The Neighborhood: Thumbs Up, or Thumbs Down?

[Andrew]

We've discussed VC at length, and I think we're pretty much all in agreement about the aggressiveness of the approach, and the lack of goodwill when it comes to prices and the like. But what about The Neighborhood itself? What about the overall concept?

For me, I can appreciate the concept, and the work that's gone into it. However, it's one of those things that I feel I might appreciate a lot more if I were much younger. Then again, I didn't necessarily like having to wander around the backstage areas in various WWE games over the years, in order to progress through the story modes. I'm probably showing my age, but I really miss having menus.

It just feels like a chore having to run all over the place to buy items, go to team training sessions, fitness training sessions, MyCOURT, 2K Pro-Am, and The Playground. It hasn't really cut down on loading times, or made anything faster. In fact, it feels like there's a lot more back and forth and waiting for things to load compared to last year, even with the MyPLAYER Lab. I find myself wishing I could bring up a menu and just select options to go where I want, instead of always having to run here and there, or run to the exit to leave a mode. It's also done some weird things with shootaround in the team practice facility and Pro-Am arena. It maintains that third person perspective with the phone and menu controls, so you can't rebound the ball, or even just practice on a gameplay angle.

I have a feeling this is what it's going to be like from here on out, which is a shame because I found the concept tedious within the first week of owning NBA 2K18. However, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm in the minority, and again, I'm guessing it's a lot more popular with younger gamers. As I said, I can appreciate the effort that's gone into The Neighborhood, but I'd prefer a more streamlined experience. Being able to quickly get into all facets of MyCAREER and the connected experiences would be, to me at least, far preferable than having a virtual world to explore; especially when you've seen everything well before you earn the Marathon Man Trophy/Achievement.

If nothing else, I'd like an option to be able to start in MyCOURT, or go straight there upon loading MyCAREER, kind of like the option to go straight to MyPARK when loading into MyCAREER in NBA 2K17. It'd save some time if that where you want to start out, which I'd sometimes like since you can leave the game idling in MyCOURT and you won't get booted from the mode.

[Valor]

From the very beginning when this whole concept was being unveiled and the news came out I had an uneasy feeling about it, which was only strengthened and evolved into pure distaste within about 5-10 minutes of actually playing the game for the first time.

IMO it's a terrible idea, they are trying to go for the whole RPG route but in reality it's a big step backwards. As you mentioned, menus exist for a reason -> they work.

Running around, waiting for literally everything to load every time you go into a new area, the whole MyPlayer Lab thing (that takes ages to load also) is a colossal waste of time. This isn't a RPG no matter how hard they try, we aren't running around taking quests and finding items or monsters to slay, this is a basketball game and I think they've forgotten about that. Even if they did wanted to have something different and "cool" for the younger generation, they should've at least added some quick-travel menu options so people don't have to spend half the time running around and then waiting for the loading times.

Just my two cents on it.

[Andrew]

I'm with you. I'm voting the last option, although I guess I have been tolerating it, but only because I have very little choice if I want to play MyCAREER and the connected modes, which I obviously have been doing.

I also agree that there needs to be fast travel and shortcut options. The subway to The Playground is insufficient, though it does make things a little quicker. Of course, as Arcane and I discovered, even if you squad up, the game can end up placing you on different servers (even if you both entered the subway at the same time).

[TGsoGood]

The Neighborhood is mostly pointless for me. I only play on PC and the fact that I can not load into mycourt immediately is dumb.
Also since ProAM appears to be out of commission on PC, I honestly have no reason to load into an online my career.

In the past I have enjoyed the mini dunk contest because i can just play it over and over without waiting (due to the lack of players in the neighborhood on PC).

The gatorade gym facility is another waste of time to me. 2K could have done much more with that such as add leaderboards showing who has the highest scores for each exercise drill. They also could have allowed players to compete head to head in a weight lifting competition. I'm only saying these things because I feel that is more engaging than just doing drills.

The barbershop!?.. Thank God I'm on PC and I can just create a cyberface with the actual hair I want.

[Andrew]

That would be a more creative use of the drills, for sure. My main problem with the gym is that it's technically optional, but realistically, mandatory. You need to go there to get the energy boost to perform at your peak, at least until you hit 92 Overall and have the Gym Rat Badge, meaning you always have the extra boost. Or I suppose you could buy the energy bars and Gatorade bottles at 500 VC a pop (in-universe $14,400, incidentally). It's also pretty much necessary for grinding up your Quick Reactions Badge.

And of course, online games drain the energy boost, so you either have to interrupt your session to go back to the gym, or spend the VC on the consumables. So another attempt to nudge you towards spending real money, or at least, wasting VC that could be better spent elsewhere.

[StyxTx]

It was created for those whose entire real life revolves around a game console, the ones who keep wanting more and more immersion in their virtual lives. For the rest of us who have lives outside of the game box, this kind of stuff is just a tedious waste of time. When I sit down to a game, I just want to play the game. Games like Fallout 4 are games that provide the virtual world to wander around in, but there is a purpose to it. It's not just running from virtual store to virtual store to purchase stuff. A sports game is supposed to be about the sport, or so I thought. Not creating some kind of virtual life which makes the sport itself secondary.

I was at a friend's house and his son owns the game so I got to check it out in depth and am glad I didn't waste money on it.