by Dee4Three on Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:38 am
I should have expanded as well, my apologies. A lot has been going on lately.
I agree with everything Andrew mentioned above, so some of what I have to say will be repeated but just worded differently.
The introduction to skating (New motion system) for this gen is a major step backwards in my opinion, it makes the game feel hectic and like you don't have as much control. I've mentioned this before, zoom in close to the players feet on instant replay when the players are moving around, it looks like they are ice skating. The ultimate thing we want as players is control, to be able to control our player and the action on the court as much as possible, the skating hurts this in a big way.
While a couple new gameplay features are a nice touch (Like the up fakes, where players get up on toes), they also took steps backwards, like not being able to go for a steal with the joystick. We used to be able to go for steals with our left or right hand as we choose by flipping the joystick left or right, now we just have the steal button. Andrew mentions unfinished, it's another area where I feel the gameplay really took a back seat this year and was not finished in favor of 2K League, VC grab, as well as other new "Features (Like the new direction of MyCareer).
The ball moves strange through the air, like a beach ball at times. The mechanics of when the ball leaves the players hands, to how it reacts to the backboard, or how it just floats, something is off. The shots around the basket look very unnatural because of how awkward the ball moves through the air. You will put up a soft shot, and the ball will float towards the hoop, only to hard ricochet off the glass for a miss. I feel like the ball physics took a major step back from 2K17.
The defense is abysmal, even worse than last year in my opinion. You can blow by your man with anybody, at any time, with anybody, on anybody. It's a game killer to me, I've uploaded videos of these examples. I can score 100 points a game on the hardest level with Frank Ntilikina on the Warriors, just on straight line drives, and win. All along shooting a high percentage doing it. Driving by Kawhi Leonard feels no different than driving by Nikola Mirotic. It's a really troubling aspect of the gameplay. In NBA 2K17, there was brick wall defense, but you still had to use the best ball handlers in order to get by defenders, you had to string moves together the right way, or time your first step off the catch right. In NBA 2K18, you can just run by your guy. The fastbreak defense is also worse this year, with defenders just letting offensive players run by them, this is especially frustrating as a player because you can't use all 5 guys on the floor at once, you feel helpless at times. With that being said...
The CPU AI is the worst it's been on this gen, by far. This is the easiest basketball game in term of playing against AI I have played in a very, very long time. With the ability to get by your man whenever you want, with all the defensive lapses, with everybody having the ability to put up a ton of points, it's a joke. The CPU's AI is poor on offense as well, where they will just dribble into the paint with no purpose and just shoot it on multiple defenders, or get in there and just stand and dribble, or kick it out to an open shooter who wont shoot. Players don't play like themselves... authenticity doesn't feel right.
I have the same speed dribbling with a 70's player, as I do with Allen Iverson. We can adjust some of these things, but it's rampant all over the roster. Out of the box (Or I should say, fresh off a download) there are so many glaring roster issues, tendencies and attributes are all over the place, copy and paste jobs are rampant (Cloning players signatures to others, cloning attributes to others), signature shots not even being close on many players (Free throws and regular shooting forms). It really takes away from the experience of the game, it takes away from the authenticity.
Many moves look awkward in this game, even robotic at times. Some strange animations happen in the paint or posting up on the blocks, some of the misses are laughably bad for no apparent reason. You will take a good hook (Not behind the hoop), or a tweener shot (Again, not behind the hoop) and it will somehow hit the side of the backboard, or it will somehow hit the backboard and hard ricochet off (This goes back to the strange ball physics). A lot of things looks strange because of the clipping, which is even worse this year than in NBA 2K17. Players arms/bodies/heads going through other players constantly.
Graphics and atmosphere are also a step back in my opinion. The arena's are unrealistically dark again (Like 2K15), and the crowd atmosphere is just dead. The game feels dead to me. The players body types are basically all the same, with very little to no muscle definition, they look like clay, like gumby. Combine that with oversized heads running rampant through the league, and other graphical anomalies with the players (Like eyes going through eyelids), you have a bit of a mess on your hands. Again, this is sad, because they added some good new features, like the replays (Which are now slower so we can see what actually happened), the free throw camera which is now close up sometimes and alternates between different views, stats at the free throw line, the new classic teams (However, grossly unfinished and rushed), the all time teams (Rushed), etc.
Bottom line, gameplay is the ultimate measure of effort in my opinion. This game just doesn't cut it, and to me it's not even close. I havn't enjoyed a minute of this game since I bought it. 2K went in the wrong direction with this one, and it's disappointing.
With that being said, on a discount (Half off?), it may be worth it. Especially if you want the updated rosters. If the updated rosters don't matter to you, and you don't care about having the newest release, you may want to just wait until 2K19. Not everybody thinks the game is poor, so sometimes it is a matter of preference. Another thing to keep in mind, Steam allows refunds. You could always purchase the game, and if you think it's poor, return it through Steam (I think they give you two weeks to return a game). If you are talking about playing on console, I know that Redbox here allows you to rent video games (And 2K18 is one of them), if you can find a way to try it before you buy it, that might be the best route.
Either way, good luck.