NBA 2K18 Review – Overview, Storyline, Pros, Cons, And More

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars

A fully immersive simulation that brings its player into the heart of NBA from its franchises to it players. You start off as a 60-rated rookie player working your way through the ranks and points towards stats to become the best player on the court. Earn points by grinding through tasks and challenges against other players in The Neighborhood, challenge friends in online Competitive Mode and run your own franchise in MyGM and MyLeague. Players also get to customize their own characters and build up their skills in MyCareer.

Overall rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Storylines in this game leave much to be desired as it's compared to a “choose your own adventure” style game. MyGM gives the player the chance to run their own franchise with several cut scenes based on the choices the player makes. The story comes off as being basic and linear in style. It often makes opposite player choices, for example, not electing the owner’s son to help run the franchise ultimately ends in him running the franchise anyway, leaving the player with a sense of pointlessness towards in-game decision making. MyCareer also offers a storyline for players interested in creating and advancing their own customized character. The player starts off as a rookie who develops their career over time with each game and task; again with a variety of cutscenes that tie with milestones met in the game. Cutscenes in MyCareer are more in-depth giving you scenes that mimic sports news coverage and locker room talk and a few other things.

Overall rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Graphics for NBA 2k18 are incredible and far more immersive than its predecessors with a more realistic gameplay of each NBA player, referred to as player accuracy. Each player looks far more detailed, down to the scars and stretch marks,  and much closer in appearance to the players in real life. They also move and play as they do when playing an official NBA game. The game has also added a special touch to the uniforms using laser scanned uniforms and True Color Technology to give even more realism and authenticity to its players. These little details make all the difference when playing this game because it really makes the player feel like they're in a real-life experience.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Putting a more whimsical, “Space Jam” spin on the sport of basketball, this game is just pure fun to play. Players can co-op against the AI and eachother with various types of unlockable perks giving players some extra features. Despite when it was originally released, this game proved to be slightly more advanced in overall gameplay mechanics as players are given better control over their movements. It's in-game hijinks include fiery dunks, anti-gravity style jumps and hilarious facial expressions made by the characters in the game.

Overall rating: 2 out of 5 stars

NBA Jam has a campaign mode called Road Trip where players face off with other teams and even have boss battles when milestones in the game are met. However, there isn’t much of a storyline. Players get to pick which NBA teams from which division they’d like to play against in their climb to the top.

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The graphics for this simulator are good and may even be ahead of its time as these graphics still function pretty well with the Xbox One. Players give various animations for certain antics in gameplay like “on fire” mode when a player gets 3 slam dunks in a row and the player literally becomes engulfed in flames as he plays. The overall graphics on the court are super clean and hardly pixilated at all making the game easy on the eyes.

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars

NBA Live18 is one of 21 total NBA Lives games and for the first time has included the WNBA offering something new for its loyal players. This game features one on ones, a single player story mode called, “The One” and a franchise mode. It’s available for Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

Overall rating: 2 out of 5 stars

The storyline leaves much to be desired with only two real modes, The One and Franchise, to work with. In “The One,” characters start off as college basketball players who work their way into rookie NBA status and then progress beyond. The cutaway scenes play on some real-life elements, like ESPN’s First Take television series, and the usual locker room conversation and pretty much anything else you’d expect from a standard storyline. Franchise mode doesn’t seem to perform as well in the storyline arena leaving players disappointed.

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Overall graphics matter in this NBA 2k18 review and NBA Live18 are nearly on-par with NBA 2k18 allowing for fine details of each character. The overall look of the court and the surrounding environment is realistic and a pleasure to look at. However, the game lacks any real animations and takes away from the immersion that players expect to find in this game for the style of graphics it depicts. This makes the game a bit harder for players to get into, it looks great but lacks the little nuances that give it depth.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Street Hoops is available as a backdated game for Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This arcade basketball game has become quite the treasured classic. Players have 10 different country teams to choose from with 10 different court environments to match. The rules are limited as well giving players extra advantages over their opponents on the court. This style very closely resembles the quirky gameplay found on NBA Jam with its superhuman feats that defy all logic and physics making this a fun family arcade game

Overall rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Since this is a classic 16-bit arcade game from the early '90s, it's focus is on the gameplay itself. Unfortunately, because of this, Street Hoop lacks an actual storyline. Players begin the game by picking from a list of 10 country teams and start the game that’s pretty much it. It's hard to compare it to the other games in this NBA 2k18 review.

Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Since it’s a classic game, the graphics are less than desirable. However, since it is from 1994 based on it’s released period, it has a more advanced look for a 16-bit.