NBA 2K22 (PS5)

The NBA 2K franchise has seen its ups and downs over the last decade. As with any sports franchise, striking a balance between realistic simulation and fun has never been more difficult. NBA 2K22 is no different as it strives to fine-tune its multitude of gameplay systems and weave it into an overall experience that is as fun to play as it is to look at. Even though many, if not all, of NBA 2K22’s visuals remain identical to NBA 2K21, the gameplay is unmistakably different.

Gameplay

NBA 2K22s gameplay is the best it’s been in years. The offense seems to flow more smoothly and is less reliant on 3-hunting than in years past. The motion engine that Visual Concepts introduced several years ago finally seems to be taking the shape I believe they always wanted it to be, even though there are several deficiencies seen in its defense gameplay. I found it less than advantageous to be holding down the sprint button for the entirety of the game, as the stamina bar seemed to more accurately reflect on a specific player’s stat line, causing me to slow the game down and be strategic on my cuts.

The Pick and Roll is one of NBA 2K22s go-to plays, as it has been in previous years, but the refinements to collision and picks detection seems to have been dialed in perfectly from where it was in NBA 2K21. Blocks have never felt more rewarding, and feel as though they occur in the flow of the game as opposed to a pre-canned animation. One of my first games had me blocking the ball off the backboard with LeBron James, and that single moment had me itching to do it every time down the court.

The button layout for play-calling has been moved around a bit, and I found it a little frustrating to find all of the specific plays I was looking to run while in-game. Of course, this can be tweaked in the pause menu, but using the directional buttons to sift through the various sub-menus while in-game was a little overwhelming and less user-friendly than in years past.

Of course, NBA 2K22 is a big game with several in-depth modes. As with my review of last year’s NBA 2K21, I’ll be focusing on a single-mode for this review: MyTeam. As a dedicated MyTeam player since its inception in 2013, I believe this review should reflect my time on the mode I play the most; especially when MyCareer and The City is a whole other beast itself. That being said, let’s jump into it.

MyTeam

MyTeam has seen a wild evolution over the last 8 years. Each year seemed to overhaul the entire mode, adding new and removing old features with each year’s release; ultimately slowing down its evolutionary style since 2K20. NBA 2K22 adds several new features, and keeps some old favorites, to its MyTeam mode:

Offline Modes

NBA 2K22 MyTeams offline modes remain virtually the same as 2K21s offline modes. Domination, Triple Threat Offline, and Challenges all remain unchanged. I was disappointed to learn there weren’t any new additions to the offline modes, especially in the form of MyTeam’s biggest new addition in its Draft Mode. It would have been nice to see a Draft Mode added into the Single Player component, especially one where players did not need to spend VC to play additional drafts.

What is there is plentiful, however. 2K22s single-player content provides hundreds of hours of gameplay, with difficult enough challenges to remain engaging. While Domination is still mostly a slog to get through, the hours of content available to those who don’t want to play online are admirable. The rewards for all of the single-player content are finally to the point of being worth chasing whether you are an offline-only style of player or one who wishes to compete online as well.

Online Modes

NBA 2K22 MyTeams bread and butter is its online mode. Big changes have been made to its existing modes, and it even goes as far as to add a highly-requested mode. MyTeam Unlimited and MyTeam Limited remain virtually unchanged from 2K21, and they remain as rewarding or frustrating as they ever have been. I can safely say I’ll probably be avoiding MyTeam Unlimited for the remainder of 2K22, solely for the fact that I don’t have the patience to treat every online game like it’s my last.

The big changes come in the form of turning Triple Threat Online and adding the highly requested Draft mode into the game. Starting with Triple Threat Online, the biggest change is how players progress up the board. No longer do players simply have to win as many games as they can to earn higher reward ball drops, but they have to stop their opponents from scoring as much as possible. Everyone is allowed 100 points over however many games they wish to play. If you allow an opponent to score on you, those 100 points start to dwindle until you’re ultimately eliminated when you hit zero. Seeing as each game goes to 21 points, you can easily have your board reset in as soon as 5 games.

My biggest issue with this change to Triple Threat Online is with NBA 2K22s gameplay itself. As mentioned earlier, defense remains 2Ks most challenging component to play when attempting to play on-ball defense. Playing on-ball defense isn’t as precise as when controlling offense, so having a game mode that solely relies on a person’s skill on playing defense results in many hours of frustration. Triple Threat has been one of MyTeams finest additions in recent years, but pairing it up with arguably the weakest part of 2K22s gameplay is a recipe for disaster. Luckily, as with previous years, refinements to defense are something to keep an eye on as the game progresses throughout the year. Triple Threat Online’s current state in September 2021 may not be the same as April 2022.

Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: NBA 2K22 features a Draft mode, and it’s easily my favorite mode MyTeam has ever added; however, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have several glaring issues. 2K22s Draft mode works as you would expect: players open a box filled with packs for each of the five positions, plus a coach pack and a special promo pack of that week’s promo. Each pack features 5 hidden cards that players flip to fill out their team at each position, except for the promo packs that feature 3 hidden cards. Of those three cards flipped, the player chooses two to go into their lineup.

That’s where my first issue with the draft mode begins; out of the five hidden cards in the pack, players are only allowed to flip three of those cards. We don’t even get to see what the remaining two cards could have been from the pack. It ultimately becomes less of a draft, and more of a “what you see is what you get”. There’s very little choice given to players as to which player from the pack to put into their lineup. It would have been nice to see the ability to craft your drafted lineup by seeing all five cards and choosing the two out of that pack. A draft mode relies on a player’s decision-making abilities, and NBA 2K22 MyTeam doesn’t seem to understand that.

Once a player crafts their team, they are then able to play through a series of games up to ten wins or three losses, whichever come first. Each win rewards a player with picks on a special Draft Mode-only Ascension board, where they have the chance at flipping over a pink diamond reward player. It was very nice to see another way for players to be able to access the Ascension board, even if the rewards are mostly luck-based.

I love NBA 2K22s MyTeam Draft mode, as it rewards the players who have learned the various gameplay systems instead of rewarding those who have spent hundreds of dollars on MyTeam packs. However, the biggest issue I have with the mode is how players access the mode. Players are forced to use in-game tickets to enter the Draft mode and are then forced to use VC (NBA 2K22s in-game currency bought with real money) when they run out of tickets. It costs 7,500 VC to enter the Draft mode, which equates to around $2.50 of real-world money.

While not sounding like a lot of money on its face, it’s disappointing to see that 2Ks best mode in years has ultimately been locked behind a paywall of sorts. Tickets can be earned by completing weekly challenges within the Agenda system but equates to 1 ticket per week. I would have liked to have seen the Draft mode opened up to more, as I would end up spending the majority of my time in that mode. Perhaps in the future including the Draft mode in the single-player modes would alleviate this issue, but time will tell.

Other MyTeam Features

MyTeam has added several other smaller updates to its cards and card systems. For instance, cards now feature holographic and signature series cards, which provide various boosts to different stat lines depending on if you pull one of those cards from a pack. Shoe cards have seen a massive overhaul, as players now can add specific stat boosts to a shoe, no matter the brand/model.

Another interesting feature NBA 2K22 has added is the Card Grading Service. Mimicking real-world grading services like the PSA, NBA 2K22 allows players to send their virtual cards in to get graded, resulting in minimal MT-earning boots for graded cards. What is confusing, however, is how exactly these cards are graded. Seeing as real-world grading services focus on alignment, how a card is cut and whether or not cards are damaged, it doesn’t make much sense to see virtual cards be graded as they are all the same. In my time grading several cards, I never was able to determine what made one card a 9.0/10 vs one that is a 7.0/10. It seemingly was random.

Secondarily, the actual MT bonuses on these graded cards are so small, I’m not entirely sure if it’s worth sending them through the service to be graded. NBA 2K22 has always had a problem with rewarding players with their actual time playing the game in the form of MT. When a single offline game with a starting lineup of all graded cards, I earned less than 100 MT extra per game. I don’t foresee myself sending a card in to get graded for three hours for such a small bonus.

Conclusion

NBA 2K22 is seemingly a step in the right direction for the franchise. While I felt the same with last year’s NBA 2K21, I feel NBA 2K22 is more evolutionary than revolutionary. Its gameplay systems feel solid enough and fun enough to play for hours on end, however, the game’s heavy reliance on a player’s time to progress through any chunk of content is still prevalent. I would have liked to have seen more openness and choice to MyTeam’s new Draft mode, as it’s the best mode the game has added in years. Of course, I fully expect refinements to continue throughout 2K22s lifespan, so we’ll see where the game ends up in several months. But upon the first two weeks of release, there’s enough here to be excited for what’s to come.