NBA Live 18 is a real positive step forward for the series. The extra time EA gave Tiburon to make things better paid off. You get a solid experience with a good amount of modes that will keep you glued. The skills tree alone will keep you going in the game. The controls of the game are the only downer of the release, and it’s not all the controls, as they need some tightening and tweaking. Controls aside, NBA Live 18 is better than expected and shouldn’t be overlooked.
Okay, folks, it’s time to give NBA Live 18 a chance. They have done well with this year’s edition. Plus, they have James Harden as their spokesperson. He’s a cool cover player, but we will pray for his safety since he’s on the cover (that’s a thing with all EA covers, right?).
There’s no doubt that NBA2K has taken the reins of the NBA video game basketball world and hasn’t looked back. With the re-emergence of NBA Live in 2013, the series has slowly, but surely, started to chip away at 2K’s lead, yet has never really made any viable leaps towards the crown. That changes with this year’s game.
NBA Live 18 has improved the series dramatically in worthwhile content with the inclusion of The One, which includes The Streets, and has opened up the game with a various amounts of solid challenges. It still lacks in some areas, in controls for me in some respects, but for the most part it has made a giant leap forward with this year’s edition of the game.
Without further delay, let’s get right into it.
NBA Live 18 has a lot of gameplay built into it. First, it has the same sort of structure as Madden NFL 18, where you can play a storyline with a customized character (not so much a campaign) and lead them to draft night and into the NBA, which is called The One. Unlike the campaign in Madden, The One is the typical gameplay design that you would expect from a sports title, where you create your character, see him through early in his career and try to make him an NBA legend. The mixture of street ball and an upward path to stardom is intriguing. Building up abilities of the player through achieving certain game-by-game challenges provides solid motivation to keep moving forward in the game. Despite the inclusion of annoying ESPN figures, and un-skippable intro to every street ball site, the gameplay progressively gets better and more fun as you move forward in it. I spent the most time in The One and enjoyed building John Smallberries to a great level.
Speaking of level, the skills tree system in The One operates on player achievements that are set forth before every game. For example, you might be asked to make a certain amount of layups or assists during a game, or an overall player score for the game (you build a score with doing things right), then you can earn XP and points from doing so. This XP is used in upgrading traits of the player, which include statement dunking, better shooting off the dribble and/or stamina recovery. The XP also allows you to slowly upgrade your character in skill areas, such as dribbling, shooting and quickness. The latter of the XP upgrades slowly unlocks as you level your character, which allows you to adjust more attributes on the player. In addition to all this, you can earn and change player attire and customize your big fella anyway you want. It’s impressive the extensive amount of upgrading and leveling you can go through in The One mode. All of the upgrades translate to on court results, so all the effort you put into achieving them won’t be for not. You will literally see your player get better in certain areas when you’re playing.
As for the other modes, let’s break them down:
Franchise: Pick your favorite NBA team and ride it out. You get the Madden NFL structure with this mode as well, which isn’t bad. I played as the Phoenix Suns and enjoyed every minute…getting my ass handed to me. They are young. They will be better. So will the Browns in Madden. I’m hopeful. It’s a good mode that usually leads the charge with EA Sports titles and it’s no different here.
Ultimate Team: This is just like the card game in Madden. I have come to majorly respect card-based gaming, especially in sports, in the last year. I like what they did here, just as I did in Madden, and think it’s fun to play. Collecting and mix and match different players and build a team is a fun thing to do. I like the fact that you can play against the CPU or against another player online. Buying and selling of cards is pretty cool too. This is a very well thought out and executed mode, as it was in Madden.
Play Now: You can play in the NBA or WNBA instantly. I’m honestly glad they included all the things you would expect from a professional basketball game, as well as both male and female basketball leagues. It’s good, quick fun.
Online: It’s online. If you aren’t prepared, then you’re going to get destroyed. Play as much of the Franchise/The One as you possibly can before diving into this one. Also, find the shooters that are good because you’ll need them. It works well.
NBA Live 18 is not too shabby on the modes. All of them are well done and put together. I think that The One and Franchise lead the pack, with Ultimate Team not too far behind. The rest are simple add-ons to extend the entertainment value or give quick thrills. I don’t mind that one bit either.
Modes aside, the actual gameplay design is, for the most part, solid. Going back to the attribute and trait upgrades, the game does a good job of implementing them as you continue your progress. You can see your player’s skills get better and better, as options open up to how your player moves, reacts and improves. It’s impressive to see and, as I stated above, gives you motivation to continue playing the game. That’s a huge deal in good gameplay design.
The downer of this game for me, if there was a big downer, is the controls still feel a bit stiff in some areas and loose in others. For example, during a Streets’ challenge where I had to prevent Ben Simmons from scoring a certain amount, I had a tough time keeping Simmons back when guarding him, especially when he went around me. If I moved my player one way with the left stick and overcompensated with the movement, I would get left behind in the dust. Before you say, “well, no shit, Sherlock”, let me explain a bit further. Simmons can turn on a dime, but I can’t. Simmons can compensate for my speed and going around him, but I do any of that or compensate and find myself for lost space between Simmons and me, no matter what I do. There’s a player vs. CPU imbalance in some control areas that has to be tweaked or tightened. The recovery to get back on him was absolutely worthless, as his movement was exact and mine was slow moving. This is after all my upgrades too. This was the biggest downer for me in the game and one that needs to be improved for NBA Live 18 to draw even with 2K.
Having said that, I did have a nice, progressive time on offense. The right stick movement of crossing over or ‘breaking the ankles’ of my opponent was outstanding. It was fun to get the ball and out maneuver my opponent using easily accessed moves via my thumbsticks. I felt like Tiburon did a perfect job with this aspect of the game. Maybe they were offense happy more so than defense. Regardless, they did one helluva job with the offensive game.
Related, the A.I. for the CPU was good. The CPU did its best to follow me on the court and tried its best to defend and read my movements. If you have every played a game of basketball in your life, and I adore it, you can see the correctness of the movements and the cunningness of the A.I. in the CPU player. Tiburon did a near perfect job with getting your opponent correct.
On the same token, my teammates did a fantastic job of helping me out. I was particularly impressed with the appropriately timed player switch when I had picks set on me. My CPU teammate read the situation so well that it put me behind half the time. I didn’t see switches as well as they did, which is crazy cool because generally it’s the other way around. I enjoyed the A.I. of the CPU on both defense and offense and felt like I could depend on my teammates through out the game. They didn’t feel like empty, talentless shells. Again, Tiburon did a near perfect job in this aspect of the game.
The overall gameplay construction was better than not. While I think Tiburon has a little bit of work to do with the controls, I think they have the offense/defense intelligence of the CPU (your team or not) constructed beautifully. I rarely am impressed with the A.I. of CPUs, but NBA Live 18 really stands out in this department. You can depend on the CPU to play the game with you instead of waiting for you to play the game.
On the presentation side of the ball, things have improved dramatically. While the face and stiff hand animation is still a bit ways off from perfect, the skin texture and sweat system (I know, it sounds silly) is pretty cool to see in motion. The players finally do look like their NBA counterparts as well. I think once the engine of NBA Live and Madden are upgraded/replaced, then you’re going to find some real beauty in the artwork. Right now, it’s good, and much better than the past, but still has a little bit of ways to go before catching what 2K is doing.
In the commentary side of the presentation tracks of NBA Live 18, it is damn good. Enjoy it, especially when LaVar Ball is in the discussion from Jeff Van Gundy.
