Introduction to ¨2k20¨
“2k20” is the newest installment in the long running 2k sports basketball series. The games come out annually from early September to late August. These games traditionally center around a few game modes; “Play Now,” (The game for mainly local or casual play), “MyTeam,” (The gamemode where you can collect various NBA players- past and present- and use them on one team), “MyCareer/ Park,” (Where you can play in the NBA with a created player and take that player to the neighborhood; playing against characters other 2k players have created) and finally the “MyGM/ MyLeague,” game modes (A gamemode where you can be an executive or control the entire league in a sandbox type thing). This year 2k also added a new gamemode called “WNBA Play Now” where you can play as a WNBA team against a WNBA team. However, you can’t play this online.
Positives
First off 2k finally added the WNBA which is the NBA but exclusively for women. This move makes the game a lot more diverse and draws in the attention of more women. Another new addition is evolving cards which are cards that basically get better the more you use them in the MyTeam gamemode. They also have a new MyCareer story as they do every year but I feel like this story is a lot better and actually pertains to today's sports climate. I would also say the new all decade teams, which is comprised of the best players from each decade, are very fun to just play around with. My friends and I have already spent hours trying them out. I also enjoy the way they have implemented locker codes by making you actually try out game modes you normally wouldn’t use to see if you might actually like them. However, with all these new fun game modes there comes a lot of basic gameplay problems that really hold it back.
Negatives
I would say that in 2k20’s case the negatives far outweigh the positives. The first major problem is that after a while 2k halts MyCareer progress for badges or overall which means you are just wasting time. This is especially important because of how difficult it is to get badges this year. One badge upgrade can take almost an hour or two while you have to get nearly 50 badge upgrades. Add the halted progress to this and getting all your badges may take the rest of this month, especially with the time restrictions of a student. The servers for the games this year are also terrible (as usual). Loading screens can last up to ten minutes and you can get blue screened or kicked out of a game even in an unpopulated park. The MyTeam climate this year is debatably even worse than the park with a whole game mode,Triple Threat Offline, being blocked off completely because of the slot machines they planned on adding.* This is actually very important because this game mode is an easy way to earn some quick “MT.”(The MyTeam exclusive currency used to acquire cards in the auction house and buy packs.) This gamemode is one I used to get a quick 400 MT if I needed it. There is also a Triple Threat Online that works perfectly fine even though it is the only thing in the game that does work without issues. The only match in which you have to win 12 games in a row to get the player of the month reward gives you a loss or nothing happens if the other player quits before the match ends. This can add another couple of hours on an already multiple hour long grind, especially for good players who blow other players out. However, out of all these issues, the thing I’m most angry about is how the park is literally almost the exact same as last year. This only makes me mad because the park is where you will spend a vast majority of your time if you’re playing with friends online. This is the most popular gamemode and they had all year to make it a fresh experience for the player but instead they just copied and pasted the same thing into a new $60 game.
Conclusion
I would say that if you are hardcore into 2k and all of your friends get the game each year then maybe you should buy it, or if you have the money just kind of laying around. The game can still be enjoyable and I think the new gameplay additions are a step in the right direction, however I think that this step maybe went too far and they forgot to upgrade really anything else about the game. The promise to make the servers better was an empty one. Through all of this 2k will still be the same and probably ignore the community until it reaches a boiling point. These kind of things can give games bad reputations which is something 2k has always had. I think this is the worst game launch I’ve ever experienced. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. If I had to give it a score I’d give it a 3/10, not just bad, but really bad. However I at least think that it has a lot of potential and if 2k didn’t decide to release an unfinished game I think it could be really good.