Not one to miss a trick, 2K Sports have kept up their annual releasing of various sporting titles and in particular the NBA series with NBA 2K14. Developed by Visual Concepts once again, what can they offer to make this year’s game superior? With the current man of the moment LeBron James as the cover guy, will he be a major influence in the success?
Having played 2K13 previously I felt as though I was better prepared to enjoy the game without the struggles of relearning controls or the way the game plays generally. Wrong. When checking out the tutorial something was a little different and certain buttons now modify passes instead of shots which led to a few (ok many more) annoying moments on the court. I don’t think it was necessary to meddle with these, however given a bit of time it should come naturally.
Here is the good news and bad news all rolled into one, bad news is the only real addition in modes is LeBron: Path To Greatness. The good news of course being a mode focussed entirely on the biggest name in NBA right now, but not in the usual way of recreating his career. Instead 2K Sports have turned into fortune tellers, predicting the rest of his potential legacy in various scenarios which you can complete. You can follow either of the paths it offers; one follows him at his current team Miami Heat (“Heat Dynasty”) and the other to see him moving on to pastures new (“Fantastic Journey”).
Without spoiling some of their ideas I will only mention one of the earliest scenarios where Dwight Howard has dragged Houston Rockets to the NBA Finals and LeBron with his Miami team is waiting for the clash of the year. It will give you control of the full team in game so you need to be decent at attacking and defending to squeeze out a win, I found it terribly difficult and they only get harder. All in all it’s an ingenious idea, especially for his fans to play out his career to become the greatest baller of all time.
MyCAREER returns as your own personal journey from a rookie onwards, creating a character and picking a position you would like to play. Unfortunately it feels exactly the same as last year, with the social networking aspect, almost identical draft and pre-draft segments. The endorsement billboard to kick-start your career looks like a bit of amateur Photoshop again. Most disappointing was my career high 8 points as a bench warmer yet I still got told it was a poor performance. The game as a whole is unforgiving to newcomers but its felt even more when your solo career is on the line.
There is the usual Season mode but the more expansive version of that is The Association, where you will take complete control of a team including the managerial roles. In the past I have found these types of roles rather tough as although I know how to play the game I know very little behind the scenes workings. I hadn’t noticed this before so I will assume it is new, the option to have an assistant take on any number of these roles like contract renewals and training camps. This takes away a few of the more stressful tasks and makes it a much better experience that can be moulded to suit the individual gamer. You can also take this online with a few friends or join a public league which would increase enjoyment tenfold.
The only other mode of any real note is in the online side using your pro baller either in a crew to play versus other crews or in a 3 on 3 Blacktop matches. The latter I gained more experience of, never won as my team mates were far too greedy, however the intimate half street court setting was enjoyable. In a first to 21 points match you get most players going for three pointers but when a team gels like most of our opponents you can make great runs and passing moves to get that better looking slam dunk!
Without Jay-Z’s creative influence this time round I thought the soundtrack would be the first to suffer. I was pleasantly surprised to hear song after song being either incredibly catchy or simply great tunes. Ranging from recent hits “Blurred Lines” (Robin Thicke), “Radioactive” (Imagine Dragons) to “Feel Good Inc” (Gorillaz) and In The Air Tonight (Phil Collins). I could happily sit in the menus between games to get in the zone for the next big game.
Sadly NBA 2K14 has seen a few modes lost and not too much added, I guess this is the price that has to be paid on a yearly release as time is limited. Although it is good to see a few more teams in there from Europe like Barcelona, Madrid and CSKA, the game didn’t grab my attention enough with the modes you can play with them. The CPU seems more intelligent and at times you have to think outside the box to break down a defence. If you own 2K13 then only buy this if you must play the LeBron legacy, otherwise it is practically the same.
