the time, every time? And for goodness' sake, the frame rate out in The City is so terrible that it felt like I was watching a slideshow. On a freaking PS5. Christ.

On the subject of the PS5, again: there's a ton of hardware power in there. So how in the world is the AI still almost brain-dead? Old problems like the vaunted shot clock cheese are still there (i.e. your defense completely shutting down and letting opposing teams score during the last seconds of the shot clock). Aside from that, opposing players will still tend to hold onto the ball and let the clock run out until they fire off a terrible shot, or they'd wander off out of bounds on their own without any contact.

This has been present in almost every NBA 2k since the dawn of time and it's appalling that Visual concepts and 2k haven't fixed this yet. There were multiple times when the game made me say, "there's no way a professional basketball player who gets paid millions will do that in real life." So much for "more realistic gameplay."

What About the Jordan Challenge?

Ah, the Jordan Challenge. Since this is NBA 2K23, they had to do it. A total of 15 games from Michael Jordan's iconic basketball career are yours to try and beat. Achieving specific benchmarks like scoring an X number of points or grabbing an X number of rebounds are still there. Get enough and you earn Stars. Earn enough Stars and you'll unlock rewards in MyTeam and MyCareer. Fair enough.

But aside from the era-specific filters that make you feel like it IS the 80s or 90s, there's still nothing too special about this mode - certainly nothing that recaptures the essence of the original mode from way back in NBA 2K11. I can't say anything more or anything less.

Final Verdict

NBA 2K23 does a fair amount of things right while still keeping the same problems that have plagued the series for over a decade now. Next-gen might look prettier in several areas, but that new coat of paint does so little for a game who "innovates" by a tiny bit. And it's certainly not worth a full $70 to me.

SCORE: 6 out of 10

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Written by RJ Pierce